First cruzbike ride

First experience.

I woke up early one Tuesday morning and pushed the bike to a nearby parking lot to try and ride.I had taken the toolkit along as well, to fix any last minute issues.

Finally, sitting on the bike was a great feeling. It had taken almost 7 months to get to the final form after bike frame changes, seat changes and lots of other redesigns. However, try as I could , I could not pedal even one revolution. I kept falling over, and I found it quite difficult to push the ground from that position to gain any momentum. Finally, the top tube just popped out from the force of my feet on the pedals and the retaining nut broke. I was gutted, and felt it not worth the effort of all these months. So I pushed the bike back home and thought about what to do next.

Turns out the problems were not so serious. A little welding and fixing later,I was back at the parking lot early on Wednesday morning . Having set up the gears this time to make it easy, I got my wife to hold the bike so I didn't fall .I set off and after a few tries, sure enough, I was off. It took me a while to figure out how to ride it, considering the hands need to balance out the power from the feet.

Since then , I've since learned to ride on roads as well. The hardest part is all the attention that the bike draws. I have gotten better at riding with a straight face as if its just another day at the office. As usual its kids that are most excited, however adults of all shapes and sizes give a goofy grin when they see it. This on the small bylanes, I wonder how its going to be on the main roads with traffic .

I wouldn't have gotten this far without help from lots of people. Balu for the seat fabrication, Muneer for the cycle alignment, Vijay who fabricated a whole new bottom bracket from scratch and of course my wife for the support and encouragement ,given that I turned the living room literally into a cycle workshop for the past few months.

Cruzbike almost there.

Its been a while since I've started this and thought I would post some pics of the bike with some notes on the construction.

My first attempt was using a standard bottom bracket shell ,but the fabricator who I worked with seemed to think it was too complicated, hence I got it fabricated from scratch. Note that the cruzbike needs a pivot joint (and not a fixed chainstay ) .



The next step was to cut a small triangle so that the wider rear hub can fit the front fork. It might make sense to try and widen the front fork as well. The shape was cut from steel plate and took many iterations to fit it right.

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The triangle was welded to the front fork, which was turned backwards so that the trail is positive.

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A bent rod was used where the seat post sits, to allow the seat to recline as required. For starters, a reasonably upright position would be a good bet as it allows the rider to put his feet down quickly.

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The seat

It was constructed out of bent lightweight tube, and sits on the top tube of the donor bike. The seat itself is plywood with foam, and the backrest is breathable nylon fabric.

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The tube attaching to the stem to the bottom bracket is telescoping just like a normal seat post. It allows adjustment for riders with different height.

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The rear derailleur is attached the same way in the front. However, I still need to learn a bit more to fix the shifter for the chain rings.

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Pictures of the completed bike:

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