Posts Tagged: Wheels
Max Skatebike – Jon N – UK
By Jon N. – UK
I purchased this Max skatebike from Facebook marketplace with the intention of giving it a go and seeing what happens and ended up becoming obsessed with it and making little design changes to it along the way.
I started off by changing the seat-post and seat as the seat-post was too short for me at 250mm long (Changing LeRun/Garel/Max Skatebike Seat/Saddle), once the unicycle seat was installed it made riding it considerably easier and more comfortable.
The next change was to spray the rear wheel black to match the frame and change the overall feel of it. It was a simple case of taking the wheel out and removing the tyre and tube then masking off the metal sections to leave only the yellow plastic visible and then spray. I would advise using a primer first and then your colour and then a protective clear coat on top, I went straight for black without a primer and didn’t put a clear coat on after and it has come away in a couple of small sections so will probably need a respray at some point.
Once the spraying was done the next change was to the tyre and I installed a Kenda ‘whitewall’ tyre, to me the colour contrast works really well and matches the seat colouring. The tread on the whitewall is aimed more at roads as opposed the original tyre that had a deeper tread pattern aimed at muddier terrain. The width of the Kenda is slightly less than the original but this does not negatively affect the riding experience.
The seat post clamp was then switched to a fixed clamp rather than a quick release, this aspect is also covered further in the article on changing the seat. The chain that was on there originally had seen better days so I thought why not get a gold chain for it? As a further little touch I bought four dice valve covers and added one to keep it colour coordinated. I also sprayed the crank arms and sprocket black as the chrome would have stood out. I had also changed the truck bushings to 94A by this point to aid the turning ability.
Lastly were the front wheels, originally it had Kryptonics 70mm installed (not sure of the firmness rating), these were great for different road surfaces and small pebbles and sticks but were not in keeping with the colour scheme and I wanted to go for something at the soft end of the scale to see if there was a difference. I opted for Deville Whitewalls 70mm and 78A rating and they are fantastic! They feel very smooth out on roads and paving slabs and wonderful on smoother surfaces.
In terms of how the impact of the changes in functional terms the largest would be changing the seat-post and the bushings and the front wheels, the aesthetic colour changes influenced how I saw the skatebike and allowed me to put my mark on it.
The Max rides fantastically and whilst it looks very different to how it arrived it has developed into something I am very proud of and I hope it inspires people and shows what is possible with a little TLC.
A Few Answers on Minson SkateBikes
Eric has been restoring his skatebike. Eric asked me a few questions about mine. I figured others restoring a Minson Skate Bike might find the answers helpful.
Brakes
The hand brake is one of the unique things about a Minson Skate Bike. To use it looks unusual to say the least. The Skatebike came with the hand brake setup only. My wheel was rusted badly so when I replaced it I bought a 16 inch wheel with a coaster brake. They are by far the easiest ones to find. I often wondered why the bike didn’t come with a coaster brake originally. Then I used it. The problem is the crank arms are short (100 mm). This means to work you end up skidding. I wanted to replace the arms but could not find any that short. There is about 120mm of ground clearance so a slightly longer arm may work. The sprocket is only 36 teeth so the combination of the small sprocket and short arm is hard to find. A slightly longer arm with a smaller sprocket may even work better.
Minson Restoration – Rich Helms – Canada
My old Minson skatebike before I restored it.
In the mid 1980’s while shopping in Eaton Centre in Toronto, Canada I spotted this SkateBike in Collegiate Sports. It was love at first sight and I bought it. After we moved to the country it got little use as we lived on a dirt road. For years it sat in my barn rusting. In June 2013 I pulled it out and restored it.
My bike is badly rusted and the tire cracked. I have been collecting up measurements to replace parts. Fortunately most of them are common. As I intend to actually use it I want to replace the wheel with a coaster brake one. The tire is 16×1.75 so finding a coaster brake unit should not pose a problem.
A longboard truck will work on the front. The included truck is an old-school mounting with 2.5″ holes front to back. Once I settle on the tire and truck/wheel I can select the appropriate riser thickness.
The biggest challenge is the cranks. The old bottom bracket is a common British/ISO unit but the cranks are only 100 mm long. The shortest unit I can find is 115 mm for BMX riding. You can see from the videos there is room for a longer crank and as I recall the short length makes for hard pedaling. This weekend I will investigate the bike parts. I may have to just restore the old BB/crank.