Donor Bike - Aluminum frame

[fifthmass]

Guys,

What are your thoughts on having an aluminum frame on a donor bike subject to one major caveat: the fork will be changed to a heavy rigid chromoly unit. Essentially it will be the SAME fork and motor as my pre-crash bike. One item that is a question is the pulling/moment stress on the headset causing deformation of the aluminum over time. It is not a high power motor, just my original 408.

The battery/bag on the rear will weigh 30-35 lbs depending on how much cargo I'm carrying. My only concern for the rear are the road impacts cold working the holes where the rack legs mount to the frame down by the axle. I sheared one bolt with my original steel frame bike. I am concerned that the road impacts may work the hard steel bolts through the aluminum on the frame first.

I am planning on going to the local mom and pop bike shop if aluminum seems reasonable for my motor and battery. I checked with them earlier this week and they don't have much for steel framed bikes. If I need a steel frame, it's off to wally world (don't want to give anymore $$$ to China than I need to).

Bill

 

[monster]

here in oxford england the second hand market is really good for getting cheap steal frames. worked for me.

 

[swbluto]

getting cheap steal frames.

It's good to know oxford is a place to easily find a steal. If that's the case, I won't be docking my bike there in the future!

 

[mrzed]

I'm running a 9c front kit on an aluminum KHS Alite frame - on a heavy cromo front fork. I have no issues. The headset is intended for some fairly significant stresses on a mountain bike, so I'm confident on that account.

 

[dogman dan]

Yeah, I think as long as you don't start jumping it, the headset will be fine. The flea markets are the place to get good steel frames though. My favorite one is a quicksilver yakota I got for 20 bucks. About $50 and some other parts from ten buck fleabikes and its a really rideable trail bike for the single tracks here. I can pound it silly all day with no worries. For street use, the walllybikes are fine, though crude. A few fleabike parts make them tolerable, like the original crank and front sprockets needs to go pretty soon. A junk half bike here and another there, and pretty soon you have everything you need, but in quality parts instead of wallmart junk. Besides the hunt is half the fun! It does help that I live 2 miles from a big flea market.

 

[morph999]

is it just me or is it getting harder to find cheap steel frame bikes in the USA now?

 

[huskydave]

Imo you can use an aluminium frame provided both dropouts are made of steel. The bike I ride is aluminum except for a heavy rear steel swingarm and it had a cheap steel suspension fork on the front before I bought a very heavy duty front fork for it.

 

[dogman dan]

That's what attracted me to the cheap wallbikes in the first place. Steel on both ends, but aluminum in the middle. The steel frame bikes are getting rare, but there are some for sale at wally world in my town. Schwinn comfort bikes with 1" headsets, and steel frames. But the better bikes, not much steel around unless you are talking cargo bikes like surly. Lotsa people run rear motors on aluminmum frames. The bolt hole issue on the rear carrier can be dealt with several ways, but mostly, having the right size bolt, and keeping it tight with a good locking nut would be the main things. I put extra bracing on my seatpost rack, and the same thing could be done to an ordinary rack.

 

[fifthmass]

GOT NEW BIKE TODAY!

Trek 820, 26" MTB, steel frame but still relatively light (35#), hard tail, ungodly powerful brakes. I was very fortunate that I never had to do an emergency stop in the 2,500 miles I did on my old bike at 18-20 mph . Good brakes would not have made a difference in my crash in any case. Will be replacing the suspension fork with a Godzilla rigid fork and two torque arms (on order from Ampedbikes).

Will be riding it conventionally till I get my wheel back from Electric Rider. Lots of stuff to transfer over to it tonight (high pressure tires, battery rack, fenders, lights, & everything else I salvaged from the crash.

Back on the road! 8)

Bill

 

[davewill]

GOT NEW BIKE TODAY!

Trek 820, 26" MTB, steel frame but still relatively light (35#), hard tail, ungodly powerful brakes.

Good choice. I had one of those for ten years, still looked good even though I had ridden it quite a bit. I let my son take it to college, where it was stolen, or I'd still have it.