Ah, gotcha. I just did a quick search. I see Metard joined a couple of weeks ago. There are a few others lurking on here. Where you buoys at? Don't be shy now.....
Anyway, when I let this forum sit dormant for a few years, it appears that about 300+ chatbots hacked into here, created accounts and were making posts. I cleaned all the posts up and deleted them, but there are a good 300+ bogus users in the "members" list. If i can find a clean/quick way to delete them all, I will, but I also don't want to inadvertently delete a real user.
At least it lists everything in order of when the accounts were created, so most of the new users are real.
I would say about 2-3 times per week, I have to delete a fake thread about "the dark web" or "mail order Ukrainian brides".... But it only appears to me. I assume you guys don't ever see it because it gets flagged and then I just click delete.
This is kinda fun. You know how you can tap in pics and get the full size one? I click on this one. The initial zoom. Your mom... 🤣 That was his aviator for a while. The stick figger with your mom.
I fuckin busted out laughin. Like WTF? Somebody's up in here fuckin with me. Your mom. Then I zoomed out. The rest of the word "moment" was still there. I forgot about that stick figger. 🤣
Major maximum bike part discovery... It's always been tricky gettin replacement rear suspension parts. I'd basically decided it was impossible to get them 2 pivots the rear of the frame. I just kept cleanin em every few years. Really solid iron takes a lotta force. I could never find parts with the right sizes. Close but no stogie.
As I went deeper into my Titanium adventure, I stumbled onto a kinda miracle. It ends up that bike caliper brakes, not the kind I have, the ones that pivot in the center... They got pivot bolt hardware with the proper dimensions. 6mil bolt into an 8mil outer sleeve. You can find different lengths. In dang Titanium. So, I'm workin my way through that now. You can't just find order length. Gotta hunt. Lotta details. Try to get Grade 5, etc.
I hopefully won't break too many engineering rules along the way. I think my final setup will be the same strength, or close, as original. And not rust. I'm never gonna subject that frame to mountain bike impacts ridin up on the Seawall curb on my way to the beach with my 130lb butt.
Pics...
A typical shock bolt set.
The brake mounting bolt... where it pivots
The impossible to replace rear pivots. The ones I got first were too short. Longer ones are installed.
Old and new
So far, so good. There's a little side play because I don't have infinite parts choices.
The 2 halves gotta bolt tight to each other before they grab the frame. It won't swivel if that happens. Want them bolts to grab a micro hair before they hit the frame. Use washers to help. The center white ones are extra solid Teflon.
I got the 1st shock bolt set done. The 3 rear ones in progress. It takes weeks to get some of these titanium parts. Forgot my pic.
I know I gotta repaint this fall. Will go way higher on # of clear coats. I drip seawater pretty often on there.
Repaint the silver. I never got a weather window to do the blue yet. So, anyhow. The lower 2 rear shock bolts will be the same as the front one. I couldn't get a mounting bolt long enough to do that top one...
So, that's really been a lotta work tryna sort out. I'll share that later.
Oh... my rear shock. Years back, I replaced the 750lb/in spring with a 450. Now it actually boings around under my massive bulk. Was a total SWAG on the spring value. Decided since I'm doin all this other stuff... let's dial this in a little more. Got a new shock comin from China next month with a 350lb/in spring. I might be on the low end of the pogo spectrum. I can already kinda pogo a little if I force it. My shock routinely moves around under there. I ain't on mountains. Maybe pot holes or a curb.
Some of these rare parts I can only get from China via Amazon. Takes like a month. I can see when they clear customs and shit. 🤣
Reckon that's enough for now. I've probably spent a hundred hours the past month learnin about this stuff. 😎
Nice. I cleaned out my entire garage over the weekend. Did about 5 full truck runs to the dumps. Got rid of old bikes, bike parts. Gave away two cherry women's beach cruisers that my wife and daighter haven't ridden in about 5 years. Got rid of like 3 E-dirt bike frames that my son and his buddies have taken apart....
My mountain bike rear sprockets broke a little over a year ago. It was a walmart bike that I have for a couple of years, so when it broke down, I was about a 1/2 mile from home, so I just ditched the bike and left it...
At any rate, now that I have some room back in my garage (Wife has been parking in the drive way with me for like 6 months because my son and his friends took over the garage and destroyed it. Now the wife is back in the garage and I have some room to play with.
So, the boy has BMX bikes, pedal-less bikes, 50cc dirt bike, 80cc dirt bike, e-dirt bike, pedal carts and this wild ass "Crazy Cart" that just flies around uncontrollably doing 360s at a high speed. My brother got him that one and shipped it form Texas. When he opened it on Christmas, I was like, WTF is this? Anyway, it was hilarious. For the first few weeks, I wouldn't let any neighbohood kids ride it, because they would hit top speed, the thing would flip sideways and kids just fly off the thing.
After about a month, I walk outside and my son is flying down the street at full speed, doing full 360 degree rotations the whole way, then zips perfectly between two parked bikes without touching them. So, I guess it's a difficult toy to figure out, but once they do, it's evil knievil kinda shit.
