[help wanted] Best focus to make an ACTUAL Huffy Parkside SE

[Singleton]

Hey there !!

i like the look of your Bike !! It looks like my old Maruishi cruiser that is currently missing and I’m still trying to find .., That’s another story ..

I built Big box Bikes for a living in Canada for Canadian Tire stores ..
There’s nothing wrong with the quality of the Bike …. It just needs proper setup of the rear changer.

Try this
Get the Bike off the ground by hanging it up.. Suspend it from a rafter with a rope around the seat and one around the handlebar stem .. Have the stem lower than the seat ..This keeps the front wheel pointing forward ..

Shift the Shifter to Hi gear position

Now.. Turn the crank to get the wheel turning and by hand push the Deraileur in and out using your Thumb ..

If it goes too far in set the “ Low “. Screw to stop it. If it doesn’t go all the way to the Lowest gear back the screw off a bit …
Do the same with the Hi gear setting
The Jockey wheel on the Deraileur should sit directly below the Hi gear sprocket ..And run quietly.. If not …while turning the crank turn the set screw until it runs as quiet as possible. …

Okay. Now the Deraileur should be set not to be running too far in or out ..

Now you can set the cable tension which is critical for indexed shifting to work…

Now turn the Crank and by using the Shifter run the Bike through the gears and see what happens …

If it doesn’t go all the way to low then then
You need more cable tension ..

Try turning the adjuster barrel that the Cable goes through which is on the Deraileur …. Once you have enough tension on the inner cable it should be shifting properly ..

I hope this helps …. Don’t start changing any parts .., The parts should be fine..,
The Issue is only the set up adjustment of the rear Deraileur …. Cable tension is probably the whole issue ..

Good luck
Peter M

You pretty much described what i do. Fairly tedious shifting up from the set gear to the next gear, set it, then shift all the way back to the highest gear, and on and on. However...

Park Tools had an amazing tutorial that you pretty much described. (funny how the right answer can pop up more than once.)

My problem is the deralliur keeps knocking out of true. I mean the physical cianline looks fine (measured using a screwdriver to see if either line was off and it wasn't,) it's.... keeps getting noisey. I suspect it's just a case of the cable stretching out.

 

[us56456712]

For what you describe as your riding, I would leave it as it is. Your tires should be fine. Don’t go Brooks, they deteriorate when the leather gets wet and there are no leather replacements for them. If the brakes aren’t up to your expectations replace the shoes with high quality ones. Those pedals will slip off your sho so I would replace those with used ones. Only replace stuff that gets worn out or broken. Eventually you will outgrow the bike and get another and give this one away.

 

[Tallbikeman]

Make sure your rear derailleur cable clamping nut is not loose and letting the cable gradually slip. Look for damage to the cable all along its length including in the shifter. If nothing else the cheapest fix to start with is to replace the shifter cable and outer housing. Make sure the derailleur hanger is solidly mounted to the rear dropout. A loose derailleur hanger can cause shifting woes and cause your rear wheel to slip in the dropout. Check rear hub bearing play. There should be very little to none. Check all derailleur mounting huts for improper tightness. Hopefully this will help. Yes there are plenty of friction shifters out there and many bicyclists that run friction shifters such as myself.

 

[Karate Chicken Industries]

Only replace stuff that gets worn out or broken. Eventually you will outgrow the bike and get another and give this one away.

Key

Besides that, this is the best Focus:

 

[RustySprockets]

That might be the best Focus, but these are the best Yodels.

 

[Singleton]

Still tempted to get the better deralliur because the whole point is 'do what Huffy chose not to and make the special edition actually.. Special.' Plus the parts aren't out of line.

That said I do agree that eventually I will outgrow the bike. It's mostly a matter of 'this was a gift from my parents. Whether they thought I'd just give up five minutes after getting it or not because of my vision is irrelevant.'

But the point of 'do nothing unless something breaks' does have merit and I don't want those saying such to feel like I'm ignoring them.

As for derailleur hanger adjustments? Sadly it appears to be integrated to the frame so... just hope to God the thing doesn't go out of true, because i lack the metalworking skills to 'fix' the frame to accept a detatchable hanger.

 

[RustySprockets]

As for derailleur hanger adjustments? Sadly it appears to be integrated to the frame so... just hope to God the thing doesn't go out of true, because i lack the metalworking skills to 'fix' the frame to accept a detatchable hanger.

There's a tool for that...

Meanwhile, if the derailleur is causing a lot of chain slap and bad shifting, then a change is justified.

 

[Singleton]

There's a tool for that...
*snip*

Meanwhile, if the derailleur is causing a lot of chain slap and bad shifting, then a change is justified.

I am in awe and amazed. What is this tool called. probably something obvious. Still. I enjoy that I do have paths ahead if something happens to the integrated hanger.

Took the front fork off (did NOT take the cups out) and yep, short fork with the quill stem sliding into the inside of the fork tube.

Fork had like... NO grease, which I suppose explains the odd creak and squeak. So, liberal application of lithium later and we'll see how it works out in the morning.

I do enjoy letting the dogs run with me. The fact my stepdad's heeler tried shoulder checking my front wheel.... less enjoyable.

