Adjusted and rolling!

So I took the time to adjust and align all my disk breaks.  I ended up using my hitch bike carrier on the back of my van as a way to hold up the bike while I worked on it. 

It took forever!  But I finished my first real ride in and it was finally working better.  Instead of just holding 18km at max speed I'm back up to 22-24km!

Lessons Learned:

• Even if I am in a rush to get back to riding, I really need to take the time to make sure everything is ready to go.  Going for a ride with the breaks engaged the entire time put a sour taste in my mouth and I really didn't want to go for another ride...

Pedals.. more pedals.

I've finally decided to get a nice large foot print pedals, with little "spikes" to help rip the bottom of my sneakers apart while I pedal.  I tried using the hooks that lets my feet not slide around but that ended up being useless since the spikes won't let me slide my shoes into the toe area.

So far these are much better than the ones that came with the bike.  I sure hope they hold up to the pressure too.

First long ride

25km in and the bike almost killed me this morning.  I was sweating bullets and the bike obviously needs some adjustments.  The disk breaks are to tight, it felt as if I was biking with the breaks engaged the entire time.  Sluggish and my average speed was about 18km where normally I could keep the bike going at 23km easily.

The ride home could be a bit better but man, I am starting to think about going back to a normal mountain bike.

And it's alive

Fat bikes or Phat Bikes are a pain to get parts for.  I knew this and yet, I didn't know this. 

So after looking around and getting quotes for a new rear rim+spokes+axel+hub, I would get quotes that started off at $400 and that would rise to $800 or $900, with reasons (lame but reasons) and it's annoying!  

So I went out and purchased a complete bike from Canadian Tire, expecting only to use the rear rim.  It's a "quick release" 26x4 rear rim.

However, the rim didn't fit on my other phat bike. The rubber that came with it, was just to darn large.  Rim was 26x4 but the height was more than the previous rear tire.

Next, to see if I can combine the two to make one in some way.  Putting it all aside for two days and let the thoughts just roll around in the back of my mind, I decided that I would use this bike and just transfer my electronics from the front of the bike to the new bike. Simple right?  Okay.

Step 1: Move the battery from first bike.  In my case, I'm using the water bottle style.  If this doesn't work, then I can't move forward with moving everything else over.

Result Step 1: With almost no trouble, the holder fits and the battery slides in.  I removed the red stickers from the bike at the same time.  It was so hot out at the time, they just peeled off!

Step 2: Remove the electronics from my custom case.  And move it onto the new bike frame.

 Image 1: Showing the muffler bolts I used to hold the case in place.

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 Image 2: Showing the controller in place in place.

Image 3: Case back on top of the controller.  Hides it nice.

Step 3:  Add the front tire with the motor already mounted to the front.  This was a bit annoying , since I had to move the front forks from my old bike to this bike.  The front tire was to wide.  If it's not one thing, it's another!

Step 4: Replace the rear saddle with a new one. 

And now complete with the rear bag.  Question is, when will I give it a full on test drive?  Seems there isn't enough time in the week for this.  I did drive it around the block a few times and it's going to take some time to get use to but I'm sure things will work out.

And now.. I wait.

So I went to a few local bike shops and some of them just said "Nope, nothing we can do for you!" 

Looking for:

• 26 x 4" wheel
• 170 mm hub span
• Quick release hub "not the single pin through new style"
• Tubeless re-install
• New spokes, as I broke 2 also..

Thankfully the rim is fine but I already have another 3 sets of rims, just none set for the back wheel.

So finally finding a store that was willing to rebuild under $300.00!  I'm finally now just sitting back to wait for it to be completed.  At the same time, I'm getting a different gear caset installed with a lower and higher gear ratio installed.  Currently my max speed while peddling is around 22-26km.

Getting:

• New spokes
• New Hub (bigger/tougher)
• New rear gear set.

Lessons Learned:

I should have a spare rear tire "complete" ready to swap out, otherwise I will be with out a bike for 2 weeks.  I say this, because with all my bikes, due to my weight and the strength of my legs, I have a tendency to warp rear rims.  This was a problem with my last "hybrid mountain bike" where I kept 2 spare rear wheels.

Rear hub exploded...

While adventuring around in I hit a huge bump that I didn't see coming and I broke my rear hub.  Snapped the pin right in half. So everytime I took a pedal step, the tire would cave into the bike frame.

Took the rear wheel off and bits of metal, bearing, all just flopped onto the ground.  So my rear tire is now dead.  Time to bring the rim to my local bike shop and see what they can do, to get me back up and running.  I'm not to hopeful and I just might end up having to buy a rear rim with a new hub already in place...

So for now, I'm off my bike again. *SIGH*

Two weeks, legs are back!

So after a long winter here in Canada, I am now back to biking daily to work at a decent speed but starting was painful!  Over the winter months I had lost a lot of the power that was in my legs but after two weeks of biking, I am darn near close to what I was.

Over the winter I picked up a few things but I haven't had a chance to install them yet.

Side note: After winter, a full inspection should be done!  I found out that on my rear disk I only had 3 screws left and at the front I had one screw left... which I found out when I started to hear "CLANK, CLANK, CLANK, BONG!" the bong being my break pad flying off while I was stopping to understand what the CLANK sound was...

I have:
New breakpads
New pedals with feet mounts (ones that my feet slip into)
New leather saddle.

I need to find a good size water bottle holder that I can mount to my front fork.