Early 60's ZZR Pionier.

[SpikeFC]

Originally I was thinking on making this for the #15 Build-Off, BUT I JUST CAN'T WAIT

First of all - The base is a frame from the early sixties (don't know the exact production date, since ZZR stamped the year in code. I know from some sources that the frame number G9 XXXXX is a 1963 and mine is a G8, so I'm guessing a 1962 maybe?). Also mine has the headbadge from the earlier period of the sixties (before 1965)

This is how the bike should look like when new:

They actually came in a lot of variations - with rear single speed & normal brake instead of coaster, normal bars instead of dropouts etc.

It was designed for 10-12 year old boys (Szarotka was the girls model), and used 22" wheels (probably ETRTO of 501).

This one I found in parts in an abandoned basement in my old house back in 2005.

That's basically everything that I found. Since the basement was flooded in the early 90's not much was left from it.

There were a lot of concepts for it trough the years.

If i recall correctly I even posted it on the forum back in 2012 in one of it's forms.

But now, thanks to @m66 the concept has changed into something completely new...

More progress soon.

 

[SpikeFC]

Right now, before I download pictures from my camera I can just sya this:

Inspiration for this thing came out of...

1907 Strap Tank

1909 V-Twin

Bull Cycles 1910 Flying Merkel replica.

Bull Cycles 1926 Peashooter replica.

Bull Cycles Excelsior replica.

 

[sdframe]

Who wouldn't be inspired by those bikes? Good luck with the build.

 

[Grant]

You Ruin it!

 

[SpikeFC]

Who wouldn't be inspired by those bikes? Good luck with the build.

Thanks!

You Ruin it!

And back to the menu. Thanks again to @m66 i got a hold of leftovers from his Greaser (Street Scrambler )

An 80mm 26" rim with an electric Bafang motor (@m66 500W, am I correct?) fitted with a 4.0 tire, the original Innova 26"x2.5 tire, a 36V 26Ah battery from Battery Guru, original 13Ah 36V battery, controller, throttle, computer with speedo, headlight and a lot of smaller parts.

The frame was dug up from my workshop basement, and mostly dismantled for mock-ups and fitting.

The headbadge has faded a little bit, but is still visible. Also you can see the frame number G8222651. From one of the sources I know that a number G9012189 is from 1963. By that time ZZR was making around 600000 bikes a year, so that could mean that it's from 1962, 1961 or something like that.

First mockup with the 2.5 tire in the back, and 2.2 in the front. you're kinda getting the idea where this is going.

And yes, the battery goes here

First of all - I didn't want to cut, weld or modify the existing frame, so I took the rear subframe that I made a few years back for the 20" wheel, and a donor bike that had the frame already bent on the seat tube.

So this is kinda what I'm thinking about.

Also changed the steering bar, and put most of the stuff on it to see how much space I have left for some unnecessary parts, you know... like hands?

I made a post about the problem that I had with the tensioning of the chain (it had to go under the subframe, original chainstays, and between the wheel & the original seatstay)

On sturday I did mostly a lot of cleaning, and took one of the caps on the motor to pour some oil on to the bearing (I still think I'll take it apart again to do some meintanance on the motor, and the other bearing)

Since yesterday I got a piece of sheet metal to make the "battery compartment", and so I decided to do some cleaning, remove the old grease, dirt and leftovers frome those old stickers (sadly they were made from paper, so they didn't survive through the years).

Also found an easy solution to help the chain clear the seat stays on the frame (and also discovered that one of the seat stays is bent probably from an accident)

Remember, eat your pierogi & kielbasa, and also you can widen your dropouts width by hand...

So while waiting for new parts to arrive (16T single speed freewheel & and adapter to use standard 68mm BB in the place of pressed in cups) I started to make the "battery compartment", or as I prefer to call it - tank.

It will be riveted together, and screwed from one side for easy access, and will house this big battery, controller & other electronical apliances such as a converter for the taillight/stoplight. I know that it looks crude, but it's intentional since I want it too look like the tanks on early motorcycles. Also, as the subframe, and the fork after welding it will all be painted to match the color & style of the frame.

 

[SpikeFC]

So I got the BB adapter. It's a basically just a sleeve with thread for regular BB's. After hammering out the original cups and putting it inside i realised two things...

First of all - old ZZR/Romet bicycles used 73mm BB's instead of 68mm, and the second thing - I put it in the wrong direction.

