Warren builds a chopper

[www.recumbents.com]

I carefully measured and measured and measured again before drilling the hole in the chain stay for the pivot tube clamp. I put it all together in the jig and a small miracle occurred. It all slid together. I tack brazed the tube clamp into place. In this picture you can see the axle sticking out of the tube clamp. I will slit the chain stay on the bottom and braze a clamp in place which should hold the axle firmly.



I need to take it all out of the jig, put wheels back on it and eyeball it to make sure the wheels will be straight before going an further. The bike is going to be really low. Now I'll be able to see whether the suspension or the frame bottoms out first.

I ordered a Y shaped shock from ChainReactionCycles.com after seeing a recommendation from Dogman. It was a good price and free shipping from jolly old England, but all I have see from them for the last 5 days is the obligatory Paypal "yes we have your money" message. Let's hope it gets here soon.

-Warren.

[www.recumbents.com]

BTW, I now have a 6ft chunk of 6061 7/8" x .058 wall aluminum tubing. This will be bent into handlebars with a conduit bender. If there is interest ( or maybe even if there is not ) I will make a video to show how.

-Warren.

[dbaker]

Nice job, Warren What is your experience with Chain Reaction Cycles getting stuff to the USA? I was looking there the other day for a shock spring and shock bushings. Good inventory and some reasonable prices.

[AussieJester]

I carefully measured and measured and measured again before drilling the hole in the chain stay for the pivot tube clamp. I put it all together in the jig and a small miracle occurred. It all slid together. I tack brazed the tube clamp into place. In this picture you can see the axle sticking out of the tube clamp. I will slit the chain stay on the bottom and braze a clamp in place which should hold the axle firmly.



I need to take it all out of the jig, put wheels back on it and eyeball it to make sure the wheels will be straight before going an further. The bike is going to be really low. Now I'll be able to see whether the suspension or the frame bottoms out first.

I ordered a Y shaped shock from ChainReactionCycles.com after seeing a recommendation from Dogman. It was a good price and free shipping from jolly old England, but all I have see from them for the last 5 days is the obligatory Paypal "yes we have your money" message. Let's hope it gets here soon.

-Warren.

The pivot setup for suspension is something thats been dogging me, i haven't got any full susser
doner bikes left (although i have a VERY efficient Matt.P on the case and expect i will have one in the near future)
I am interested to see how your pivot ends up, the thing with the cheap pviots is alot of side play, your setup
looks like it will be ALOT more solid! Some SERIOUS chain stays you have to Warren hahaa i went for some piddle 19mm chromo for the chain and seat stays...

Lookin forward to next update, would definately like to see the bars being bent never seen a 'conduit bender' in use...

Finally, thankyou for the excellent documentation of this build, i'm sure it will inspire others to have a crack at building their own frames, your showing what can be done without spending a huge amount of money...

KiM

[RallySTX]

And enspire those with less lofty goals, to see them through.
Brian L.

[AussieJester]

I ordered a Y shaped shock from ChainReactionCycles.com after seeing a recommendation from Dogman. It was a good price and free shipping from jolly old England, but all I have see from them for the last 5 days is the obligatory Paypal "yes we have your money" message. Let's hope it gets here soon.

Forgot to mention, i have oredeed a bit from CRC in the past and they are yet to take more than 5 days to deliver the goods, incrediable service, spoken to Timma2500 whos also bought a SHITLoaD from CRC and same deal 5 days from payment to the door. If they can get stuff from Ireland? UK? to OZ in that fast a time why does it take a week to get something from the East coat of OZ to West Coast of OZ at times?!?! ...

KiM

[gtadmin]

I ordered a Y shaped shock from ChainReactionCycles.com after seeing a recommendation from Dogman. It was a good price and free shipping from jolly old England, but all I have see from them for the last 5 days is the obligatory Paypal "yes we have your money" message. Let's hope it gets here soon.

Forgot to mention, i have oredeed a bit from CRC in the past and they are yet to take more than 5 days to deliver the goods, incrediable service, spoken to Timma2500 whos also bought a SHITLoaD from CRC and same deal 5 days from payment to the door. If they can get stuff from Ireland? UK? to OZ in that fast a time why does it take a week to get something from the East coat of OZ to West Coast of OZ at times?!?! ...

KiM

Yeah, same here guys and I'm regional Warren, your chain stays are about the same size as mine so I reckon they're

[www.recumbents.com]

Nothing from CRC yet but I'll let you all know when it arrives.

I took the bike out of the jig and stuck some wheels on it to see how far off the rear swingarm was. Hrrm. I need to hack off one of the rear dropouts and take about 1/4" (5mm) out to make it straight. Oh well, that's why I just tack it together until the frame is all completed.

-Warren.

[RallySTX]

I like the way you work Warren, what would you charge on commision to build a steel FS Chopper for me?
Brian L.

[www.recumbents.com]

Sorry Brian, I wish I had time for that but *Real Life* always seems to get in the way.

Fixed the rear suspension so the wheel now points straight, but now I see it leans a bit to the left. Arg. More tweaking...

I sent CRC a note and they say the shock was shipped on 12/2 via air mail, so I should be receiving it soon.

