Hey everyone,
I've been lurking here for a little while and I love the bikes. It's really amazing what some of you guys can do to old/low cost bikes. I'm fotunate enough to have been given a newish (read Chinese) Huffy beach cruiser. Some of my parents' friends had moved and gave them a pair of older Schwinn bikes (one has an American Bendix coaster brake!) and a pair of Huffy cruisers. Sadly my dad wouldn't part with the Schwinns, but he gave me the two Huffys, one for me and one for my wife.
Well, I'm 6'2" and 240 lbs. Even riding lightly I'm not exactly gentle on *mart bikes. Luckily they're all I've ever had the priviledge of riding and have become quite handy at keeping them in working order. My current bike is from 2001 judging from the "inspected by" sticker. It's been a blast riding a coaster brake again. But sadly I'm just a little too big for this bike. So on to upgrading and fixing the thing I went.
I'm about $100 into this bike and just about have it riding real smooth and it's incredibly comfortable. I started off with a pair of riser handlebars, a Wald front basket, Hunte Wilde grips and an alloy seat post. Not having any other bikes around to snag parts off of I just ordered what I needed.
Then the bike sat around for several months after hurricane Ike came through.
About three or four weeks ago I started riding again. The kids love to go around the neighborhood and I'm more than happy to ride with them. That's about the time that my coaster brake started making a bunch of funny noise. And then started to lock up after 15 minutes of riding. I pulled the hub apart, and all of the red grease that I had put in was now kind of purplish. Turns out that I hadn't tightened the drive side locknut enough, which let the cone back out a bit and the driver was riding on the axel and gouged a nice grove in it, which in turn mixed metal shavings with all of the grease. So I cleaned it out a well I could and regreased the hub. But the damage had already been done.
So I started looking for a new rear wheel. And while I was in the mood of fixing my bike I went ahead and bought a front brake (for just in case) and some new pedals since the ones I had were wearing out too.
Then today I went ahead and pulled apart my rear hub again, just to see if the damage had gotten any worse. It hadn't, but the bearing cages were looking a bit deformed. Out of curiosity I took apart my little girl's old 12 inch rear wheel. The coaster brake was a different brand, but since both were cheap brakes, and appearently Shimano E-type knock-offs, I hoped that the parts would interchange. And sure enough they did.
The original was a Falcon CF-E10 and the donor was a Dachang DC-HR-31. The Dachang seemed to have better internals. The bearing cages weren't as flimsy and everything just seemed to have a better fit. I also noticed that the old brake pads were significantly worn. I'm guessing that was from all of the skidding I did when I first got the bike. But I've since read that hard braking will kill the cheap coaster brake hubs quickly, so no more of that (good thing I have a front brake now). After I put everything back together the bike is riding so much more smoothly. Hopefully with a little care I'll be able to stay with this wheel a while longer.
So anyways, sorry for being so long winded. I'm glad there is such a great forum here.
BTW here is a pic of my bike as it is now. The color on the grips and seat is from Plastikote vinyl spray paint.
I've been lurking here for a little while and I love the bikes. It's really amazing what some of you guys can do to old/low cost bikes. I'm fotunate enough to have been given a newish (read Chinese) Huffy beach cruiser. Some of my parents' friends had moved and gave them a pair of older Schwinn bikes (one has an American Bendix coaster brake!) and a pair of Huffy cruisers. Sadly my dad wouldn't part with the Schwinns, but he gave me the two Huffys, one for me and one for my wife.
Well, I'm 6'2" and 240 lbs. Even riding lightly I'm not exactly gentle on *mart bikes. Luckily they're all I've ever had the priviledge of riding and have become quite handy at keeping them in working order. My current bike is from 2001 judging from the "inspected by" sticker. It's been a blast riding a coaster brake again. But sadly I'm just a little too big for this bike. So on to upgrading and fixing the thing I went.
I'm about $100 into this bike and just about have it riding real smooth and it's incredibly comfortable. I started off with a pair of riser handlebars, a Wald front basket, Hunte Wilde grips and an alloy seat post. Not having any other bikes around to snag parts off of I just ordered what I needed.
Then the bike sat around for several months after hurricane Ike came through.
About three or four weeks ago I started riding again. The kids love to go around the neighborhood and I'm more than happy to ride with them. That's about the time that my coaster brake started making a bunch of funny noise. And then started to lock up after 15 minutes of riding. I pulled the hub apart, and all of the red grease that I had put in was now kind of purplish. Turns out that I hadn't tightened the drive side locknut enough, which let the cone back out a bit and the driver was riding on the axel and gouged a nice grove in it, which in turn mixed metal shavings with all of the grease. So I cleaned it out a well I could and regreased the hub. But the damage had already been done.
So I started looking for a new rear wheel. And while I was in the mood of fixing my bike I went ahead and bought a front brake (for just in case) and some new pedals since the ones I had were wearing out too.
Then today I went ahead and pulled apart my rear hub again, just to see if the damage had gotten any worse. It hadn't, but the bearing cages were looking a bit deformed. Out of curiosity I took apart my little girl's old 12 inch rear wheel. The coaster brake was a different brand, but since both were cheap brakes, and appearently Shimano E-type knock-offs, I hoped that the parts would interchange. And sure enough they did.
The original was a Falcon CF-E10 and the donor was a Dachang DC-HR-31. The Dachang seemed to have better internals. The bearing cages weren't as flimsy and everything just seemed to have a better fit. I also noticed that the old brake pads were significantly worn. I'm guessing that was from all of the skidding I did when I first got the bike. But I've since read that hard braking will kill the cheap coaster brake hubs quickly, so no more of that (good thing I have a front brake now). After I put everything back together the bike is riding so much more smoothly. Hopefully with a little care I'll be able to stay with this wheel a while longer.
So anyways, sorry for being so long winded. I'm glad there is such a great forum here.
BTW here is a pic of my bike as it is now. The color on the grips and seat is from Plastikote vinyl spray paint.
