New bike makes me want to cry.

Willow

Willow

10 kW
Joined
Sep 6, 2011
Messages
814
Location
Tasmania
Having been in search of a new pushy for some time now I thought I'd found it.... The Electra Straight 8 Cruiser. My leather frame bags are coming along, and this was to be the bike to show them off.

Elektra_straight8celk1_cl.jpg

I was in Sydney before christmas, and found myself in a shop that I couldn't leave empty handed. I sat on a number of the electra cruisers, and measured the drop-outs of a few of them - being 135mm. After getting the '8' off the wall and sitting on it, my decision was made.

Having payed a few hundred dollars to ship it home to Tas, bike arrived yesterday to find the drop-outs are a mere 120mm....dog-gum-it. So devo'd. :cry: So broke. :cry: So won't be putting the HS on it. :cry:

Could adapt some plates to hold the rear wheel - but dodgey even if done well. Don't really want to mount a mid-drive cause (not real stealthy) (but haven't ruled it out), and there aint no way I'm gonna spread the dropouts. So I'm thinking I'm gonna have to make a swap with a local bike shop and get something, well rather disappointing. :cry: :cry: :cry:

unless there is some wise man out there with a solution.

I should just make a frame, but time and money is in short supply right now.
 
Yea, love the looks of some of the Electra's as well. Sorry about the dropout width.... :(

Someday and hopefully soon we can both build a frame from scratch like your 8ball only nicer. Been planing that for months now, but the money thing......Until then, have you considered a front hub motor? I have been rolling around on one for a year now and I get great looks from the guys who build nice motorcycles around here. They really stare hard at my front hub trying to figure it out. Makes me smile every time. Done well it could be a good looking bike.

:D
 
I fit a 135mm hub into a 120mm frame by just putting a car's spare-tire changing jack in the dropouts and spreading them apart.

If it's steel, it should be fine to spread a bit.
 
liveforphysics said:
I fit a 135mm hub into a 120mm frame by just putting a car's spare-tire changing jack in the dropouts and spreading them apart. If it's steel, it should be fine to spread a bit.
Click to expand...

OK, call me lighting but the last time I had to spread my chain stays I just used my brute force....while just 5 steps behind me I have 2 of those jacks sitting against my fence rusting away..... :oops:

But those 120mm chain stay would need to be spread 1/2 inch to fit a 135mm hub motor with room.... Is it possible?
 
That is an aluminum frame. Depending on how flexy the back of that bike is you might be able to just use brute force. Otherwise the jack trick has worked for me 3 times on aluminum dh bikes. It is 6061-t6 so it should could be easy enough to weld on some modification if it comes to it.
 
On some hub motors you can file back the shoulder on the axle. This should save you some space and is possible because of the single speed drive train requiring less width than a cluster.

I did that to my golden motor to avoid dishing the wheel on a 135mm frame (added spacer to other side) when i was running single speed.
 
I know LFP gets everything done fast, but instead of the jack if you just use a piece of threaded rod that fits in the dropouts with a nut and washer against the dropout on each side, you can do a very slow and controlled spread of the dropouts. The actual dropouts may end up not quite parallel to each other, but shouldn't cause any problem when you tighten the axle nuts down good and tight. A regular bicycle rear axle would probably work for spreading the dropouts.
 
thanks legends..

alloy frame. if she was steel I'd have done it in a flash. I'm gonna need to cut the kick-stand mounting plate off if I'm gonna force the dropouts apart - it's a flat plate welded close to the u-bend that will surely put a kink if left in place.

Will take the RASSY approach.... slow and steady.

it's gonna be a sweaty event, hopefully with little swearing... nerve racking even, the tube aint real thick. Kinda brutal thing to do to a new bike.

7.5mm each way isn't a hell of a lot.

Theres hope for me yet. :?
 
Does aluminum spread like steel? Or does it contract back if it doesn't snap?
 
Ricky's got the right approach. Grind the axle. Twenty minutes with a Dremel, and you're done. Much less radical approach than spreading your aluminum dropouts, in my opinion.
 
just spread the rear frame...15mm is nothing...

you will hove no problems with the frame...spreaded it will be as strong as it is right now...so dont worry about it...just do it...:)
 
Spreading the drop-outs will definitely make them non-parallel. 15 mm is quite a bit and the drop-outs will look odd and not great for tightening the axle nuts against surfaces that are no longer flat.