 

[GeePig]

If the bike is relatively new and you have not bumped into anything with the derailleur, then maybe all it needs is some adjustment. If they can build a bike with insufficient grease in the forks, then maybe all the derailleur needs is a bit of adjustment.

I have very limited movement in my neck and unless I stand up on the pedals or I am on my bigger bike I cannot actually see the indicator for what gear I am in. Because I adjust the derailleurs, even the 35 year old cheap Falcon keeps me running off road without jumping, so I just move up and down the gears as the terrain dictates, until it won't go up or down any further. And yes, as you suggested, the more you ride the less you need more gears

My relatively rare Zenit Jubilat farm bike, over 35 years old, and the derailleur still takes the rough with the, eh, rougher.

 

[Singleton]

OK that bike is just plain... nuts looking. It's like 'ok where's the rest of it?'

 

[GeePig]

To me, the derailleur cable looks like it is not approaching the downtube mount very cleanly, like the cable is hitting the steering tube or something - but it is not easy to say from the photo.

 

[Singleton]

Any advice on what I need to do to fix that?

 

[MattiThundrrr]

OK that bike is just plain... nuts looking. It's like 'ok where's the rest of it?'

And that's before he breaks it down!

 

[Pete Murphy]

Any advice on what I need to do to fix that?

Singleton

what you might want to do is just have someone who knows how to setup a rear changer look at it..

Its actually quite a simple procedure to setup …. Especially on the more basic types of Bikes .

Watch whom ever is working on it for you and you’ll get it ..

If there is actually any manufacturers defect Walmart will probably warranty it for you .. Defective parts are rare but can happen …

Good luck
Peter

 

[Singleton]

HUH that explains why it wasn't rolling right. Tire was misaligned. Don't know if it'd always been like that, if the dog had knocked it out of line. Given it went back to right and there was no obvious warping (given my vision i couldn't tell if there were minor defects, very likely were.) grease the threads, tighten the nuts back down and waddaya know, everything feels right.

Given how the stem was bone dry... This is something I've been kinda putting off but I'm gonna have to take the front fork out most likely to clean and grease.

I do not have one of those super thin wrenches for dealing with the lockring and race crown. Any suggestions on alternatives?

I do have plans for having it taken to a bike shop at some stage in the near term when thigns calm down here (it's ninty bucks for a full teardown, clean, wheel truing, and reassemble.... the big gotcha is any component costs if anything ends up being bad. So going to budget double that for things like new cable/housing, bearings, etc.)

Until then though. Learn by trying, and being VERY grateful park tools has their advertising campaign honest to god helpful videos on how to do these things.

 

[ifitsfreeitsforme]

I made a super thin headset wrench from a piece of thin aluminum (steel would be better, but aluminum cuts easier with a coping saw) for a one-time-only fix of a rare bike. It wasn't pretty, but it worked.

 

[Singleton]

Eh considering just buying one They aren't that expensive and will be useful to minimize 'oh god that's not an insignificant amount of money' bike shop visits. Plus, half the fun of a bike is working on it. At least for me.

 

[Pete Murphy]

HUH that explains why it wasn't rolling right. Tire was misaligned. Don't know if it'd always been like that, if the dog had knocked it out of line. Given it went back to right and there was no obvious warping (given my vision i couldn't tell if there were minor defects, very likely were.) grease the threads, tighten the nuts back down and waddaya know, everything feels right.

Given how the stem was bone dry... This is something I've been kinda putting off but I'm gonna have to take the front fork out most likely to clean and grease.

I do not have one of those super thin wrenches for dealing with the lockring and race crown. Any suggestions on alternatives?

I do have plans for having it taken to a bike shop at some stage in the near term when thigns calm down here (it's ninty bucks for a full teardown, clean, wheel truing, and reassemble.... the big gotcha is any component costs if anything ends up being bad. So going to budget double that for things like new cable/housing, bearings, etc.)

Until then though. Learn by trying, and being VERY grateful park tools has their advertising campaign honest to god helpful videos on how to do these things.

For the Headset lock down…. Try using 2 channel lock pliers and turn them in opposite directions. That should lock it down …. It’s what I have used for years and I actually have the proper wrench .. it’s just quick and locks them better because they really bite on each other better !!

Pete

 

[MattiThundrrr]

To tighten headset nut, I just use an adjustable wrench. For thin stuff I ground down the jaws of an old one so it could fit narrow spaces. Also, I don't know what a headset lock down is, so if I needed special tools, I didn't know about it.

 

[Singleton]

I presume that works for loosening the headset too for the sake of cleaning and regreasing.

To tighten headset nut, I just use an adjustable wrench. For thin stuff I ground down the jaws of an old one so it could fit narrow spaces. Also, I don't know what a headset lock down is, so if I needed special tools, I didn't know about it.

The headset on mine looks like that, though I have v brakes instead of calliper.

I have to wonder why low end big box bikes tend to have quill stems instead of every product line across the board having swapped to threadless. Threadless isn't new it's been around for awhile. Heck even cheaper bikes have had it (I wish I'd managed to get the schwinn cutback. $99 and it came with thumb shift, threadless headset.... and a blinding paint scheme.)