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Sex Change...........back and forth

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24 posts • Page 1 of 2 • 1, 2

Sex Change...........back and forth

Postby Graylock on Sat Apr 11, 2009 9:00 pm

Here's an easy Sex Change project you can easily do. If everything goes well you can roll one by saturday afternoon. Mine had issues.

My 85 year old Dad fished the bike out of the dump for me. I have trained him to take the bikes that I use for parts and leave the rest. Sometimes the temptation is to great for him and be grabs things like this. This was one of his cool grabs.

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This bike had lost it's identity a long time ago and I still don't know what it is. It was brush painted with what looks like boat paint and pin striped with pin stripe tape. On close inspection it was a mens cantilever frame that had been recut into a ladies frame and done rather poorly.

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Here is a picture showing it's castration scars.

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I bent some conduit and holding in place with another tube, I set up this mock up.

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I then cut the ladies bar off and prepared the frame for the new bars. After welding the top tube in place, I made up the bottom bar by trial and error, fitting the birds mouth with a hand grinder and eyeballing the rough fit, then rat tail filing the final fit.

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The issues that I had was with the forks. Used and abused they were at least a eighth inch loose which had caused major stripping of the threads. I tried to clean them up by coaming them with a tap but after a while of this not working I noticed that the end was somewhat oval and the cone was never going to come off. So I cut it off! I have in the past shorten fork tubes for recumbent bikes and lengthen them for tall bikes. All you need is a stub of thick walled pipe. Whatever size that will fit inside the fork tube. You will need to grind it to fit inside. Also you will need to scavenge another fork for it's threaded end. These will be cut to length and ends beveled for welding.

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Things to remember are, the cone could be ruined by the welding so protect it or hope you can slide it over the weld afterwards. I ground my weld a little to slide it over. Also remember to line up the vertical keyway on the threads like the original. Most important is that goose neck has plenty of purchase inside the fork tube without interference with the stub inside the fork tube.

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Everything went together nicely.

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I pumped up the tires and threw on a seat and bars, both that I hated and took it out in the rain for a ride. I like the seat but I still hate the bars. To wide for my taste.

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Next comes tires and paint and what ever catches my fancy.


More to come.


GL
Last edited by Graylock on Sun Apr 12, 2009 6:02 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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Re: Sex Change...........back and forth

Postby aka_locojoe on Sat Apr 11, 2009 9:08 pm

Nice job. I'm curious about the original bike though. Unusual frame style I've never seen before.
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Re: Sex Change...........back and forth

Postby Graylock on Sat Apr 11, 2009 9:15 pm

Yeah me too. The one thing that I noticed is that the piece that connects the BB to the chain stays looks like it's a flat tube but its just a punched out piece of steel. The kickstand has a wedge shape surface that fits underneath. Weird!

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Re: Sex Change...........back and forth

Postby Galtbacken on Sun Apr 12, 2009 3:53 am

The frame came out looking good, and a nice job fixing the fork tube! That's a trick that might come in handy more than once... :D
About the bars, why not just cut them off a little...or a lot. :lol: If they look good after cutting all is good, and if they still don't appeal to your taste then nothing's lost. :)
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Re: Sex Change...........back and forth

Postby Unchained on Sun Apr 12, 2009 4:29 am

I think that if you put those original bars back on and flipped them upside down, it would look really nice that way. That might solve the width issues, too.... Great work! Your welds look nice and clean. I sent you another pm.
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Re: Sex Change...........back and forth

Postby KOTA on Sun Apr 12, 2009 10:19 am

NICE work!.........If you "flip" the second set of bars, you'll look like the Flying Nun riding around! ( oh, sorry I just gave away our age!)
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Re: Sex Change...........back and forth

Postby hi-roller on Sun Apr 12, 2009 11:04 am

Thats it, now i have to make my cantaliever into a straight bar frame.
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Re: Sex Change...........back and forth

Postby ratina on Sun Apr 12, 2009 11:29 am

Nice job fixing the frame, looks great! What are you going to do with the original bars?
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Re: Sex Change...........back and forth

Postby dos cruiser on Sun Apr 12, 2009 1:49 pm

This bike looks like it already had one sex change. By the second picture, it looks like there was a top bar by the circle on the seat tube. Your bike looks great now.
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Re: Sex Change...........back and forth

Postby Graylock on Sun Apr 12, 2009 5:58 pm

Thanks for all the response. It helped me figure out a few things. I found out why I didn't like the bars. They weren't to wide, they were to low. Someone asked about the other bars maybe put them back on............ so I cut them. In a good way, just the last 4 or so inches and attached them to the ends of some high riser bars off a 20" girls bike (pink).

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The long part of the cut up bar will be used on another project.The new bars are much higher. I like these a lot. :D The one I didn't like were 29" across and the ones I added to are 31".

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Answers to other questions: Don't do it to that cantilever, I do not look like the Flying Nun ( nut maybe ), and those welds that you saw were from the good side. Ive got other things planned, I hope some will be fresh Ideas.

Later,
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Re: Sex Change...........back and forth

Postby sensor on Mon Apr 13, 2009 12:04 am

looks great :mrgreen:
you mean to tell me that youre supposed to sleeve structural parts and v them before welding!?!?
just kidding :P
glad to see it being done properly(or at least so you dont end up face down)
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Re: Sex Change...........back and forth

Postby tnt1 on Tue Apr 14, 2009 8:29 am

Its looks like a 1950s sears bike.
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Re: Sex Change...........back and forth

Postby A.S.BOLTNUT on Tue Apr 14, 2009 10:16 am

great work looks great and what about those original bars totaly trippin-dic-ular.. :lol:
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Re: Sex Change...........back and forth

Postby Graylock on Tue Apr 14, 2009 3:53 pm

Bars #1: 10-speed drop bars. Not original, something that the last owner considered rat.
Bars #2: Something I picked up for $5 at a going out of business sale that I had to make an adapter to mount. Everybody that sees them likes them.
Bars #3: Something I put together that rides nice for this old man. Makes me feel like a kid again.

Going to put Bars #2 back on again, the pressure is far to great :| I'll just put Bars #3 on another bike build. Of course I'll paint them RED first.

GL
Last edited by Graylock on Mon May 18, 2009 8:14 pm, edited 3 times in total.
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Re: Sex Change...........back and forth

Postby Graylock on Tue Apr 14, 2009 3:57 pm

tnt1 wrote:Its looks like a 1950s sears bike.


That may be. Thanks for the tip.

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