Anyway, I am back on the market for a mountain bike. Won't get anything crazy. Just another bike to have for a few years. I asked the girls over and over and over if they wanted their beach cruises. There are a few waterfront restaurants at the end of my road. It's about 1/4 mile walk/drive to get there. I always say "You guys want to ride the bikes over for dinner"... All I get are eye rolls and "Meet us in the car".... So, now that my daughter is 15 and my wife shows no interest in biking, I felt okay with just donating them to the neighborhood. It's funny, I see my daughter and son's old bikes in the neighborhood. I have my daughter's first beach cruiser away like 5 years ago. A little girl across the street has it now. She is friends with my son. She was over playing in the summer. Her bike is all tricked out with girly shit. Little gems and accessories on the spokes that go up and down. Streamers on the handbars. All that kinda shit. Anyway, when the little girl was in my driveway, I was telling her "You know that I put all of those cool accessories on your bike? I got that bell for my daughter etc. etc.". This little 8 year old girl looked at me like I had a second head or something, like WTF is this dude talking about... Nevermind I say.
Just to put perspective on what these "Crazy Carts" are, here is a quick video. I had never seen one until "Santa" brought one to our house from my Brother.
Another one =)
Never seen them carts. Looks fun.
That's funny the neighbors ridin your bikes around. Least they weren't stole by em. Good they're out gettin rode.
Hey, Zach. After convertin my bike to a 7 speed, only the single front sprocket, I kinda recommend a single up front. It's just so much simpler and cleaner. Front derailleurs can be a hassle, and most people don't need all that range. A bike that's just got 7 or so gears in the back is more than most people are ever gonna need. I ain't talkin about the 1x12 NASA bikes. 1x7 is plenty. There's plenty of options around. Academy and Ozone 500 might have one you like for a good price. Plus they do everything so you start out with a bike that works. 😎🤙
@ibc Yeah, my son ended up going with a different bike after I showed him the Academy one. I really liked that one and was pushing it on him, but for whatever reason, he is 8 and thought that this other bike looked "cooler" or a more traditional style bike, so he went with that.
As far as gears, I will tell you this. When I first moved to CA, the wife and I got our own 1 bedroom right on the beach, overlooking my favorite reef break. This was 2003 and our rent was like 1100, which back then, was a lot... So after that year, we found a buddy on craigslist, a surfer, that was renting out a second bedroom 2 blocks from the beach. Total rent for the room was $450 bucks... Holy shit... Yes please. So, we ended up moving in with him. He lived there for 2 years, then moved out and we kept the 2 bedroom to ourselves for about 5 more years.
Anyway, this guy was your typical "california surfer dude" that A) Was from PA. B) Had a bunch of surfboards and barely surfed and C) Sucked at surfing.
But anyway, he was a cycle enthusiast. He owned a VB bus called Ruby, that he would NEVER drive. We took it to Baja once and to a concert another time. Other than that, the thing sat in front of our house and never moved. Occasionally, we would find a homeless dude living in it and shit...
So anyway, his main mode of transportation was bikes. We lived in OB, so he had a street cycle style bike that he would ride down the * east, then to the train station in Old Town. About 3 miles total. From there, he would take the coaster/surfliner (Amtrak local commute trains in San Diego. The train that runs through Trestles). He worked at North County at "Bumble Bee Tuna". So, he would get off the train in North County where he had another street bike locked up. He would then pedal that bike another 5 miles to work.... Do the reverse on the way home...
So, in additional to that, he had two beach cruisers. One was a beat up piece of shit with a surf rack on it, single speed. Called it "Turbo"... Now, turbo had a side mounted surfboard rack for shortboards. So if my wife was at work and I wanted to surf a non-beach break, I would often times borrow Turbo and head down to the reefs, which are about 10 blocks south of where that house was.
But, his prized "ride" was a three speed beach cruiser. Almost brand new. Fresh paint. Mint condition. This was his "fancy bike". The "date night bike" or if he was going to PB to meet chicks.... I rode this bike a few times. It was the tits. A traditional beach cruiser with 3 gears. It had a super low, a regular and a super high setting.
And those three settings are really all I ever need. Especially around here. There are no elevation changes. This region is called "The Lowcountry" because everything sits at sea level or below. The highest elevation on this entire island is 8 feet. So, I just simply need a normal gear, a low gear and a high for some situations....
I do NOT need to cycle through 8 low gears and then a dozen more high gears. I just need a "easy on the legs", "regular on the legs" and "all our full speed, open road, hard on the legs but top speed gear"....
So, I would CERTAINLY be willing to go with a bike with less gears. I like the style and the comfort of a beach cruiser, so if I could find one with 3 gears, I would probably pull the trigger. But now that the boy is an action-sports hellman at 8 years old, I find myself getting roped into offroading, riding ramps and generally doing shit that a guy in his mid-40s has no business doing.... So I think the mountain bike is still the better call for the overall kind of riding I will be doing.
You can see the bare spot on my frame where previous front derailleurs once were. Plus, you have 3 sprockets and the housing around alla that. I rode my bike for years and never switched offa the center sprocket. What's the point of all that shit even bein down there? Plus a 2nd shifter, cable, etc.
Yeah, Zach. There's plenty of options with a single up front. Ain't gotta be an Ice Cream Truck. 1x12. Can hold 5in wide tyres. Normal wimpster fat bikes got 26x4s. Look at the size of them puppies. 26x4.8. That's a TYRE!
I just hadn't looked at Ice Cream Trucks lately. They changed the colors. That's a beach cruiser. Car tyres. Haha
Oh, yeah. Ifn ya look close, the front and rear tyres got different names. Bud and Lou. Front, rear specific. A bit much, but why not? 😎