New Bike with possable benifit

[diverdon]

      Hello Everyone ,

             The bike I had the Magic Pie set up on had never felt right even before I put the motor on it .. The thing felt like I was gonna hit the Handlebars with my knees while pedaling . The bike I had befor it was comfortable as far as the riding position but it had no suspension which I was dying to get and at the time there wasn't even a seatpost suspension made for this size seatpost tube ..

          OK , I gave the "Old" bike to a friend who was over last week and I was showing the Magic pie to him .. He said the same thing I had thought .. The bike looks like I'm riding with my knees in the bars .. I told him "Yes" I liked the old bike better and he told me it was just sitting in his back yard and I might want to rebuild it .. Well I enjoy working on things so its back at my place and being completely rebuilt .

            Sooo... That's the long story ... "Sorry" Now the question . This bike has a steel frame and it is only 1/4 inch off center with the offset pie wheel problem .. I saw where someone had rigged a spreader to get the wheel centered.. I'm thinking this is doable with this frame?? Need to find the post and read it close. Any thoughts? Help? Thank You Don J.   

[gf3]

yes it was Leslie that wrote the post
http://goldenmotor.com/SMF/index.php?topic=1653.0

[diverdon]

   Hello Leslie , I saw somewhere in the post for widening up a steel frame that if you are gonna only go 10 millimetters or so wider that you don't need to go thru as much prep .. Someone said that just a piece of threaded rod and 4 nuts & 4 washer might be all you need ..

      I only need 1/4 inch .. I know you need to streach mure so when it releases it will come back to what you want .. Thing (question) is I am thinking I need to set this up with the plywood under it and the clamps so I can monitor the amount I am moving each side out to keep it even .... .. Uhh. Am I crazy ?

    So anyhow this is too long as usual any help would really be appreciated , Don J.

[Bikemad]

I would use a scissor jack from a car, but here's another easy way of spreading the frame:


                Click for more details                 

Alan
 

[diverdon]

    Hi Alan .. Another few things you have shown me .. Thanks , I enjoy learning new tricks and especally tinkering on mechanical things .. The scisor jack is another good idea too ...Your pretty crafty .. I have a screw clamp that I used to use when I hung cabinets for a living ,,It can be reversed into a "spreader" instead of a clamp .. perhaps I will use that ..

        OK ... Now that the smalltalk is out of the way .. . I am thinking it might be a good idea to do the jig you showed in the earlier post so as to have some adjustability in spreading the sides evenly ... After seeing the "Alignment Tool" (string) thing I am thinking that one side might need to be pushed more than the other .. Depending ??

        Sorry for the long post again ..  ::)Think I answered my own question .. I'll do it the hard complicated way .. Just hope I don't screw it up .. Thanks again so much for your help .. Don J.

[e-lmer]

Since your life depends on it, it may be worth
the few extra bucks to go to a welding shop and
get them to heat, bend, and treat the frame rather
than put the stress on it by bending cold.

Stress micro-fractures in the frame from bending
will cause it to have a reduced lifetime.

Just a thought.

[diverdon]

    Update .. Got it done and it turned out great .. I moved the one side 3/8" using a jig and some threaded rod .. Should have taken a picture of it .. Just secured the side I didnt want to move with some clamps like they attach pipes to the wall and moved the other side out about 1 inch .. Left it to warm up in the Florida sun yesterday .. Unbolted it today and ... Perfect . Wheel is right it the center .

       Elmer , This has been discussed several times . Lots of people have done this and Sleldon Brown has had a section about it on his website for a long time .. As far as "My life depending on this" like you said . If I worried about everything that was bad for my health ... I'd die from worry .. But thanks for your concern .. I will let everyone here know if anything bad happens ..

    Thanks for the help everyone , I couldn't be happier with the results .. Don J.

[Leslie]

Good stuff.    I got my washers inside the dropouts by just using some serious aneurismic strength.

I did this to an alloy frame too but wont advise it.  Its not hard to get it right..