MP3 Fan
1 W
Hi guys my other thread about this trike I built for my elderly friend ended up being about something else so rather than resurrect it I make a new post.
The Schwinn trike he bought from Canadian Tire for $500 is a piece of shit for that kind of money. I regret allowing him to buy it because at the time I was second guessing it just buy the feel of it and the thin cheap looking parts.
The rims and spokes are about as thin as they could be I assume. I am currently looking to get front wheels from discarded mountain bikes to replace the two on the back. The MP3 motor came laced in a good rim so that took care of the front.
The rear brake is almost 100% useless. It is some old school band type and is completely shit. It BARELY stops the bike unless you are crunching the lever hard and if you continue using the brake in this way soon everything will stretch and loosen until the lever touches the bar. About 3 days riding will get you to this point. I have a feeling something will just snap or break before the adjustment of the cable runs out... in a couple weeks. I have the MP3 regen jacked up up so the rear brake lever is actually slowing the bike down that way, through the front wheel.
Also, as he found out, in reverse the brake band unwraps itself and is literally not applying any brake at all. So... if you are elderly like my friend and dont immediately think to grab the other lever in a panic expect to roll backwards onto the road and get hit by a car if you are on an incline. Useless piece of shit.
The gear/clutch/rear brake assy has now started to crunch and grind. When coasting he can feel the peddles wanting to turn underneath him now. It makes a loud crunch noise. I tool the piece of junk off to see if I could replace a bearing or something and notice the whole thing has notchy bearings in it, no matter what part/bearing I am turning by hand. He doesnt even peddle the damn thing.
He has a 30ah lith-ion batt so he doesnt have to peddle at all... very worn out knees... so I disconnected the front chain from this garbage unit and removed it. so now the peddles do not really do anything aside from hold his feet up. An added benefit is that when in reverse the peddles no longer turn backwards. I set up the MP3 with a handle bar switch to put it in reverse.
I put some foam under the battery in the rear basket to stop the rear of the bike from taking a beating under its weight over the millions of bumps it'll encounter. Now that I have witness the cheapness of this bike I worry about the axles sheering off like I have been told was a problem for these bikes at one point.
One would think for $500 they wouldnt make the bike so cheap. The quality of mountain bike one could get for that sum of money makes this thing look like the painted turd that it is. On a $500 bike you can get front suspension, decent disk brakes, all the parts that make up the derailleur system, much better rims and spokes and just over all better running gear and quality. With the Schwinn you get a third wheel and thats it.
I made the mistake of thinking Schwinn meant quality..... with this trike the exact opposite is true. If you ever do a trike stay the frock away from this thing unless you want constant headaches. I have to make this thing as strong and reliable as possible because I will be moving 6 hours away and can not just return to fix at whenever the need arises. Hopefully it will not give him much trouble but I HIGHLY doubt it.
The Schwinn trike he bought from Canadian Tire for $500 is a piece of shit for that kind of money. I regret allowing him to buy it because at the time I was second guessing it just buy the feel of it and the thin cheap looking parts.
The rims and spokes are about as thin as they could be I assume. I am currently looking to get front wheels from discarded mountain bikes to replace the two on the back. The MP3 motor came laced in a good rim so that took care of the front.
The rear brake is almost 100% useless. It is some old school band type and is completely shit. It BARELY stops the bike unless you are crunching the lever hard and if you continue using the brake in this way soon everything will stretch and loosen until the lever touches the bar. About 3 days riding will get you to this point. I have a feeling something will just snap or break before the adjustment of the cable runs out... in a couple weeks. I have the MP3 regen jacked up up so the rear brake lever is actually slowing the bike down that way, through the front wheel.
Also, as he found out, in reverse the brake band unwraps itself and is literally not applying any brake at all. So... if you are elderly like my friend and dont immediately think to grab the other lever in a panic expect to roll backwards onto the road and get hit by a car if you are on an incline. Useless piece of shit.
The gear/clutch/rear brake assy has now started to crunch and grind. When coasting he can feel the peddles wanting to turn underneath him now. It makes a loud crunch noise. I tool the piece of junk off to see if I could replace a bearing or something and notice the whole thing has notchy bearings in it, no matter what part/bearing I am turning by hand. He doesnt even peddle the damn thing.
He has a 30ah lith-ion batt so he doesnt have to peddle at all... very worn out knees... so I disconnected the front chain from this garbage unit and removed it. so now the peddles do not really do anything aside from hold his feet up. An added benefit is that when in reverse the peddles no longer turn backwards. I set up the MP3 with a handle bar switch to put it in reverse.
I put some foam under the battery in the rear basket to stop the rear of the bike from taking a beating under its weight over the millions of bumps it'll encounter. Now that I have witness the cheapness of this bike I worry about the axles sheering off like I have been told was a problem for these bikes at one point.
One would think for $500 they wouldnt make the bike so cheap. The quality of mountain bike one could get for that sum of money makes this thing look like the painted turd that it is. On a $500 bike you can get front suspension, decent disk brakes, all the parts that make up the derailleur system, much better rims and spokes and just over all better running gear and quality. With the Schwinn you get a third wheel and thats it.
I made the mistake of thinking Schwinn meant quality..... with this trike the exact opposite is true. If you ever do a trike stay the frock away from this thing unless you want constant headaches. I have to make this thing as strong and reliable as possible because I will be moving 6 hours away and can not just return to fix at whenever the need arises. Hopefully it will not give him much trouble but I HIGHLY doubt it.