Hot Rod Girl, DONE!

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Re: Hot Rod Girl

N8NBOX said:
def loving the direction your going in, can't wait to see it finnished :)

that's interesting because........


I was sitting there in the garage, just staring, you know.... letting the ideas come forward. I then realized that I had never looked at it with stock wheels... at least not under the tiny (26x1 3/8) fender. I threw the rear on, and then ran inside to borrow my girlfriend's bike for the front wheel, a 24x1 3/8, so that it matches the old skool rear.

interesting....

oldrubber3.jpg

oldrubber1.jpg


and then.... I had an even crazier idea:

Oldrubberdrop1.jpg

oldrubberdrop2.jpg


you know, looking at the pictures now, I like the upright bars better, but the pictures of the dropped style suck because it was getting dark out. when I look at it in person, there is really something to it. I also need to make or buy a layback post for either setup, to get the profile I want.

So as you can see, I now have a debate on my hands. using modern fat tires (I'll buy wide whites if I go that route), I would run the front rim I am doing the mockups with, and a super -wide rear (DX 32), both drilled out, really wild. but the problem I run into there, is that I need to come up with a separate braking system, and probably a derrailleur and shifter. It would start to look pretty cluttered once I get all that stuff on there.
The way I see it, the vintage rubber looks WAY more "rat" than modern stuff would. I am somwhat concerned with it though, because it's not as much of a mod. being in a competition, I do want to grab a lot of attention, but even having said that, I REALLY like the old skool rubber, and leaner look. my only regret with it, is that I did want to put a tall stick shift on it, and the coaster has no need for that. the stripped down look screams hot rod to me though. Perhaps I am best to go with that, and then since it is easier to pull off, I can really focus on some great little details.

Let me know what you think!
 
Re: Hot Rod Girl

I think you really can't go wrong. Flipped bars or not, this thing looks cool either way. Funny how that is, bikes looking good in real life, but not so on screen... I find it hard to photograph what I see at that time. A photograph can make or brake the bike. Yours are okay. A bit ratty though ; - ) but that is not too important. The thing is you have to capture the lines of the bike at it's best. I think yours are doing fine. (Wouldn't mind seeing that bike for real though)

As for the tirechoice... Do what YOU want with the bike. A whitewall-swap is an easy way to make a bike look good instantly, but the reason why is very obvious. To make a bike look good using 'plain jane' all black tires is a bit more tricky, but once you've nailed it, you can bet it looks REALLY cool.

A stick(shift) doesn't HAVE to opperate a shifter, does it? Maybe you'll come up with a different use for it. Operating a lightswitch for instance? Handbrake? (I've been thinking about that for my build...)
 
Re: Hot Rod Girl

Do the "flipped" bars for your FINAL photos.............Then flip em back to ride in real life. :wink:
 
Re: the bicycle formerly known as "Hot Rod Girl"

:? So.... I've given up on this whole theme business. Rules say you gotta name your project... so I named it. and then since I named it, a theme started happening, and I don't like the way my theme has progressed and is roping me into things. I have been just winging it as I go along anyways, and dropping the name for now... I dunno, it just makes me more comfortable to take off in any given direction that seems right. I'm gonna name it at the end I guess. LOL I might still name it "Hot Rod Girl"... if that's where it is that I end up. :roll:
 
Re: the bicycle formerly known as "Hot Rod Girl"

That thing has an awesome stance! really sets it apart. For sure a 'hot rod'!
 
Re: the bicycle formerly known as "Hot Rod Girl"

Made a bit of progress tonight...

First off, I had a bit of a dilemma with the front wheel. the one in the mockup pictures belongs to a different bike, so I can't use it. I have another rim of that size, but on a rear hub. those rims are 28 hole, and I have no 28 hole hubs :?

I do, however, have one of these:
NormandyHub.jpg


someone else was asking if we are allowed to use really fancy equipment on our builds.....

Chucked up in a Haas TL2 CNC lathe.
hubchuckedup.jpg


Short low quality cell phone vid of the CNC action. It's like this thing runs itself, man!

funny lookin.....
Hubhalfdone.jpg


Here's one of those hubs for those zero-spoke rims :wink:
Flangesgone.jpg


over to the milling machine, into the rotary head, ready for holes:
Readyfordrilling.jpg


360 divided by 14....then figure out what all those angles are, crank, drill, repeat....
holesside1.jpg


a bit of de-burring, all that's left is to polish the shell, and repack the bearings... and then build a wheel.
Hubdonemachining.jpg
 
Re: the bicycle formerly known as "Hot Rod Girl"

okay...
I really don't have time for this right now but I just HAD to comment:

HOW COOL IS THAT!!

