Kaotical

Okay, I have had an old Trek BMX bike for over 10 years. Everybody that has ridden it besides me has told me that it is an incredibly hard bike to balance, and they keep wrecking it. Being the only BMX bike that I've ridden until a few months ago, I thought it rode normal. That was until I tried my friend's Mongoose. How much smoother that felt.

I ended up picking up an offbrand (NEXT) bike out of a swamp. It's not as smooth, but thats only because it has unnecessarily fat tires on it. After freeing the chain up and beefing up the handlebars with some of those little metal handles you can attach outside of the grip, I LOVE the balance of this bike compared with my Trek. I also love the fact that it has shocks (most people hate shocks on a BMX for some reason, but since the tires are so fat I'm able to hit a sharp curb at 15 mph and I only feel a little bump on the rear end).

However, the frame on this NEXT is a P.O.S.. It creaks and makes a bunch of noise (not to mention, its pretty discusting). I've tried oiling it and it doesn't get much better. Also, its not as long as the Trek and the pedals (the shafts they attach to) are really short as well. I think its supposed to be some kind of little kids bike but with 20" wheels.

My question is: if i put the wheels, the handlebars, and the fork (w/suspension) from the NEXT (old swamp bike) onto the Trek (better bike), will this fix the balance problem noticeably and give me a really ugly but awesome Trek BMX with beefy handlebars and suspension? and if so, what kind of complications am I going to run into while replacing the fork?

FYI so you know the abilities of the person your dealing with: I usually work on old 10 speed road bikes. I know how to replace/install the following on a roadbike:

-brake shoes
-brake assemblys
-brake levers
-seats
-seat posts
-wheels
-tires
-tubes
-reflecters
-handlebars (the whole assembly until you get down to that bearing cover/crown/whatever)
-kickstand
-front/rear derailers
-any other simple thing that i didn't think of

I have never ventured into the following areas:

-replacing gear hubs on a rear wheel (because I don't have the special tool they make to do it)
-replacing entire pedal assemblys (for the same reason)
-fork & the bearing that it attaches to.
-I've tried replacing axles but i usually wind up with ball bearings everywhere so i just try to find new wheels

Tutorials would be great. I've read this one where it tells you how to remove the whole assembly in order to paint a bike, but I question its integrety because i've never needed a hammer to remove handlebars on a tenspeed. Also, it doesn't deal with BMX bikes and I don't know what the differences are (if any), and finally, I would like to know if its absolutely necessary to take bearings apart to replace the fork. I REALLY REALLY REALLY REALLY would like to avoid that.

Wordbiker

Good quality but poor handling bike + crappy swamp bike = ugly mediocre bike at best.

Honestly I think you'd be better off making something for the Alt Bike forum out of the Next, selling the Trek and picking up a used BMX that handles like you want.

Joshua A.C. New

Hey, Kaotical,

You will, in fact, need to take the bearings apart to replace a fork. But don't get too worked up. Just do it over a bucket or rug so they bearings don't roll away. If it's hard to balance, the fork might be screwed (or it might even be installed backward), so replacing it is probably a good idea.

The creaking is very likely the cranks (the arms that the pedals are attached to) and their attachment to the bottom bracket (where the cranks attach to the frame). Make sure they're tight as well as the screw-on rings (if any) on either side of the frame, and the creaking will probably go away.

But, swap all the pieces you can! You'll learn a lot in the process about how those bikes work. Hit up Sheldon Brown, then if you don't have an answer, rummage around Google or come here and ask questions.

mbakron

I agree. Try it. It's amazing how much you learn when trying to fix something up, even if you fail. And what do you have to lose? Even if you manage to somehow destroy everything, (unlikely,) all you'll lose is two crappy bikes that you don't like anyways.