My Bicycle. The Big Dummy/Stoke Monkey, how I did it.

To something I did a while back, but never blogged, though I most certainly intended to do so. This is a digression, but the Big Dummy is a big part of Cold Comfort Microfarm, and was a significant investment in the future plans of the new lifestyle. I meant to blog this a long time ago, but never got around to it.

Was at the 18th Annual Cheat River Festival last week, and this bicycle got a lot of interest, as I was using it as my work truck all week. So I thought I'd go ahead and write about it so folks would have a reference.

Where we began:

This is a pretty much stock out-of-the-box Surly Big Dummy. The modifications at this point are the addition of a VO setback seatpost, Planet Bike Cascadia 29er fenders, A Xtracycle 'kickback' center stand and a set of Surly 'Open bar' lo-rise handlebars. And of course, my trusty old Brooks saddle, stolen from Pugsley.

I purchased the Stokemonkey Kit from Clever Cycles in Portland, and a battery from Li Ping in China. Clever Cycles doesn't sell the battery, as the headaches and hassles involved in shipping lithium based batteries around is just a bit too much. I don't blame them.

So, First things first.

Off come the pedals:

Then remove the old cranks:

Next, remove the external bottom bracket bearings:

Now we're ready to install the new bottom bracket. I had a heck of a time with this. Emailed back and forth to the good folks at Clever Cycles about the EXACT bottom bracket axle width. I was assured, more than once, that the correct width of the axle for the Stokemonkey is 113mm, but that it might go as wide as 118mm depending on chain-line issues. Not exactly wonderful, but there was high confidence that 113mm would work in most situations. So, I got a 113mm bb axle.

I went with old-school loose balls in cups style bottom bracket, as that is the level of technology with which I am most comfortable. It's good stuff, properly maintained will likely outlast modern civilization, etc etc. Not as easy to find as it once was, but the good folks at Harris Cyclery came through again.

The crankset is provided as part of the Stokemonkey kit. It's nice Sugino stuff, way strong.

With that done, time to add the cranks.

Starting to look good, now it's time to add the motor. Instructions say to invert the rig at this point, and they are right. This gets a bit tedious.

Things started to get pretty frustrating at this point. I located the bracket according to the instructions, that being between the two bottle boss sets, one forward facing, one rear facing, and no matter how hard I wished upon a star, I was unable to get good clearance either from the top tube, or the seat tube and the motor. I was using the phone camera and phone calls with Jeremy at Clever Cycles a few times at this point, and he did his best to be helpful, but in the end, I had to punt, and try to straddle one set of bottle bosses. I could never get him to say that "yes, we have mounted this kit on a 2010 'new style' 16" Big Dummy frame and it fit just fine." Well, in the end, I did get a decent fit, just not according to the published method.

Now time to cut the primary drive chain to fit:

A bit of a digression: I don't get why folks use 'superlinks' or whatever they are called, when good ole chain tools work just fine. Honestly, this is something I do not understand. I've come to accept the superiority of the threadless headset, and I appreciate how external bearings make servicing and replacement so much simpler for the mechanic, and other things besides, but I still don't get why folks don't use chain tools anymore. -end digression-.
Getting closer;

Swapped out the fancy new front shifter and brake lever for an old-school Suntour friction thumbshifter/brake lever I had laying around to accommodate the left-thumb throttle.

Added some of those fancy cork-feeling Ergon grips too. They are niiiice!

as you can see, there is not a great deal of clearance in this frame for the motor assembly, but there is enough. This shows the strange cable tensioning system. It works, and it's simple. Not very easy to adjust though, but adequate.

Ta Da!
Alas, on the test ride, it was revealed that under torque, the crank arms would impact the motor mount bracket, on the granny ring, the chain would interfere with the bolts on the motor casing, making granny gear useless. I had to pull it apart and go with a 122mm bottom bracket axle, which solved everything. No, a 113mm isn't adequate, nor would be a 118mm. 122mm is correct for this bike.

113mm axle.

122mm axle
Some fun working pics:

A bunch of 6-foot stakes, a 6-foot step ladder, 600 or so feet of rope lights, 800-plus feet of extension cord, a maul, and other bits. And yes, this load taught me to turn the handle bars away from the direction of the fall at the last second to open a good sized path past the handle bars to more gracefully fall off the bike as it goes down. :)

A honda generator, 100 or so feet of heavy extension cord, my electrician tool bag, my carpentry tool bag, some other stuff.
Oh, and this was hybrid parking only, so I qualified. :)