I had purchased not 1, not 2, but 3 other bicycles before this whilst the idea of building a motorized bicycle was still in its nebulous infancy. At first, I thought I had wanted a simple rack mounted engine, so I just chose any old Mongoose full-suspension bike that they sell in Wal-mart. Got it from an Indian guy who was selling it, because he was moving to San Jose, California. Then I thought, you know what I can really use this concept of motorizing a full-suspension bike on a full-suspension bike that has a v-frame. The Mongoose was nice, but the thing's got a y-frame making it impossible to do an In-frame mount. An in-frame mount versus the rear rack mount was a better option because it's more balanced and has a lower center-of-gravity. Therefore, I purchased, by impulse, a GT mountain bike that had both the full-suspension and the v-frame. I thought I had the best of both worlds, but when I took it home and measured it I realized it's not going to fit the bill because the frame measured too small for an in-frame engine. Bummer, and that was coming all the way from South Bend, IN. Well, wish me luck on selling it in the Spring {fingers crossed}...
This was the measurement I was going for...
So I said, okay now what. I spent the next several days searching for a good deal on a bike that had a 21" seat tube. I finally found one for sale from a guy who lived in Bartlett. I had ridden my bike that day and taken the bus/train to go all the way to Bartlett. Let's just say I had started my journey early in the afternoon and came home a little before midnight, just to come home with a bike that was 19" and not 21", as it was put on the Craigslist ad. Two questions are probably entering your mind right now, 1.) Why did you buy the bike if it wasn't the right size? 2.)How did you ride two bikes back home?
To answer the first question, the bike I had to get it because the price was only $40. Yeah, I know the forty dollars which I could have put towards getting stuff I actually needed! But the bike was made in Korea, an old Randor ATB called "Terrain Buster." Who wouldn't pick it up??
Made in Korea!!!
I had decided to try a special towing method I saw being done in the city, where the rider basically tows the bike holding onto its handlebar. I thought this would be relatively easy, but turns out the height discrepancy b/w the bike I was riding (the GT at this point) and the new Randor Par Excellence was like .5 foot! Also, the Randor is made with steel so pretty dense and heavy! I dropped it a few times trying to tow it to the train station in Bartlett. By this time, it was like 8 o'clock and I was hungry. So I went across the street to order some Chinese food, because it wasn't going to be another 1.5 hrs until the in-bound train arrived. I ordered me some boneless duck with 5 variety nuts! Good stuff! I needed some energy to carry both these bikes onto the train, off the train, transfer, then onto another train, then off that train. Thankfully, many friendly people helped me to load it up and down the exit of the Metra train. At around 11pm, my dad picked me up from the Cumberland Metra stop on the UPNW metra line. Gotta love those 7 dollar weekend passes.
Today, I took out the right bike (a Specialized Stumpjumper mfg year 1983!) from the garage. I stored it from a purchase last night out in Homer Glen! Yeah you really gotta dig Craigslist for promoting its fine, local salesmanship! The kid I got it from was in 8th grade, and he had apparently gotten it from a neighbor real cheap and was just looking for a way to make money to fund his go-kart project. He's a real stand-up kid and has an interest in all things mechanical and he's even expressed an uncanny interest in taxidermy and hunting small game in his backyard, Polish commune! I just thought wow, you never know who you're going to meet through Craigslist. I've even met this one guy who was doing this Bikes-on-Craigslist deal for a living! He's a father from Wood Dale, IL, and he's been trying to make money for his son's college tuition by buying, restoring and reselling bikes on Craigslist. His bikes were also too small for my motor-bike project, and luckily that time I didn't make another impulse mistake. Impulse purchase is like the bane of any Craigslist-er! I have learned one must always be patient for the right thing to come along to save one the costly mistake and time of buying unneeded items! There's a very fine line b/w need versus want in the Craigslist aftermarket, and learning to tread that line is a difficult yet in-the-end rewarding process!
I am so relieved to have this 1983 Specialized Stumpjumper Sport. Now I can safely move on to the next step, which would be to prepare the bike for the motor and motor shiftkit installation. FYI, a shift kit adapts to the bike's already-existing 5-speed gearing system using the bike's rear derailleur and allows the motor to operate in a wider range of gearing -- not just stuck in a single speed/gear ratio.
It's got the perfect frame geometry, tall seat-tube but low enough "stand-over" (measurement from where the top-tube meets the seat tube down to the floor) height to accommodate for my 5'10" height.
The following were attachments that came with the bike...
A Union bottle generator putting out steady voltage to supply power to the head and tail lights...
Vintage Huret-Sachs Multito odomoter which I had to fashion a drive-belt for out of a hairband lying around.
The interesting thing about the little "Multito," a French creation, was that it was giving me a 7 mile read-out for every .7 miles I did. So I was going 10 times further then I really was on this sketchy piece of machinery. The previous owner had told me that it had fallen off during a ride, so I assumed that it was broken. But not completely inoperable as I would observe!
Notice here's something I found off Google--an old sales ad for the Multito which shows there are two sized drive pulleys: one for the 26" wheel and another for the 27/28" wheels. I used the smaller of the two pulleys, which is wrong! My 26" wheeler would have to go on the larger of the two pulleys, because it needs to turn slower to account for the inch/two of wheel diameter I'm lacking!!! Which may be a reason why the odo was reading 10x more than it should be, but it still doesn't make sense! It's probably something screwed up internally -- something came loose or some other ordeal... Whatever, I can always do math... which would mean I'd be doing more like 1400mi cycles vs 10000mi cycles, if indeed I were going 7 mi on odo for every .7 mi of real traveling... I still don't get some of the principles, but I'm sure I'll come to.
I leave you with "Spinny pedal!" How exciting!
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