skeetab5780
1 MW
I was having no luck with the front brake caliper on the Zongshen dual sport and the front tire was very warped...
So i ripped the front end off the bike, and shitty ungreased ball bearing went flying all over my yard! I knew i was in for the long haul at this point!
Long story short I decided to swap front ends with the old Apollo 250cc dirt bike solving a few issues and causing a few more in the process! My kind of style!
The forks for the Apollo are inverted and so much beefier than the stock, i should have thrown them on the scale since i know they weight even more...again who cares with this drive. But the mounting hardware is way bigger, the only safe way to do this swap would be to grind off the Zongshen frames headtube and weld on the properly sized larger one for the Apollo hardware to adapt.
But instead i just take a hack saw to it and weld the steel headset cups from the Apollo to my frame all ugly. The Apollo steerer barely fit inside the frame but it worked. The top welded much easier than the bottom since there was much more metal to weld to since i cut 1/2" off the top.
I did a zoom in on my ugly welding skills, you would think by now i would be getting a little better...and i think i am. But i have trouble starting the arc sometimes and i tend to use too many amps and weld too hot to make up for it, also i'm still trying to figure out which stick movement pattern makes better welds i like small circles i think?
If any problems arise ill have my brother Ben (professional welder) come clean it up later
So now that this front end is on the bike, i noticed that the handlebars are much taller now, i need to cut down the huge risers on the stock Apollo
Notice how loose the chain is on this picture
After changing the front end i went for a trail ride to test things out mainly just watching the front headtube welds out of fear for my life/curiosity
And then out of nowhere the bike goes full throttle in second gear on a rocky dirt trail and the first thing that comes to mind is to lock up the front brakes(luckily i now have them since i just put them on) and while doing this i take my left hand off the bars to kill the key switch(my only chance at stopping the motor) I was on a slight left hand turn causing the bike to go down hard on the left side causing the battery to fall out of the bike and the stress of locking up the brakes caused the motor brackets to bend backwards causing the chain to slacken alot...the drive is now doomed as the bike lay on top of my leg.
it is at this very moment that i thought, hmm if i had a huge elongated shifter on the drive at this time, i would have just snapped the shifter rod right off the drive. When you lay the bike on the left side, the BLDC motor is what touches the ground!!
The cause of this crash? Something i would have never expected. I zip tied my throttle cable to my front brake line, and the movement steering left to right caused only the black(ground wire) to snap off the connector while i was applying throttle, causing a out of control full signal without being able to stop! This is a first for me was scary with this much torque, luckily i was on a dirt trail in 2nd with no cars or cliffs around!
here is the zoom in on the connector that failed because it was really old and zip tied it bad
So i spend all day Sunday taking the entire bike apart again! and reinforcing the bottom brackets with some hefty square channel that should not move now! And the bike is back in action with the chain nice and tight!
I did not take many pictures of any of this activity because it was off and on rain all day Sunday and i had to keep dragging the welder and tools inside and out.
this is the 3 1/8" piece of angle iron i welded in between the mounts to the frame tube
So i ripped the front end off the bike, and shitty ungreased ball bearing went flying all over my yard! I knew i was in for the long haul at this point!
Long story short I decided to swap front ends with the old Apollo 250cc dirt bike solving a few issues and causing a few more in the process! My kind of style!
The forks for the Apollo are inverted and so much beefier than the stock, i should have thrown them on the scale since i know they weight even more...again who cares with this drive. But the mounting hardware is way bigger, the only safe way to do this swap would be to grind off the Zongshen frames headtube and weld on the properly sized larger one for the Apollo hardware to adapt.
But instead i just take a hack saw to it and weld the steel headset cups from the Apollo to my frame all ugly. The Apollo steerer barely fit inside the frame but it worked. The top welded much easier than the bottom since there was much more metal to weld to since i cut 1/2" off the top.
I did a zoom in on my ugly welding skills, you would think by now i would be getting a little better...and i think i am. But i have trouble starting the arc sometimes and i tend to use too many amps and weld too hot to make up for it, also i'm still trying to figure out which stick movement pattern makes better welds i like small circles i think?
If any problems arise ill have my brother Ben (professional welder) come clean it up later
So now that this front end is on the bike, i noticed that the handlebars are much taller now, i need to cut down the huge risers on the stock Apollo
Notice how loose the chain is on this picture
After changing the front end i went for a trail ride to test things out mainly just watching the front headtube welds out of fear for my life/curiosity
And then out of nowhere the bike goes full throttle in second gear on a rocky dirt trail and the first thing that comes to mind is to lock up the front brakes(luckily i now have them since i just put them on) and while doing this i take my left hand off the bars to kill the key switch(my only chance at stopping the motor) I was on a slight left hand turn causing the bike to go down hard on the left side causing the battery to fall out of the bike and the stress of locking up the brakes caused the motor brackets to bend backwards causing the chain to slacken alot...the drive is now doomed as the bike lay on top of my leg.
it is at this very moment that i thought, hmm if i had a huge elongated shifter on the drive at this time, i would have just snapped the shifter rod right off the drive. When you lay the bike on the left side, the BLDC motor is what touches the ground!!
The cause of this crash? Something i would have never expected. I zip tied my throttle cable to my front brake line, and the movement steering left to right caused only the black(ground wire) to snap off the connector while i was applying throttle, causing a out of control full signal without being able to stop! This is a first for me was scary with this much torque, luckily i was on a dirt trail in 2nd with no cars or cliffs around!
here is the zoom in on the connector that failed because it was really old and zip tied it bad
So i spend all day Sunday taking the entire bike apart again! and reinforcing the bottom brackets with some hefty square channel that should not move now! And the bike is back in action with the chain nice and tight!
I did not take many pictures of any of this activity because it was off and on rain all day Sunday and i had to keep dragging the welder and tools inside and out.
this is the 3 1/8" piece of angle iron i welded in between the mounts to the frame tube