What about using a front motor and fit a single speed freewheel to it? You should be able to make that fit into 120 mm. You might need to get the motor end cover modified for the freewheel thread but could make for a "clean" solution.
 
RoughRider said:
just spread the rear frame...15mm is nothing...

you will hove no problems with the frame...spreaded it will be as strong as it is right now...so dont worry about it...just do it...:)
Click to expand...

what he said

do it by hand, get someone to help you, one of you spread the frame, the other one pops the motor into the gap as soon as it fits... no need to just jacks or bars

you'll be able to see if it's not true when you spin the wheel... if it's not perfect give it a push in the right direction and it';ll sort it self out

you're not bending anything permanently here, just using a bit of the slack/spring in the frame to make it fit ;)
 
Don't bend an alloy frame that much!!!!! Steel would bend that much fine, but alloy risks causing metal fatigue cracks if you bend it that much.


But an alloy frame can be tweaked by 5mm, 2.5mm per side just by flexing it a bit as you cram in the motor. It's not a permanent bend, more like flexing the stays just a bit, and not enough to require a counter bend of the dropout plates to get them back to paralell.

That leaves 10mm to deal with. That's a SS bike, so you won't need all the space taken up by a 7 speed cluster. Cut new axle shoulders 10mm narrower on the gear side, then dish the wheel 10mm.

You'll get er done.
 
Electra cruisers are nice, but that is all that they have. I've had one here for a while, and decided it was not suitable for a powerful build.
 
t3sla said:
Hate to be THAT guy, but what about front wheel driven hubby
Click to expand...

I think that's the ticket. The 3-speed with coaster brake hub is one of the best things about that bike, and a front hub looks like an old moto drum brake to complement the bike's styling.

I don't see what the problem with front hubs is, as long as they have less than wheel-spinning torque. All-wheel drive is awesome.
 
My two cents :mrgreen:
My first build was equiped with a 3 speed nexus hub and a front bafang SW###. The 3 speed hub switch gears very quickly and the weight on the front wheel brings a very (VERY) comfortable ride. I changed the rear sprocket for a 16T in order to get the "desired effect" 8)
I had in the past a Solex and the ride feeling is really close. If you can bear with <1000W go for it, you won't regret it. You also won't have to implement a rear brake system which is trust me a real pain in da A##!
Now if you want to put a rear hub you can really bend it. I mean, from my experience, there is tolerancing and two time 7.5mm on both side is not really that bad. I also have done it and the bike is still rocking (about two years ride now). But again.. think of the brakes :? , it was for me a real problem and costed some bucks.
Hope it helps!
Gruß,
H.
 
Thanks everyone...

I pretty much came to the same conclusion as the DOGMAN. Take 10mm off the axle shoulder, and the 5mm spread is easy done, with no adverse affect on the alloy.

won't front hub it.... cause I'm ditching the forks - and using a set of Upside Down suspension forks with a 20mm through axle and disk brake. The neck is really long, and will need to make up a new steerer tube to suit.
I'll also be putting a 5 speed cluster on the hub and use a derailer, and disk brake.... mounted upon the torque plates (clamping type both sides.) Power will be around 2500W.
The axles on the HS hub are crappy....


feel much less like crying.
 
Chalo said:
I think that's the ticket. The 3-speed with coaster brake hub is one of the best things about that bike, and a front hub looks like an old moto drum brake to complement the bike's styling.
Click to expand...

^^THIS^^ I'm working on my first build as well using a Straight 8. I, like you (OP), landed on the frame and fell in love. I really like the look and wanted to maintain the cruiser style without adding too many odd ball parts so I figured out what would work easily on that frame and what wouldn't. After going through A LOT of back and forths, I'm taking the front hub approach. My own thought process was why bother spending that kind of money on a brand new bike (electra's certainly arent cheap) just for the frame...which is essentially what you're doing...ripping off all of the parts, adding gears/derailer, new fork, etc. and creating a huge make work project. It seemed that there were other cruiser frames that were better suited for that type of install. Personally I really like the 8 so I figured out something that will work well and suit my needs. As with anything YMMV
 
Willow said:
won't front hub it.... cause I'm ditching the forks - and using a set of Upside Down suspension forks with a 20mm through axle and disk brake.
Click to expand...

That's gonna jack up the front of the frame all goofy like. There will be handling, weight distribution, front traction, and wheelie issues. If you must do that, consider using a small front wheel to help mitigate the problems.
 
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