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So, what happened was…. The heat where I live has been excessive for long periods of time. I couldn’t work in my garage at night because it was 120 degrees in there, give or take. It’s the reason I really don’t like working in the summer, but I took on this project so I have to see it through. I stopped this one so I could finish the other one. That shipped on Friday night, so this weekend I got some work done. Back at it…
 
I built the shifter.
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I cut and ferruled the housing for the shift cable. I’m asked frequently how I do it, so here it is again.
I cut the housing to length. I have an old housing cutter that didn’t cut well, but it crimps if you use gentle pressure. So I just squeeze all the way around, twice, for two crimp lines.

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That one got a little crooked. Anyway…
 
When adjusting the shifting I ran into a problem I didn’t realize I’d hit, but makes sense. The fat tire is in the way of the chain line in 1st and 2nd gears.

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Here’s a look down the chain line.
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So… maybe if I added more space to the sprocket. As you can see it’s tight on the bottom bracket as stock spacing.
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So I stacked another space on top.
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This pushed the sprocket it out
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But it also pulled in the crank’s threads.
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So I installed everything to make sure it fit.
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I didn’t have room for the washer, but it will work like this and looks good.

So… now to check…

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Second gear has some room. 1st gear has none. Ugh

I need to add the white letter to the tire, which will add a little more! And I can’t have a dirty chain rubbing against them.

I’m at a loss. I’ve never dealt with a tire this wide. And ideas?
 
When adjusting the shifting I ran into a problem I didn’t realize I’d hit, but makes sense. The fat tire is in the way of the chain line in 1st and 2nd gears.

View attachment 277245

Here’s a look down the chain line.
View attachment 277246

So… maybe if I added more space to the sprocket. As you can see it’s tight on the bottom bracket as stock spacing.
View attachment 277247

So I stacked another space on top.
View attachment 277248

This pushed the sprocket it out
View attachment 277249

But it also pulled in the crank’s threads.
View attachment 277250

So I installed everything to make sure it fit.
View attachment 277251

I didn’t have room for the washer, but it will work like this and looks good.

So… now to check…

View attachment 277252

Second gear has some room. 1st gear has none. Ugh

I need to add the white letter to the tire, which will add a little more! And I can’t have a dirty chain rubbing against them.

I’m at a loss. I’ve never dealt with a tire this wide. And ideas?
Is it an 1/8 or 3/32 chain?
 
Another half baked thought. What if you adjusted the washers on the hub, to move the hub towards the drive side. Then dished the wheel to recenter the rim.

I haven’t completely thought this through, but seems like it could maybe have a possibility of sort of working.
 
Another half baked thought. What if you adjusted the washers on the hub, to move the hub towards the drive side. Then dished the wheel to recenter the rim.

I haven’t completely thought this through, but seems like it could maybe have a possibility of sort of working.
I was thinking that. Restack the hub washers to push it left. Wheel would be minutely off center but probably less than noticeable
 
I’m brainstorming. I thought I could gain a little clearance, especially with the white letters, if I sand the sharp edge of the sidewall. It’s a little thicker there, so I think I can shave it down a bit.
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Pondo suggested I could space out the freewheel, and/or dish the wheel to the right a bit. Changing the dish will put the tire into the frame, and you saw all the work I did to avoid that. Merely spacing the freewheel would work, but I’d have to balance a space on the other side, so use have to open up the frame more. That might not be a bad idea, and I could keep the 5 speeds if I could make that work.

The idea I had, which I have a bunch of pictures for, is creating a 4 speed sprocket out of a 5 speed, then spacing. But I think I’m going to try the 5-speed spacing idea. More to come.
 
For the dish, the hub would have to be pushed to the drive side, the rim to the non drive side. But I don’t see how that wouldn’t still put the tire on the left side of center. Maybe I’m not understanding what you mean by restacking the washers?
 
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My thought (which might be a little optimistic) is to move the spacing to the non-drive side. This would push the hub to the drive side. Then re-dish the wheel to center the rim.

Also, looks like you have a flip flop hub. Is it centered? Have you tried flipping it?
 
However, I think the freewheel spacer is much easier to try first.
I'm going to give that a shot first. I'm having some spacers made at work at two different widths to see what happens. I'm also getting the black cog and lock ring zinc plated so it matches the other cogs. I mean... why not. So give me a few days before I get back into the rear wheel. I'll work on the fork tonight to keep going on progress.
 
But I like the idea of spacing the rear cog. Just add the same amount to non drive side and widen your drop spacing.
Good idea with the BMX set up. I wanted to keep the Huffy sprocket, but I'm not married to it. I'll look into that in case the rear spacing isn't working.
 
Had these two spacers made. (Bottom) and found a nylon space we had at work, so grabbed a couple just in case.
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Here’s the back of the freewheel body.
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Here it is with the thinner spacer
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And the thicker.
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I’ll get the cogs back tomorrow so I can try it out. I might mess with the washers and dish tonight.
 

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