dogman dan
1 PW
Well, thanks for the compliment. I have hesitated to go frankenbike for a long time because of my crap welding skills. The way this one went together so good blew my mind. Once I saw it could hold my body weight with no bolts or welds at all I got realllllly excited! Clearly I was heading the right direction.
I did add a piece of angle iron to the seatpost to beef it up, but it still needs to have a real welder go at improving it with a good wire feed tool. What REALLY amazed me was that it doesn't want to fold over in the middle. Again, by sheer luck I happened on the right frame, and cut it in the right place to have both stiffness up and down and stiffness side to side. So the welds won't be trying to bend back and forth even a little bit. What a lucky break I happened upon.
Hopefully it will carry 100 pound cargo, including about 50 pounds of battery. I'm really dreaming of riding all over Coloroado or northern NM now! With about 2k wh of battery and minimal camping gear, I could ride for a week pretty cheap. A week off in summer is a problem though.
Edit. Just back from a 20 mile ride, with a ping riding on the beam rack. Wow. I really start to get it, how people fall in love with a longtail bike. Still just can't belive how smooth and stable it rides. Handles 20 mph on wicked washboards fine, no hands riding is perfect at any speed up to 25 mph. Very comfy ride over the crappy roads with heat cracks. Ideal for the 100 mile rides I think.
Gonna be interesting to get the rack rebuilt better, and see how she does with 100 pounds of cargo.
I did add a piece of angle iron to the seatpost to beef it up, but it still needs to have a real welder go at improving it with a good wire feed tool. What REALLY amazed me was that it doesn't want to fold over in the middle. Again, by sheer luck I happened on the right frame, and cut it in the right place to have both stiffness up and down and stiffness side to side. So the welds won't be trying to bend back and forth even a little bit. What a lucky break I happened upon.
Hopefully it will carry 100 pound cargo, including about 50 pounds of battery. I'm really dreaming of riding all over Coloroado or northern NM now! With about 2k wh of battery and minimal camping gear, I could ride for a week pretty cheap. A week off in summer is a problem though.
Edit. Just back from a 20 mile ride, with a ping riding on the beam rack. Wow. I really start to get it, how people fall in love with a longtail bike. Still just can't belive how smooth and stable it rides. Handles 20 mph on wicked washboards fine, no hands riding is perfect at any speed up to 25 mph. Very comfy ride over the crappy roads with heat cracks. Ideal for the 100 mile rides I think.
Gonna be interesting to get the rack rebuilt better, and see how she does with 100 pounds of cargo.