To my opinion your allowed to use the machines for the work you're doing with it. It's out of necessity right? Why go searching for the right hub if you can make up your own out of an old one. If I had used such a machine to fabricate my alloy pieces for my billet bullet it would be an entirely different story. I think your save.

Hotrodding is 'being creative with what you've got'.
 
Re: the bicycle formerly known as "Hot Rod Girl"

I mentioned earlier that I needed to get my chainring "done"...

I didn't take any pictures of it at the shop.... I mean, it's just drilling, right? How it works on the milling machine for this, it is a feature of the digital readout that you can do a bolt hole circle. so you find center, punch in the number of holes, size of circle, angle to the first hole, and then you're off. crank the readout to 0,0... drill... hit "next", repeat. the holes on the CCM letters were laid out in a traditional manner, center punched, and drilled normally.

IMG_8604.jpg


I also drilled out the strap for the brake arm:

IMG_8605.jpg
 
Re: formerly"Hot Rod Girl" - update june 20 machining!

I say the more elaborate the machining, the better! Show's the younger kids why they should stay in school and learn some math.
 
Re: the bicycle formerly known as "Hot Rod Girl"

herr_rudolf said:
Hotrodding is 'being creative with what you've got'.



that reminds me.... I finally spent some money directly on this project... I mean, I have bought paint stripper, etc for it... but $0 parts. Well today I repaired(a big OOPS!) my front rim I'm using, and went in to Spoke N' Sport, the shop I used to work at, and picked up some spokes.I am ready to build a front wheel once I get the rim in paint. I measured everything, and then followed the DT spoke length chart through to find the proper length - 262mm. Although, I prefer to use the calculator on the DT website.

But... I'm jumping ahead of myself... I have stripped the rest of the paint off the frame, and I just had to throw my drilled chainring on the crank and have a peek:

Image054.jpg


I am also in the process of stripping down the seat frame, and liberally applying some more drillium to that, and then it will have a removable cover on snaps.
Image055.jpg


I have already begun the drillium process on the rims, using a step drill. Which brings me back to that "BIG OOPS" I was talking about. I was drilling big holes between each spoke hole in the rim. I had been using 1/8" pilot holes to get things started, and had a bunch of those put in, and was going along with the step drill, blasting out holes to my heart's content.... when I realized..... I had just drilled out a spoke hole! well, a nipple wont sit in a ~3/8 hole, will it? ARRRRG!

so that was last night's adventure, today I took it to work, made a plug, welded it in, and smoothed out the mess. that nipple will just sit a little back (the repair added a bit of thickness).
And by that I mean to say that this NEVER HAPPENED! wrecking an old part that you can't just buy is an awful feeling, but that is exactly why hacking into vintage parts is so exciting. I made sure to repair it ASAP before it turned my brain into mush.

No pictures of the rims yet.... you'll see them for the first time in PAINT, which will hopefully happen this weekend.
 
Re: formerly"Hot Rod Girl" - update june 20 machining!

yahoo, that Lady is sweet, the Lady's pac is a comin,yahoo

Outlaw
 
Re: the bicycle formerly known as "Hot Rod Girl"

onelesspedestrian said:
...wrecking an old part that you can't just buy is an awful feeling, but that is exactly why hacking into vintage parts is so exciting. I made sure to repair it ASAP before it turned my brain into mush.

No pictures of the rims yet.... you'll see them for the first time in PAINT, which will hopefully happen this weekend.

That is indeed terrible... Many a time I got the same sort of feeling when I got the measurements wrong. Most of the time I eyeball things in/on. But some parts have to be mirrored on the otherside. And isn't it always that you've noticed the mistake just when you pull the drill out of a fresh but misplaced hole in a homemade part...

I hate that feeling.

(although, I have the 'luck' that I can make another piece ofcourse... Finding another vintage part is something else...)

But...
Your bike looks stunning. Sits great, and I love the length on the fender.
 

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