hotbike

Fork steerer tube is stripped. I want to convert to threadless fork. It is 1-1/8”, but the top of the head tube, is also threaded, and the cone in in the head tube, the cup is on the fork. SMH.

The fork is one and an eighth inch, yes, so it should be easy to convert to threadless fork. The threads stripped. But the inside of the head tube is also threaded. And Giant put the cone in the head tube, with the cup on the fork. Backwards, compared to most bikes. I bought a new headset on Amazon, but the cup is for the head tube, and the cone goes on the fork. Tried to hammer out the cone out of the head tube , but it’s threaded in, and there’s nothing to grab it by to unscrew it.
2002 model Lafree e-bike .
any advice?

delbiker1 

What in the world of cycling is that creature?

jimc101

e-bike from 2002, would look at the viability of the battery/motor before doing anything with it.

Does the brand still exist? can you get spares? as a whole lot on that looks to be proprietary/unique/obsolete kit which getting spares for anything damaged/broken could be challenging.

For the headset, bit confused with the question, are you trying to re-use the threaded headset, and with what? which is what is sounds like from reading it.

You could get away with re-using the lower cup but the upper cup in threadless vs threaded is different (no threads) so this needs to be replaced,

For it being threaded into the frame, think your just not hitting it hard enough/using the correct tools for the job, which will make it a lot easier. That said, before doing anything, is the battery/motor viable, or is it some craze proprietary headset only used on this bike?

hotbike

No, the motor, battery, and charger are no longer _viable_.
24 volt lead/acid.
Early mid drive, motor perpendicular via a worm gear. Was impossible to pedal without power to the motor, absolutely dragging resistance.



Motor and gearbox removed .the gearbox reinstalled after removing the motor.



Reinstalled gearbox after removing the offending motor. Bottom Bracket is in the gearbox

hotbike

I’ll go back to hitting it with a hammer, and iron rod. I could have sworn I felt threads though, after I gave up on that.

veganbikes

I dealt with a similar situation with my cat, I didn't want to put her down and the quality of life was pretty bad a for a long time before we finally made the decision. Normally vintage bikes can be quite neat and worth putting something into it but lead acid batteries with odd motors not so much. Was an interesting piece of history from the early 2000s but not something really useful these days unless you need a rather dangerous boat anchor, at least a heavy e-bike these days might have dual batteries and an IGH and stuff like that.

Andrew R Stewart 

As the OP seems to be finding out the head tube is most likely NOT threaded. I haven't ever seen one (and that's with 48 years of LBS life). As to the cone/cup placement it varies and there's no reason why one or the other is THE way to do it. Many headsets have the upper HT surface a cone (Campy NR comes to mind).

Converting from a threaded to a threadless headset might prove a danger if you are clamping the stem to that threaded section. MOST DEFFENTLY not recommended! A skilled builder could add brass filler to the fork and re cut the threads or replace the steerer completely but the AL crown and how the steerer is fitted in it need some consideration. It might be cheaper and safer to find a replacement fork that is already threadless. Andy

hotbike

Nice set of Alex rims from the Ebike

Changed the bike around, but still had the Alex rims. Nice rims.
Funny . Yes the rims went on another bike. Alex rims are pretty decent.

shelbyfv

That's some weird stuff for sure.

hotbike

I guess you never heard of a cargo bike.
im trying to integrate a few systems. It also has a rain canopy. We’ve experimented with aerodynamics , and I can tell you, if the front box was left with a 90° flat face, there would be a heck of a lot of wind resistance. The experiment proved that if the front is slanted back to 54° (from the horizontal) , the wind resistance virtually disappears. That’s at 40MPH, and although a shallower angle might be better for higher speeds, the bike isn’t geared for it.

Rain Canopy

Crankycrank

^^^^ I might adopt that for a sun and fire soot canopy here in SoCal.