After changing the sides (had some trouble with taking out the sleeve, but the method is super simple - you just need to screw the left cup all the way in and hammer out the sleeve with the cup screwed in.) I could finally start figuring out what the best lenght of the axle would be to fit both of the cranks, the rotation sensor, and also be as closest to the frame as it could get. After a few experiments I settled on a 124.5mm lenght (almost 9 inches) and fitted everything on it.

I took the cranks from an old 20" kids bike since they are shorter than normal cranks (152mm instead of 175mm), they still have normal sized thread for pedals, not smaller like shorter cranks, and have a 40T sprocket on them.

Now it's time to figure out the chain tensioners & prepare the subframe for welding & painting.

 

[m66]

Word of law, and the Bafang says it's 250W.... Word of serial number, model, and some peculiar details says.... lets say they sing a differet song, faster and more fun
I'm still blown away by how big, and small in the same time it looks

 

[SpikeFC]

The tensioners are finally figured out. Good thing that the Sachs Huret derailleur works with the 1 speed chain.

 

[SpikeFC]

Had a very busy few weaks since the winter holidays (and a lot of people renting skis, and brining them for service), and a change in the shop from ski season back to bicycle season. But I made some progress.

Found a set of pedals labeled "сделано в СССР" (Made in USSR). Originally used in practically every USSR bicycle.

New handlebars, more Board-Tracker-like, also it survived a crash at one point. Not completely straight, but perfect for this build.

Also you can see the brakes I hope too use. Took me 3 days to rebuild them . Those are Ashima PCB pistonless brakes. (They use membranes instead of pistons). Very high-end stuff from 2011. Very light, very weird to operate (they don't get stiffer while you pull them).

After a late night session of welding with my friend, and repeating "Dude... who made those ugly welds..."

Close enough!

Also made a tank, and figured out a close matching paint - RAL 3004.

Still waiting for the paint to dry on the subframe that I picked up from TIG welding today.

 

[SpikeFC]

Yesterday I had some time to put the tank together. It was super easy when I screwed it together for painting, but when you put the battery that takes 90% of the space inside, and also mount every part with seals made from an old tube...

Took me almost 3hrs to screw the tank without the right side panel, with the battery & controller inside. Those leather belts will be the "straps" holding the tank in place (mostly for safety & looks, the tank itself was measured so that it fits the space in the frame without a slightest movement).

The rear subframe is painted & installed, so right now I can finally clean & mount the rear motor-wheel.

Right now I need to grind those ugly welds on the fork, paint it and begin mounting everything together, and do all the wiring. Hopefully my rebuild brakes will want to stop it...

 

[SpikeFC]

A few test-rides, tinkering with the brakes numerous times, and facing a few minor problems I made it into a runner.

After the first test-ride the chain fell off a few times. Fixed it with adjusting the upper tensioner. Next one, resulted sadly with the Ashima PCB brakes not working correctly Had to change them to these Avid Elixir 1 that I had as spares:

On the third test ride the rear wheel came loose. Turns out that the adapter had slipped from the axle Fourth ride came along nicely, axcept that the front wheel started to rub on the fork

By that time I was soooooo mad, that even my boss was wondering what was going on...

Finally - the fifth test-ride came out nicely - still the electrical assist doesn't work quite well, but the thumb throttle works perfectly. Got almost 19mph on it, but the road came to an end Tried it on a stand - it gives almost 32mph, and still want's to go more (but the stand doesn't).

In the meantime I took the fenders from my unknown pre-war bike.

My plans for this one changed, and I'll be running it fender-less. Still don't know exactly what it is except, that the frame is 100% pre-WWII, probably Chechoslovakian, French, German or Polish (will post progress in another thread)

Yes, there is also a 12V motorcycle horn. The fenders are probably from a 1950's Stürmer ladies bike. Good thing that the front one was broken near the bottom, and the rear one had a few extra holes in it.

The front one had to be narrowed near the fork for it to fit (this thing is almost 3" wide!). The rear one has a mount made from a rear mounting plate used in plastic SKS brand fenders (and is mounted to the original mount on the frame)

Also installed a reflector (originally intended for trailers & wooden wagons), and made a mount for the motorcycle tailight I got as a freebie from a friend. It has an actual glass not plastic, and is probably from the fifties-sixties, someone adapted it to use a 6V bicycyle dynamo powered bulb. Above it is a license plate (or like 3/4 of it) that was used between 1936 and 1939. This one, numbered probably H 58 115 states that it's from the Poznań voivodeship. Yes, I'm planning to make a piece instead of the one that was broken of

No I need to test ride it... again, this time to see if the fenders aren't rubbing on the tires, and are held in one place.

