Bridgestone Sneaker - Folding 16" 404

[chvidgov.bc.ca]

Hi Folks, I've got a new project.

The bike is a Bridgestone Sneaker-City, 16 inch folding rear-suspension, with a 3 speed Shimano Nexus rear hub and roller brake. I picked up the bike from a nice lady in Victoria who had had it flown here from Japan, for 200 dollars. The bike is all steel, and has Japanese characters still on it. I am intrigued by these little folders, and it is a very smooth ride with the suspension, and trouble free with the internal hub. I put some "ape-hanger" handle bars on it, to get the height up, and created a telescoped cromolly seatpost from some tubing I got off the net. Seat height is a problem for me, I'm six feet tall. These bikes are not available in North America, so I was lucky to get one over here.

Here is picture of the bike, pre-electrification:



The bike has a very nice, low-to-the-ground,built in rack which will be perfect for holding the battery, right over the suspension. The other rack above that will sandwich in the battery some more, and allow panniers with no heel strike. I think the weight on the electric version will be very low centre of gravity, which is a good thing. The front dropouts are 97 mm wide, and 9 mm axle, so will require a small stretch and a bit of filing of the dropout, to the 10 mm axle flats. I will be using the torque arms from amped-bikes.com. The ebikes.ca simulator indicates that this bike will be considerably more torquey than the 20 inch 405 I have (Raleigh 20), and the 26inch 406 I also have (CCM legacy beach cruiser). I probably won't be as fast, as I will overrun the top-end gear above 36 volts.
I will be doing considerable pedalling, which I enjoy.

Details at six...

 

[nathan_jones]

nice bike is it finished?

 

[chvidgov.bc.ca]

Awesome - I'm done - and riding my new baby - "Big cheese" I have dubbed it, around 22 miles per hour comfortably at 36 volts.



Above is a side view, with the lithium battery on the lower green rack. It sits nicely on there, right over the suspension. In a Mec rack back. Doesn't look like a battery too much. Next is a detail of the front wheel..



Note the torque arm from ampedbikes.com. I had to use a v-brake adaptor plate (dimension, Big Cheese) in order to get better braking, also held on with pipe clamps, so I have four pipe clamps, two for the torque arms, and two for the v-brake adaptor. I had to file the dropout from 9 mm to 10 mm to nudge it in there, and stretch the dropout width from 93 to 99 mm, which wasn't too bad. The steerer is so long that I haven't been able to find a more sturdy fork replacement with brazed on bosses for v-brake, so I may need a custom weld job to extend the 1 inch threaded steerer to 12 inches, with a sleeve, and another piece of steerer, as well as get bosses put on, on a newer beefier BMS fork with meatier dropouts. What is on the bike now has worked well so far. Another view...




Here's the back end, with the Shimano Nexus 3 and the associated roller brake, as well as the controller cable tied to the underside of the rack, with a hiking gaiter over it to keep it dry. It's a Crystalyte 24-72 35amp start immediate. All of the parts are from ebikes.ca --- cool people there.



And finally a view from the other side...note the newly replaced biopace chainring 52T on a new crank - this geared the bike up from the old 46T chainring - before this mod the bike was only comfortable at 19 mph. I find the biopace helps a bit when you have a fast cadence. The rear cog is the max 14T, for about 85 gear inches in total in the highest gear.



Conclusion, I love riding this even more than my Raleigh 20 405 and at 48 volts it is good for around 26 mph unassisted, but the gearing is too low for that speed, so I will probably leave it at 36. I have a bell, light and cycleanalyst on the bike as well. It is very torquey on the hills around Victoria, and I am extremely happy the way the bike seemed to come together easily, although there was substantial measuring involved due to my height and the tinyness of the bike. I love this bike!

 

[Dee Jay]

Hey, cute bike !

The ape-hanger bars really added character to it, nice idea.

a chicks-magnet for sure, he he . . .

J

 

[chvidgov.bc.ca]

Ya, you're right, the girls are all over this one...I'm taken

I made a small safety improvement and added axle retention washers on the inside of the torque arm, which are thin washers with 10mm flats and a small protruding hook, which goes into the little hole in the fork. This means that as long as the nut stays on, with additional axle-rotation prevention, the axle can't leave the bike completely unless the fork actually broke, even if it could spin with the torque arms on (unlikely). The fork isn't so beefy, and the axle isn't too far into the fork, as the dropouts aren't "deep", so I feel this is a meaningful safety improvement. I took the blue lizard skin off too, to reveal "Big Cheese" in all its green glory...

 

[dogman dan]

I bet those forks are fine, but torque arms are a good idea. Love the big ring up front.

 

[Kurt]

Nice folder,The solid fixed rack is very appealing.the open frame looks easy to get step on and off from. Perhaps the hand bars need to be a little higher just for comfort.

I have been watching a dual suspension 20'' folder on eBay and if the price stays low I will get it.

Kurt