Warren builds a chopper

[www.recumbents.com]

I rebuilt the front wheel with the Sturmey-Archer disk brake and fabricated a clamp to hold the brake torque arm in place.



I measured and it has 2.5" of trail which is as designed. I rolled it down the driveway and it seemed to handle ok at that speed.

-Warren.

[RallySTX]

I like that detail shot of the SA hub. That big yellow thingy at the back is intriguing. I stil think it would have made a nicer chopper! Merry Xmas, and good luck.
Brian L.

[www.recumbents.com]

The big yellow thingy would be a streamliner.

http://recumbents.com/wisil/barracuda/barracuda.htm

-Warren.

[www.recumbents.com]

I liberated some more parts off of the MTB e-bike. I wanted to get the front brake working today but I trashed the cable, so I settled on just taking a picture of me on the bike in the garage.



I was thinking the big handlebars would work out, but now I'm having second thoughts. They are really big. That top tube is too perfectly placed as the mount for remote steering.

Merry Christmas!

-Warren.

[RallySTX]

Doesn't look like it dropped much with your weight on it, that's good I think. I think your wrists will be sore and you will have trouble holding onto those bars without some more outward angle near the ends. It almost looks like the barts will hit the top tube when turned, but I'm bettin that's not true. Are your feet clear of the front tire when turned?
Brian L.

[www.recumbents.com]

Brake handles do hit the top tube when the steering is turned, but I won't be riding on any sidewalks with this bike so it's fine. I did have to file a bit off of the handlebar mounting bracket so it would not rub the top tube. Close tolerances! I cut about 6" off of the handlebars so they do not look so long now. Feet clear the tire fine.

I was hoping to use some nice new LiPos on this build but nobody is buying my old batteries so I will just use the old Ping until the ions all fall off. It's good for about 1900 watts, which isn't going to smoke the tires, but is just fine for going 30 MPH.

I have all the parts to put the human power part of the drivetrain together now. I need to braze on some bolts to mount chain idlers and cap some tubes before I put it back together. After that I will be able to mount the old Ping batteries and then it will be time to take it for a ride.

Happy New Year all!

-Warren.

[www.recumbents.com]

Speedy posted this over at the recumbents.com forum.

It's a slide show of cool bikes
mostly choppers types with a recumbent or two.

https://skydrive.live.com/?cid=F242625B ... &sc=photos

There are some great idea here, but most are totally "form over function", and some look completely unrideable.

-Warren.

[RallySTX]

WOW! Talk about some awe inspiring rides to ogle. Thanks Warren, that's actually an unexpected Christmas gift. Wish I could return the favor, but all I can say is Thanks!
Brian L.

[Hugues]

Thanks for the link Warren, very cool designs, i like the one with the animal skeleton, very original !

I might embark on a crazy project of building a e-chopper starting from this babe below.
This is the Sled ProStreet from Big Bear choppers in California.
Contacted the local dealer here and he's pretty enthusiastic about the idea, he customizes a lot of bikes himself.
The important part for me is the look must be as close as possible to the ICE version.
So we might buy the rolling chassis from Big Bear and fit a real "fake" engine head to keep the look.
I'll probably start a separate thread on this.

Sled_Pro_Street.jpg (65.04 KiB) Viewed 624 times

[StudEbiker]

[damcard]

Hey that's cool. Do you have some more info on that bike? I like it if it rides nice. -Damcard

[StudEbiker]

No sorry, no info on it, I just saw it on a Flickr group and thought it was cool for this thread since it's a recumbent chopper.

[damcard]

Ohh btw Warren, I have been following your build. Looking cool and cant wait to see how it rides. I have wanted to do a long bike like that. Props.

[www.recumbents.com]

That recumbent chopper was built/ridden by a guy in Australia. He has built several of them. I can probably find out who if you want to know.

-Warren.

[www.recumbents.com]

After much cutting, brazing, grinding, and brushing, the tubes in the rear sub-frame are now capped. Yes they still need some cleanup, I am far from a perfect brazer.



Before reassembling the bike, I need to add a small gusset tube between the upper and lower stays and add the mounting post for the chain guide pulleys.