-Warren.

[chisixer6]

Warren;

Are you going to Terry's Saturday night? Maybe we can get a show and tell on the bobber...lol...anyway it looks great, maybe next year, I'll build something like it...............Jerry

[www.recumbents.com]

I will be going to Terry's. If the bike was rolling I would take it. Maybe I'll bring the leaning trike as that is a bit of an oddity.

[SamTexas]

Very nice metal work. Subscribed.

[www.recumbents.com]

After the obligatory grinding tweaking, eyeballing and rebrazing, the suspension is all straight now, or as near as I can tell. Now I am out of acetylene, refill Monday.

The shock unit from CRC arrived Friday. One week from the UK to the Chicago 'burbs. I'm impressed.

Next it's time to make all the brackets to make the boingy part of the suspension. The socket shoulder screws and matching brass sleeve bearings look like they will work well. They come it plenty of sizes, so they would work well for the main suspension pivot too.

-Warren.

[www.recumbents.com]

Here's the cushy Planet Bike seat I bought from Gaerlen. Mounting it will be much easier than a recumbent seat. The tube I am holding will clamp to the tube behind it.



Here's the shock I purchased from ChainReactionCycles.com. After checking out how the shock will deflect I decided that a complex design as in the two drawings above is not needed.



I'll be bending some 1/2" tubing to match the bend in the rear downtube...

-Warren.

[www.recumbents.com]

I finished the seat clamp and brazed in the support tube between the rear chain stays. Now I need to make the bracket the holds the front of the shock so I can locate the point where the rear of the shock mounts to rear subframe.

I also mounted the Fat Frank tire to the front wheel to ensure I have proper clearances. That is a big tire! Eventually I will mount it to a wider rim, but the 1.3" wide rim I have seems like it will work.

-Warren.

[RallySTX]

The tire may be a bit rounded on top, until it's installed on a wider rim, my 2805 is like that. Nice looking rear shock and seat.
Brian L.

[AussieJester]

Nice shock indeed, Warren, is the part attached to the end of the shock from a donor bike or is this
part you purchased? if the latter, does it come with mounting fixtures i.e the bolts/bearings for the pivots?
I all but binned the idea of rear suspension due to not being able to purchase or make pivots to the standard
i would be comfortable with using myself, this part you have might swing me back to suspension!

KiM

[www.recumbents.com]

This is the shock unit that came from CRC, and it includes the Y shaped yoke. It's OEM for some MTB. It did not come with bushings on the Y end, so I'm using a couple concentric tubes and a brass bushing (pictures when I get to that step). No Huhu.

The suspended rear end is a PITA, no doubt about it, but I'd rather spend a couple extra weeks of making and connecting metal bits than get thrown off the bike after hitting an unexpected bump at high speeds.

I also came up with what I think is a cool solution for the bike stand. the dual "kickstand" down-tubes will be mounted to the pivot axle. When in the "up" position they fold around and are next to the bottom chain stays. That's probably confusing.

I'm still looking at wide rims, but have not pulled the trigger on any yet. The widest I have found in my price range is 1.75" and I was hoping for 2" minimum. Most sites are very skimpy with the rim width details.



-Warren.

[RallySTX]

And very generous about what they expect you to pay for them, no doubt.
Brian L.

[www.recumbents.com]

$45 shipping included.
http://www.chainreactioncycles.com/Mode ... elID=31756

[www.recumbents.com]

I finished seat mount bracket and made the front shock mount. By using the split tube clamp design it is fully adjustable. Also a nice shot of my nicely organized workbench. Hey, I'm using that stuff!



I have just enough 1.5" tubing left to build massive stays. These really would not need to be this big but I think it looks better than a smaller diameter tube. I'll use .5" tube to triangulate from the rear shock mount down to the lower stay.



Here's what I'm using for the shock bearing. The socket shoulder screw fits into the brass bearing which fits into a couple concentric tubes. I had to hand machine (file) a bit off the outside of the outer tube to allow it to fit in the shock properly.



Here's the bearing in the shock.



-Warren.

[www.recumbents.com]

I now have a rolling chassis. Because I used such beefy chain stays I will not need a huge amount of triangulation in the rear subframe. The BMC hub motor fits nicely in the rear.



I need to do a bunch of tweaking, finish brazing the tacked joints, and cap the tube ends before working on the bottom bracket and handlebars.

-Warren.

[AussieJester]

Now you have it in rollimg mode, I have
To say I think it needs more head angle
Warren, its to steep IMHO, I understand
It will slacken a liitle when you decompress
The rear, I would like to see at least 5 degree
More rake... JM2CW

KiM

P.s I have my roller bender Warren! Last box delivered Sundee, VERY
Happy with the quality! Extremely sturdy construction
Cant believe it cost only 150 bucks!

[www.recumbents.com]

Hi KiM,

The back end will actually be a couple inches lower, so it will have a bit more trail. Hopefully it's enough. I thought the shock would have more bounce to I jacked it up. Now that I know it's pretty stiff I can lower it.

Congrats on your new toy! You'll have to show at lease a couple pictures on your build thread.

-Warren.