PeaceByJesus

Pictures worth more than my words: I need to replace the bearings, but this is in the way. Moving spring-loaded clips up and pressing them in enables that end of the crank to turn, but I cannot remove it.



Fixing bikes for free (by the grace of God) in this city then I have replaced many bearings, but never had to deal with these. Of what purpose do they even serve? Searching this site and Google has so far turned up nothing of help (for lack of a name of this engineering). Thanks for any help.

dedhed

My WAG is that is some sort of crank length adjustment. Or possibly some folding bike thing to swing the pedals in.

What I would probably do is remove the locknut and cone so I can get to the presumably caged bearings and cut the cage to remove the old bearings and use loose balls for new

PeaceByJesus

Thanks, but the bearing cage on that side was already split and I removed it, and I twice placed all the bearings in grease without the cage (not easy) and tightened it up, yet which at best worked for a few day until the bottom bracket got a little loose, and then we were back to being unusable.

This is not a folding bike, and the only function I can surmise for this is to enable one pedal to be switched to the other.

I have pressed and twisted and turned and yet nothing moved off.

The only image Google comes up with in searching for a image match is

RCMoeur 

Those are Huffy "EZ Build" bikes. They come with the pedals installed, but rotated 90° to fit in the box. They're designed so the buyer can pull the bike out of the box and rotate the pedal + lower crank assembly and have it click permanently in place with the spring-loaded pinned joint without the need for any tools. The downside is the only way to remove the crank fully from the frame involves a hacksaw and new crank, as the thread-on hardware will never clear the mechanism.

These bikes also typically have a stem that lowers into the steerer tube in a way where the bars are self-aligning - if the bike hasn't been tweaked in shipment, that is. Many of them also have a plastic bushing headset top race for "zero maintenance" - but also means that any play in the headset renders the entire frame unusable.

We built a bunch of these for a local nonprofit over the past few years. They're designed so someone with zero mechanical aptitude can have a bike ready for a kid to ride in minutes, but if any part doesn't work right you have a nonfunctional BSO that in many cases cannot be repaired and has to go back to the big box for exchange. But in that case the returned bikes do make good donor bikes for wheels and a couple of other parts.

JoeTBM 

Exactly correct, the most unrepairable bike we run across. Worst design ever.

dedhed

Loose bearing vs caged shouldn't make any difference in holding adjustment other than if it gets too loose uncaged bearings can fall out. Something isn't being tightened enough.

andrewclaus

I've just started running into these, donated to the non-profit. I fear it's the first surge in a tidal wave. What a shame.

soyabean

I also repair kids' dumpster finds to give away free.

I choose bikes by triage. That means avoiding bikes that can cost me too much time.

I'm already donating my time and free parts, it's only fair to the kids that I can use the same time to pump out 2 bikes in stead of just one.

While we all want to save every bike we can, we need to decide how your time will be used best to create the most output.

ScottCommutes

For any parent that has built stuff into the wee hours of Christmas morning, a bike that snaps together in seconds without tools is pretty appealing.

PeaceByJesus

Well RCMoeur, may you win the (non-existent) award for actually naming this engineering marvel and explaining its mysterious purpose (I kept asking myself "what purpose..."), though with the sad solution, "the downside is the only way to remove the crank fully from the frame involves a hacksaw and new crank, as the thread-on hardware will never clear the mechanism."

Or a cutting wheel (absent acetylene). I have even resorted to trying to twist this contraption off with a pipe wrench while simultaneously holding the sliding clips up and in. Has not worked yet. The kid really likes this bike, and the bottom bracket is a smaller size than the standard ones on the typical 20;; bike, but I will look around.

And as said placing the bearings in the inside cup with grease is only a temporary fix.

But thanks so much for solving this mystery as to what these are and their function.

Now that I know what these are called then I can do more research. Pray and press!

PeaceByJesus

May God bless you for helping.And yes, time is a factor, and in this low income" (America-wise) densely populated city I often I actually look for low cost bikes at Walmart (like a Hyper Bicycles 20" Boy's Spinner BMX Bike for $128 for some to purchase) which can be assembled in about 30 minutes, while many of the salvageable bikes can take much long. Has one yesterday., I thank God I can find good prices for me replacement parts.

PeaceByJesus

They were tight, but besides bearings being easily moved - despite the grease - as you put the cone back in, then on old bikes the cup on the bike can become deformed over time (which over tightening can do) , and thus even caged bearings can become loose prematurely, esp, if the user does not return as told to after some break in.

Iride01 

How long do you expect that bike to fit and be appropriate your child's use? Temporary might be all that's needed. Even if you have to change the ball bearings again.

I've taken much better bikes to the scrap yard to let them be recycled into something else. I very much believe that most old bikes don't need to be saved. They don't need to go to a landfill though. They need to go to the scrapyard.

Aubergine 

I could be wrong, but I believe that an Ashtabula crank requires caged bearings. I learned that only after I tried and failed to use loose bearings on an Ashtabula assembly.

Dan Burkhart 

I put loose bearings in an Ashtabula crank once, and it was a pain. Never again.
Yeah, it is possible but not worth the effort.

Aubergine 

Admit it, you used carpenter's glue to hold the bearings in place?

Dan Burkhart 

Not quite, but it was an extremely tacky grease.

dedhed

Not required but easier. Sticky grease, patience, and bike on it's side help

PeaceByJesus

Basically, any working bike with brakes is better here for the few months of summer than none, esp. when the alternative is staying home playing video games More kids than ever choose the latter. And better bikes tend to get stolen (I keep U-locks on hand which I exhort them to get) in a city with about 25k per sq. mile.

soyabean

The issue I have with gifting a kid a brand new bike, or something perhaps of a like-new Specialized Hotrock, is that their deadbeat broke parents often sell it for cash. This incident was discussed a few times among Angel Trees.

Premium retail-ready bikes I do resell thru my usual channels, the revenues from just one sale can fund a whole lot of parts required to fix many kids' dumpster finds.

That makes more bikes repaired with necessary parts.

wheelreason

Walk that bike to a gravel pit and....

PeaceByJesus

Sound, but I should have clarified that I do not gift new bikes, nor buy expensive bikes, but that I will order one and they reimburse me when they receive it. For labor in all work is always free, but I try to recover the cost for parts, which I prayerfully work to find the lowest price for from various sources. Which sometimes includes auto parts for some neighbors. (Most people here only have smartphones, which are not as good for comparison shopping as a desktop and 23'' screen, along with multiple browsers (Firefox portable) each for its own general purpose, and each with multiple tab rows). I thank God I can do so. However. I am getting off subject.

Anyway. I cut off the spring-loaded pinned joint which did not take long with a small cutting wheel,



I bolted together as an experiment until I replace it with the same size bottom bracket crank I found. Kid is happy to have his bike back, thank God. with the admonition to check for looseness. Most owners neglect this - which extends to all parts - and which results in most preventable repairs (apart from flat tires, which are the most frequent repairs here).
.

soyabean

This is an example at how my time would be better served if I were to raise money by selling something I don't need anymore, and then use the money to buy a used BSO for about $10-20 to gift.

You'd be surprised how many listings sell when you make about 50 ads of $10 items. These are things I would normally toss, but the money is always coming in and this helps for parts I need to fix gift bikes.