I have been thinking about the bike stand. This will integrate with the rear suspension pivot and fold up to put relatively inconspicuous. A bolt on the back side of the pictured slot acts as a stop to keep the gear in up or down position.



-Warren.

[RallySTX]

I like the style of the rear dropouts.
Brian L.

[www.recumbents.com]

They are surly dropouts, nice and heavy duty.

I went to the welding supply store to get my acetylene tank refilled today. I told the guy there that the tank seemed to get empty very quickly this time, and he was nice enough to give me a refilled tank for free. He always seems interested in my projects, so I'll have to ride the bike down and show it to him when it's running. I'll also have to stop by and give let this guy give it a ride. http://www.3cbikes.com/index.html He make gasser / chopper bike conversions and I'm trying to get him interested in e-power.

-Warren.

[www.recumbents.com]

I added the mounting posts for the chain guide pulleys, finished brazing the BB mounts and capped another tube, then started to re-assemble the bike. I want to ride it before doing any more brazing!



It's getting heavy...

-Warren.

[RallySTX]

Looking good so far though. At least you don't have to worry about huge hills, or carrying it up and down a set of stairs every time you want a ride. I gotta admit I would love to see how it goes.
Brian L.

[www.recumbents.com]

We had one more nice day in the 50s F (that would be in the 10s for you metric types), then the temps dropped along with the snow. Now it's really cold in the garage to be building.

I added the chain, derailleur and back brake, then decided that I needed to remove the back wheel again, which is a pain. It would be so much easier if the bike would stand on its own. Time to build the bike stand. Here it's shown with the bike stand legs in the down position. I still need to cut the slots and tap the pivot tube to make it stay in one place.



I need to take off the wheel to add some braze-ons for the derailleur cable. Once that is in place the bike would be rideable, if I really wanted to take it outside in the snow and cold.

Also I'm trying to decide whether to stack the Ping split pack battery, or to have them one behind the other. I have some nice smoked Lexan to use for a battery box. I'll use the heat and bend method to form it.

-Warren.

[RallySTX]

That stand looks a lot more useful than the one on my bike. All that one does is hold up the wrong wheel! Putting the batteries, one behind the other, would apear to reduce wind resistance, and lower the center of gravity. Can't wait to see smoked lexan on the bike.
Brian L.

[www.recumbents.com]

Thanks for your interest Brian. It helps me to go out into the cold garage to work on the bike.

I worked on the bike stand again today and brazed on some brazons for the derailleur cable. I just need to add some snap clips to hold it in the "up" and "down" position.

-Warren.

[RallySTX]

I used to do construction this time of year, so believe me, I know the feeling. I'm only pretending to be interested so I can drive up my post count. In reality, I'm only interested in choppers, but since I'm out of work, all I can do is drool over custom jobs like yours. Looking forward to posting an update on my thread soon. Word is, somebody will be shipping a package my way shortly. I been lookin at buying a FS Schwinn for about $300. Thinking about adding a set of springers to the front, and a fatty to the back. Those red neoprene swingarm bushing of yours are captivating.
Brian L.

[www.recumbents.com]

Now that the chain is in place I can build the battery box. This picture show the battery placement and size, along with tentative mounting points. I have some smoked lexan sheets that were removed from equipment, which I will heat and bend to make a battery trough and the lid. The controller, BMS, power switch, charge port, and a DC to DC converter for the lighting will be mounted in the lid. cables will be run inside of the frame tubing as much as possible.



The chrome fenders from choppersus.com arrived today. I'll have to chop them up a bit as I don't need fenders that wrap around that much.

-Warren.

[www.recumbents.com]

I love Lexan. I could bend it in a brake like sheet metal if I had one. I first tried applying manual bending pressure while heating it with little effect. I'm sure the fact that it's January and my garage is unheated did not help. I ended up clamping it in a workmate table vise, applying bending pressure using large clamps, then heating the 24" long bend zone repeatedly with my heat gun. Once I had the technique down it went pretty fast. Yeah, it's bubbly in a couple spots but not too bad.

The battery trough is done, now I need to bend up the lid.

-Warren.