I picked this bike because it hit all the “does it fit” questions. The odd ball chain stay means there is no interference. It is old enough to be 68mm bottom bracket. It has the shock in the back so there is room for a triangle battery. The down tube goes straight up so the motor can swing up and give good ground clearance. (This modern trend of placing the bottom bracket further back is going to kill us.)
I don't have the triangle battery, but here is a piece of paper with three of them drawn.
I used a mighty mini.
Here is the motor sitting very level. Nine and a half inches of clearance!
So what have I got? A street bike. Although this looks off road capable there is not enough travel. The suspension was great at smoothing out cracks in the road, but no better in the dirt than Giant Rove hard tail I did a couple of days ago. I think it should have bars that look like motorcycle clip ons and balloon street tires instead of the bmx bars and knobbies.
It was not that fun to ride, but boy was it fun to build! Read on for entertainment value only.
If you are like me you go over every craigslist picture looking for triangles, downtubes and chainstays. Found this one and when I showed up it was just a motel in the seediest part of town. As soon as I saw the paint and met the character I told him I was not interest in a stolen bike.
“No, no” he said. I built this with parts from the Bike Project. http://renobikeproject.org/ So I went down the street and the Bike Project is the coolest thing I have ever seen. It was like Pic and Pull but with people to help and most parts already in bins. They had a row of complete bikes for sale at very reasonable prices. I could go on, but just check out the website. Anyways they know Raymond and I felt OK to go back and buy the bike.
What a POS this bike was. If you can imagine the quality of work a crack head can can do with mismatched parts, this was just a bit worse. So I gave him some money and went back to the Bike Project. At three bucks a piece I bought three handle bars, necks, this that and the other thing, and of course five seats. In my entire life I have only found one seat that works for me and I am constantly trying new ones. The duct tape on my good one is giving out.
I really should not make fun of tweekers because as soon as I got home I stayed up till midnight rebuilding the bike. I am no better and the nurses turn the lights out at 10 so I have to work with a head lamp.
The next morning there was still stuff to do and parts I didn't have so down to the local bike shop I go. I am very lucky that one mechanic is the nephew of a good friends and thinks I am funny so he helps me. However walking in with something this ugly pissed off everybody else. Pissing off the LBS is just one way to have fun with electric bikes. They are all over poor Ben about helping me with my fugly POS instead of selling me the LEVO.
Stay tuned, the next one is even stranger.