Board Track Racer Style Felt Cruiser

[MrBoots]

Inspired by some of the cruiser bikes I've seen on ES, namely DanJPendleton's slick board track racer style Micargi, I started my own project.

It's a New Belgian Brewery special edition bike I got off CL. I swapped out the rolling gear with a custom set RoadRash laced up for me - an MXUS 4t with moto rims and tires which I gotta say he did a helluva job for me.

Still need to weld some torque arms, a disc caliper mounting tab in the back (came with a coaster brake) and some adaptors and it'll be ready to hit the road soon.

 

[benend]

How did you fit the 135mm hub in the 110mm dropout? or is it not 110?

 

[MrBoots]

It is indeed a 135mm hub, this is one of the steel frame Felt cruisers with this beefy dropouts and stays so I just coldset it to the right spacing - I've done this a bunch of times with old lugged road bikes. Fits like a charm now.

 

[beast775]

Wicked looking bike,its gonna go like H E double toothpicks.

 

[spinningmagnets]

What forks are those? and also, what are the details on the front disc brake? the mount, disc, caliper, etc..

For the curious, here is danjpendletons board-tracker:

http://endless-sphere.com/forums/viewtopic.php?f=6&t=55898

 

[MrBoots]

Spinningmagnets, fork is a threadless Felt springer which I've been told is basically a rebranded Sunlite. I'm running an Avid Alixir 7 hydro front caliper, 220mm Avid rotor and using a pair of adaptors to push the caliper out to clear the rotors. Took it for a spin earlier and it works great, though the caliper has only about 4mm of clearance from the spokes. So far clearances are tight - the rotor bolts are about 2mm from the fork nut that links the springer part of the fork to the rigid part.

 

[beast775]

2mm seems pretty tight,lots of flex up front fork legs -spokes.

 

[MrBoots]

Yep, after inspecting a few things I decided to widen the forks a tad and use spacers to widen the gap two about a half inch. Also, because the front caliper is mounted inversely on the right-hand side because of the fork's odd configuration, the caliper and brake hose were way to close to knocking the spokes. My fix for that was going with larger front rotors - 255mm from 220mm and adding another caliper bracket. Now the caliper comfortably sits about 3/4 of an inch away.

 

[danjpendleton]

Nice build!!! im looking into a different frame at the moment. Something a bit more stretched out for comfort. i plan on running a springer fork like that. hows it feel over bumps? is it fairly stiff or is there a decent amount of springiness

 

[MrBoots]

Honestly, it was the right amount of springiness to begin with but with the wheel/tire combo and leather sprung saddle I'm running now, it's pretty cushy.

 

[spinningmagnets]

Damn you for posting this! Its making me want to beat the crap out of my credit card (again)...my wife is gonna be so pissed.

 

[Drunkskunk]

Sweet. I've got a Felt 1908 sitting in the garage that I've been resisting converting for years. You are tempting me.....

 

[MrBoots]

New updates, added a headlight and got the brakes sorted out. I originally planned to weld a rear disc caliper tab on the seatstay but the stays are very beefy so i ended up just drilling and tapping two holes to bolt on the caliper.