hello from an old guy with bad legs

This is my cruiser. I got the motor for 45 bucks. Bike is a cheap Kent from Walmart - pure junk. Parked on a frozen lake last February, That front wheel spins like mad on slick stuff, so no, I didn't ride it there, The $250 UPP pack on the downtube is clunky, Less than $500 in the bike initially. Good bike for relaxed riding, but not my main bike,

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I dream about shaping a tank out of laminated hardwood planks and putting a small battery in it.
 
This is my cruiser. I got the motor for 45 bucks. Bike is a cheap Kent from Walmart - pure junk. Parked on a frozen lake last February, That front wheel spins like mad on slick stuff, so no, I didn't ride it there, The $250 UPP pack on the downtube is clunky, Less than $500 in the bike initially. Good bike for relaxed riding, but not my main bike,

View attachment 201238
I dream about shaping a tank out of laminated hardwood planks and putting a small battery in it.
Yeah, that's a cool bike. Ice cold in fact. The plank tank sounds like it would be a fun project with neat results. Hopefully you can show pictures if you decide to build one.
 
If that front is a mechanical cable caliper, upgrading the front disk to a cable hydraulic is easy/cheap too, but a full hydraulic isn't much more money,
If you are not a downhill Mountain Bike racer, totally unnecessary. I have 13000 miles on my cable pull brakes, and I like them fine. Quality bikes have real steel cables that don't need adjustment every month like the grey metal trash cables in cheap kiddiie (and electric) bikes. I have 77 hills on my summer commute to camp. I get about 2000 miles on the organic pads on the front only. I rarely use the rear brake. The caliper needs a 2 minute adjustment to close the gap every 1000 miles. If you have trouble locking up the back wheel in a panic stop, install 5" long handles if you don't have them already. With black handles, I can't really tell from the picture. Main reason for a panic stop on my route, a deer or rabbit darting across the road at the bottom of a hill whien I am up to ~30 mph. Deer usually cross at the water courses at the bottom of the hills.
 
If you are not a downhill Mountain Bike racer, totally unnecessary. I have 13000 miles on my cable pull brakes, and I like them fine. Quality bikes have real steel cables that don't need adjustment every month like the grey metal trash cables in cheap kiddiie (and electric) bikes. I have 77 hills on my summer commute to camp. I get about 2000 miles on the organic pads on the front only. I rarely use the rear brake. The caliper needs a 2 minute adjustment to close the gap every 1000 miles. If you have trouble locking up the back wheel in a panic stop, install 5" long handles if you don't have them already. With black handles, I can't really tell from the picture. Main reason for a panic stop on my route, a deer or rabbit darting across the road at the bottom of a hill whien I am up to ~30 mph. Deer usually cross at the water courses at the bottom of the hills.
i appreciate the info and your thoughts on this. i think the mechanical are fine as well. they stop the bike like they should and the adjustments are easy if ever necessary. i just always look for tinker things to do on my bikes to keep me involved. hydraulic brakes arent needed but i may look into them simply for the fun of figuring out how to adapt them to the bike. who knows?
 
I'm actually changing the seat in a couple days to a brooks b135. those are my preferred saddles on pedal bikes. so, i figure id try one on this. it is a mechanical setup for the brakes. ive been looking into what's involved in changing to hydraulic. im thinking i will change this eventually. it does have a thumb throttle. 5 levels of assist. i try to use as much leg power as i can though so i never go above level 2. it tops out at 25 with me on it and that's still too fast haha. that's why my name is slow ride. I'm more into the leisure of biking than climbing mountains and all the adventurous stuff some of you guys do. thanks for the comment. i really appreciate you're taking the time to write and ask questions about it. also, the advice and suggestions are noted and logged for future use.
Cool looking bike! Tell me, I have never had a Brooks Saddle but they do not look like they have much cushion to them. If not I could not find them comfortable.
 
I found a Brooks saddle bruising after a couple of hours. I use a selle explora, which is the most padding I can buy for a rail mount. Cloud9 is only for post mount. My bike has an odd sized post, with a rail adapter from the factory. I use a cloud9 padded seat cover, which falls off a lot since it is really too small.
 
This is my cruiser. I got the motor for 45 bucks. Bike is a cheap Kent from Walmart - pure junk. Parked on a frozen lake last February, That front wheel spins like mad on slick stuff, so no, I didn't ride it there, The $250 UPP pack on the downtube is clunky, Less than $500 in the bike initially. Good bike for relaxed riding, but not my main bike,

View attachment 201238
I dream about shaping a tank out of laminated hardwood planks and putting a small battery in it.


In fact it is well accepted that ALL front drive bikes are bad even dangerous especially cornering in wet
 
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