Also I changed the seat from the sporty one (that will go to another one of my bikes) to a more comfy 3 spring originally mounted in USSR bicycles.

 

[SpikeFC]

This time the test ride fnishied in almost a catstrophe... The rear fender got stuck on the wheel (and almost cut trough the tire). Had to add another mount to stop it from moving so much on bumps.

Also re-made the headlight to use a standart B20d bulb that works with the original wiring from this electric motor setup. Made a mount for it so it will not brake the fender, and to prevent it from shaking.

So technically - It's almost finished

 

[toro1978]

Just saw it on FB... Great work, Spike, very period looking. I like the old tail light and the "tank" straps. The headlight is a killer and the truss rods came out nice.

 

[SpikeFC]

Just saw it on FB... Great work, Spike, very period looking. I like the old tail light and the "tank" straps. The headlight is a killer and the truss rods came out nice.

Thanks! Now the only things left are:
-Mirror
-Rear light wiring (actually right now it's only a bare light with nothing inside)
-Finishing the license plate (paint and rebuilding the broken element)
-Stickers (my GF helped me today to make the pictures into proper graphics for printing)
-Stand (That's a problem - The frame is super low, and right now it weights almost 31kg/68lbs, and not every kickstand can handle that weight)
-Wiring the brake handle switch/switches (still need to buy them)
-Wiring the horn (still need to buy a DC/DC converter to change the voltage from 42V to 12V)

Also I till now I only used one zip-tie to mount the chainguard, all the wires & brake cables are mounted with a brass wire to the frame.

 

[toro1978]

How about a center stand on the frame, or a drop stand on the rear wheel?

 

[SpikeFC]

I was thinking about those two, except each one presents a small problem. A center stand might be too low (will test that on monday), and a drop stand might not clear with the license plate, plus it looks better with a rack, and a rack is actually a thing that I'm considering.

 

[SpikeFC]

The biggest progress - It stands! Not the ideal stand for it, but for now it must work. Also wired the rear light (not on the picture yet), and did a few longer test rides. Also changed the brake pads for a set of organic-sintered brake pads (2/3rds sintered, 1/3rd organic). Also changed all of the nuts that hold the rear fender in place from standard to self-lock nuts to avoid any wobbliness in the future.

Braking power has improved severly.

Till now I know a few things:

"With great power, comes great responsibility"
- Even with the new pads, to avoid overheating after reaching speeds above 15,5mph (~25km/h) I need to brake very carefully, and avoid pushing the throttle too much when coming to intersections or traffic lights.
- It accelerates to 12,5mph (~20km/h) in less than 7s, and to ~19mph (30km/h) in less than 10s.
- Top speed till now is ~26.5mph (~42km/h), but I know it can go faster - again I just ran out of road...
- Range depending on speeds, windage, pedal using etc. differes between 44-56 miles (~70-90km)
- Turning radius is humongus, thanks to the angle of the headtube. So high speed curves, are a no-no.
- As a kid I still remember riding a Trolleybus in Lviv (former Polish, now Ukrainian city). This thing makes exactly the same noise It's like "chuk-chuk-whuuuuuuuuUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUZZZZZZZZ"

Another few problems also came out:
- The steering bar is loose on the stem - might change the stem, or the handle bar.
- I'm in bad need of a rear rack & bag for moving small stuff (like a water bottle or charger) with me.
- I badly need a new charger. The one I have (42V 2A maximum) just barely can handle charging the monster-of-a-battery inside this thing. It takes almost 14h to charge it even from 45-50% to full.

 

[Spike Spiegel]

So yes, the bike is still alive but in a slightly different form. Took it in 2021 to the Oldtown Festiwal - the biggest postapocalyptic party in Central Europe. That's where I noticed one big problem seeing other people ride it. It was croocked as hell! Not even did it leave to tire tracks, but the front wheel was leaning to the left, and rear one was leaning to the right

Guess I'm not a very good welder...

Decided to change the whole frameset to something more civilised.

Frame came from a Decathlon Triban 700c bike. Had to cut out the brake mounts to fit the 60mm fat rims.

Finally it also got more than one speed with an oldschool Acera X derailleur & an Altus shifter.