Check out this bike for conversion

[MikeFairbanks]

It's called the Huffy Nel Lusso.

I saw it at Walmart today for 119 bucks. Not bad, especially when you see the rear rack. It's steel and welded to the bike. The whole bike is steel, from the forks to the tail.

http://www.huffy.com/products/Product.aspx?pid=362|4|9

Right now it looks a bit girlie (even though they make a women's version...this is the men's), but I can work on that. And luckily all the labels are just stickers, not paint, so they're easy to remove.


It looks like a winner. I have a kit on order, and was going to put it on my Trek Pure, but now I'm thinking I might get one of these huffy's instead.

Whatdayathink?

 

[Hillhater]

Its a "fixie" ?.. hence No brakes..??

..but i have paid more for a pair of tires !! :lol:

 

[MikeFairbanks]

It's not a fixie. It has a coaster brake.

 

[Solcar]

Reminds me of the stingray I had back in the seventies. It looked pretty close to the one in this picture I found online. Mine was a Huffy also.

 

[wesnewell]

Single speed, coaster brake (which means no brakes with a rear hub motor). I returned a similar huffy last year (along with a few others models). It was slow and a little rough riding. If you want a cheap walmart conversion bike, get the NEXT Avalon 7 spd comfort bike. FS, aluminum frame with steel forks, dropouts, and swing arms. That's the one I kept and converted. Steel rear rack came with hub kit, although I moved the batteries to the triangle.

 

[amberwolf]

That bolthole thru the "crown" of the fork would let you install old caliper brakes, at least. Better than nothing. I'd bet that there is a crossbar with hole in it on the seatstays, that you can install caliper brakes on back there, too. Even if no hole, but crossbar present, you could drill it and still do it.

Also, if you setup regen on the motor, you could use that for some braking.

If using a front hub motor, also easy enough to replace the rear coaster brake hub with a 3speed IGH with coaster brake in it, like the old Sachs I have on the new bike build.

The thing I don't like about the rack is that it does not run down to the dropouts, so I expect that welded-on or not, it's not as strong as it could be if it did go down there.

Am I seeing things, or is that a locking knob below the color-change in the rack's back end? Allowing you to trombone-slide the end of the rack out farther back?

Strange that they would put a taillight (or at least reflector) but no headlight or front reflector. You couldn't even ride that on the street legally here in AZ (not like anyone cares, from what I've seen).

That chainguard needs a dark pinstripe around it; it is too solid for the look of the rest of the bike. Make it more like the "woody" station wagons.

 

[icecube57]

Id pass.. even with a motor Id like to have some gears to pedal through but at 48v on that ebike kit... you might not need it. I still think you will see your self standing up on the pedals. You dont live in the flatest area.

 

[docnjoj]

As I found out yesterday, Mike, when your battery fails you gotta have gears. The Avalon is a very good bike. My wife and now the grandkids ride it without the electric but I did the conversion once just to try it. Hadda bend the rear sus a bit but it is steel so no problem!
otherDoc

 

[dogman dan]

What you want, is the next step up the price range, that has a 5 or 7 speed rear derailur and v brakes. That bike will be geared low enough to pedal home, but useless to pedal along with the motor.

 

[Drunkskunk]

coaster brake rear, no gears, no front brake, dubious rear rack design, and its a huffy.

You could make this bike into something usefull, if you spend another $2-300 on it. Skip it. buy something without a list of expensive shortcomings.

 

[Icewrench]

Bye Bye

 

[MikeFairbanks]

I'm back to the Trek Pure. My wife said, "keep it."

She loves her Pure so much (I made us buy it for her and she finally has a bike she's not afraid of); she doesn't want to see mine go.

So, I'll electrify it (with battery in-frame).

 

[wesnewell]

What you want, is the next step up the price range, that has a 5 or 7 speed rear derailur and v brakes. That bike will be geared low enough to pedal home, but useless to pedal along with the motor.

Actually, the NEXT Avalon is cheaper at $99. Because it has a 38t chainring pedal past about 16mph is useless. I've been thinking about replacing the chainring with a 52t one, but am just too lazy to do it, and I don't normally ride over about 12mph anyway around the area. If I used it to commute would be another story. Doesn't seem any harder to pedal without using the motor than it did before adding the motor, but might for a lighter person.
http://www.walmart.com/ip/NEXT-Avalon-26-Men-s-Cruiser-Bike/14272884

 

[docnjoj]

Yep that loooks pretty similar to the one we have. I stuck a 20" rear hub motor on it for the test rig and it handled pretty good. It could use some rear brakes with that combo and I put it back to regular riding 26" non-electric. With just the front brake it had some fairly long stopping distances. That is still a good deal for a sort of suspension bike with steel forks.
otherDoc