Steering Design Change

At some point, and I am guessing later in the production run, the steering design was simplified somewhat.  The earlier design used one-piece aluminum tubing and the later design used two telescoping aluminum tubes with a simpler connection to the under seat handlebar.  The two piece design necessitated a clamp near the middle to lock the separate tubes after the seat adjustment.

(My#037 uses original design.  #0136 Avatar uses the later design.  I built my third bike ‘Orphan’ using the later design as it requires a little less machining)

**Duh…  if this dummy had read the owner’s manual more carefully, I would have figured out that the cover page had the answer!  Under the History page, the manual’s pages 1-16 (pdf) illustrate on page 8 the “new” steering.  The cover page has a small entry at the lower right of the page: a o 0117.  (Probably can be interpreted as “after order 0117”  This would indicate these instructions were printed for all bikes after 0117.

Avatar original steering design
Original or earlier design

 

Later design coupling to handlebar
Avatar 2000 later steering design 1
Telescoping steering tubes with clamp

 

 

Here is a picture of the steering on #066 submitted by the owner.

They appear to have made a minor change to the original design.

 

 

 

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