Felt

[toro1978]

I have another set of moto-bars in chrome, but with me residing in Europe I am afraid the shipping cost would drive the final price way too high to be worth it.
I ordered a 6" crank (plus 1/2 to 9/16 pedal adapters so I can use euro pedals).
I have a friend visiting and we took the electric Felt and the Haribo for a ride. He is taller and didn't like the slammed seat on the Haribo, it was a torment for him, so I let him ride the black one and I rode the Haribo. I am 174cm and even for mr it was a bit too low. So the shorter crank will give me some more leg room. He enjoyed riding the black bike, although he actually rides motorbikes.

 

[toro1978]

My pedals arrived, Aaron Urban:

 

[toro1978]

The weather is bad (winter is cOming) and it rained heavily but today it finally got better so I took the bike for a spin.

So for starters I am still brainstorming on the handlebars, these do not convince me. I should mount the moto bars again. The shorter cranks did not feel good. I installed the longer set as soon as I got back home.
I am considering switching to 3 piece cranks - is there a set I can directly install without changing the BB cups? Would there be a chainstay clearance issue? Anyone done this on a Felt (standart crankarm length 170mm)?
Apart from that I got some used headlight brackets from a Honda and a cheap plastic headlight (not connected yet) which must be weathered a bit (the grill is plastic and looks it):

I also scored a Brooks B190 on ebay - allegedly only once mounted, looks and feels brand new. Got it for 93 bucks shipped, also my new seat mount setup :

The headlight is way too high, I feel...

And I might change the tires - I have a "Brick" combo lying around.

 

[MattiThundrrr]

I agree: Moto bars look better with the headlight. And the light looked better at the height it was at for the last set of pictures

 

[toro1978]

Not an update on the Felt, but as I went for groceries today I saw this and wanted to share :

 

[MattiThundrrr]

Which is dummer, riding a scooter, or leaving it "locked" up like that?

 

[toro1978]

I changed the tires, I wanted them to have the same profile. Too bad berm masters 26" are impossible to find now.
Unfortunately the weather is too bad to go for a ride.

My old cork grips are easy to remove and install so I am using them as temporary grips until I decide on the handlebars.
Still brainstorming on the 3 piece cranks, I am afraid the stand would be in the way of the crank arm. I will have to ask around.
I also found out that my LED bulb is a perfect fit for the headlight. Now I have to come up with a power source. The bulb is rated 6V-36V.

 

[Dr. Tankenstein]

You can never go wrong with a Thick/Quick Brick combo...really digging this bike!


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[toro1978]

Thanks Dr. Tankenstein!
I ordered a 3 piece crank.
Thinking of sticker designs to cover the Haribo logos.

 

[MattiThundrrr]

I might be inclined to keep the bear, he's kinda cute...

 

[toro1978]

OK, the BMX cranks arrived today. Not the best quality but it does not have to be.

Still, an improvement over the original 1 piece.
Here is the clearance between the left crank arm and the kickstand...

And the clearance between the offset chainring and the right crank arm. (weird, the pic had disappeared fromt the post. Here it is again)

 

[horsefarmer]

OK, the BMX cranks arrived today. Not the best quality but it does not have to be.
View attachment 109528
Still, an improvement over the original 1 piece.
Here is the clearance between the left crank arm and the kickstand...
View attachment 109529
And the clearance between the offset chainring and the right crank arm.

What clearance? is it rubbing the frame?

 

[toro1978]

No, it is okay, just quite close. I was afraid that the crank arm might interfere with the kickstand, but there is around 5mm distance between them.

 

[toro1978]

I had to remove the moto bars, in the end they were just too low and too far for my short reach. Bending too much forward made for an uncomfortable ride. I have bars similar to BMX (with just a little more curve and no crossbar ) which were the needed height. They have 1" clamp and although I could use another stem the grip parts are way too short to work with the twist shifter. After some consideration I ordered BMX bars with 22 mm clamp so I can use my original Felt stem. I also put the grips I originally wanted to use, I will probanly change the look of that bell a little:

Then I installed the stem directly above the pseudo fork crown, but didn't quite like how it looked with ahead spacers on top of the stem, so I used the finishing (seal?) cup from a headset, upside down:

Here how it sits with the new handlebars:

 

[crazydave58]

your bike is starting to look like how I had my felt happy hour set up

 

[ronark]

View attachment 110130 your bike is starting to look like how I had my felt happy hour set up

Crazy Dave, too bad you dont live in the states or i would make you an offer on your frame.

 

[crazydave58]

Crazy Dave, too bad you dont live in the states or i would make you an offer on your frame.

I would imagine they are hard to find nowadays...

 

[m66]

I like that seat mount contraction. Cleaver and good looking.

 

[toro1978]

I can finally report some progress. I swapped the front wheel again. I got me 24x2.3 tires for a very fair price and thus I was able to have the original 24" wheel in the fork.

I am still not sure about the headlight though, low or high? I have to try higher.
Since the 24" wheel has a drum brake I had to improvise a clamp for the reaction arm.
I used parts of a shopping basket mounting kit:

There might be a simpler way to do it though, if I could bolt a bar from the reraction arm directly to the Post-Mount. We'll see about that.
I put on a tacho just for looks:

The rear as it is, the Haribo is running its original wheels now, only with a different front tire because of fork clearance:

I thought about using this brake lever...

But I these are actually a set of two and I will use them on another build with no coaster brake. So this is what the left side of the bars looks like:

And right side, the original shifter may have looked better, not sure:

Front end:

 

[toro1978]

I got me the proper tires. I will clarify in what context.
I am one of those fellas who would really prefer to have both tires same tread. So despite making the front wheel work with the fork I wasn't quite happy with the snake tread tire I had to use. I like the look and considered putting the second tire on the rear wheel. I might do a build like that, I am curious how it would turn out.
To the point, a fellow member on the German forum bought a bike with a set of Quick Bricks 24x2,125.
He replaced the wheelset so I made him an offer and he accepted. It happened right at the beginning of the Corona times. But last week we swapped data and I sent money and I was rewarded with a tracking number. I was lucky my neighbor was home and took the package for me. By now he is used to, said "no trouble at all".
So there they are, the mythical 24" Quick Bricks:

The seller was nice enough to send me the inner tubes too.
So one of them goes in the front on the Haribo bike to match the Thick Brick tread and the other one will go to the fully bike (which will have both tires Quick Bricks only 24"/26" combo).
Now I would love to also get a 26" Berm Master tire.