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Big wheel 2.0

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21 posts • Page 1 of 2 • 1, 2

Big wheel 2.0

Postby rick74304 on Sun Oct 11, 2009 7:19 am

Some of you here are old enough to remember when the big wheel came out. (the plastic trike with the handbrake that let you do cool spin-outs) Growing up on a gravel road made owning one pointless, so my only chance to ride 1 was when we drove into town to visit my cousins.
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Fast forward a few decades and I buy my son his 1st chopper.
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When they later came on sale I bought a 2nd one and stripped it right away.
Any adult who has sat on a schwinn chopper knows they're a little cramped, so my original plan was a simple stretch. Thanks to this and other sites, i've seen some wayyy cool trikes, so I knew I was going to build 1 eventually.
All the necessary parts have come together (more or less) but this build may well get cancelled if the axle I have does turn out to be bent beyond repair.
Step 1; The wheels.
The axle came with 26inch skinnys, which I knew would taco under lateral load. They also have a hexagonal hub to prevent them slipping on the axles ( never worked on a trike before, so I dont know if this is common)
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After some careful guesstimating, I figured that swapping the wide hubs from the chopper wheels with the narrow ones from the trike wheels would work using the choppers spokes.
But, what the heck do I know about the arcane alchemy of wheel building? I've never tried that kinda magic before :|
So 8 hours of experimentation later, I wound up with a pair of fat back trike wheels, and had to mock things up. The black frame is a craigslist find, the red is the new frame I bought and stripped.
Both frames will be merged together to form something rideable. ( at least, thats the plan so far)
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Some serious shimming or frame offset will be required to make the drive-line work though.
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I also have a spin system in the works, but no pics yet, as it exists soley in my head at this point :lol:
Rick
My builds; http://www.ratrodbikes.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=6&t=24681
My website; [url]rickscustomcycles.webs.com[/url]
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Re: Big wheel 2.0

Postby udallcustombikes on Sun Oct 11, 2009 9:28 am

Schweeet! I'm watching this one.
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Re: Big wheel 2.0

Postby deorman on Sun Oct 11, 2009 12:46 pm

I don't have a lot of experience w/trikes, but perhaps the "toe-in" mentioned elsewhere is actually camber, and the rig is mounted at the wrong angle. :?
it's all about the bikes, man. viewtopic.php?f=6&t=50053
I was going to update my sig line, but I'm not seein' anything worth plagiarizing right now.
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Re: Big wheel 2.0

Postby johnp.smith on Tue Oct 13, 2009 1:14 pm

A banana seat works great to fit these for adults, check out the Easy Rider thead in the build off. Very comfortable and doesnt hurt my knees. Do you have a chrome rear fender you wanna part with?
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Re: Big wheel 2.0

Postby rick74304 on Sun Oct 25, 2009 8:19 pm

O.K, I've been slacking long enough, time to get busy again. Deorman, it was bent after all, I wound up using my pipe bender on it, thanks for the advice though.
Johnp, if I decide not to mount the fenders i'll let you know.

Broke out the cutting wheels and welder, there wont be too many build days left with the garage door open this year. Remember the red frame? :P
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Marked out where to chop up the other frame with tape.
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Now that both are in pieces, time to combine.
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Aww crap, which way was that supposed to go again? :roll: :wink:
Oh yeah, this way;
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Yup, thats enough of a stretch for my stumpy lil legs, if you're much taller than me, (and that ain't hard) then you're gonna be scrunched.
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Not done with the welder yet, I think I want to put another tube in to mimic the seat tube and support the stretch. On a trike thats 7 feet long, i'm not going to worry about adding weight :lol:
Also have to build the spin out device, and mount that on there.
Ain't that just about the bugliest thing you've ever seen on 3 wheels? 8)
Rick
My builds; http://www.ratrodbikes.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=6&t=24681
My website; [url]rickscustomcycles.webs.com[/url]
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Re: Big wheel 2.0

Postby deorman on Sun Oct 25, 2009 8:56 pm

rick74304 wrote: Ain't that just about the bugliest thing you've ever seen on 3 wheels? 8)
Rick
Not even close. :lol: :lol:
it's all about the bikes, man. viewtopic.php?f=6&t=50053
I was going to update my sig line, but I'm not seein' anything worth plagiarizing right now.
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Re: Big wheel 2.0

Postby johnp.smith on Sun Oct 25, 2009 10:34 pm

This is looking crazy. I have a nice set of fork tubes with a front brake if youre interested. Just got my camera back tonight and will get pics of my extra parts tomorrow.
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Re: Big wheel 2.0

Postby Adapt on Mon Oct 26, 2009 12:21 am

I like it...
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Re: Big wheel 2.0

Postby rick74304 on Mon Nov 23, 2009 9:37 am

So, been chipping away at this thing a few hours here and there, made a ton of progress, and have had to sacrifice a few ideas.
I had planned to make it a dual drive as well, I wanted to have electric power at the ready, so I put a lot of time into making templates, mounts and such.
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I'd stripped down a used kids electric dirt bike for parts, but I can't seem to figure out how to dual drive it without having my pedals be turned by the electrics.
So, until I can take the time to collect the nessesary parts, the electrics are out.
I figured i'd better be able to stop this beast, so I fabbed up and welded on a new bracket to mount the caliper.
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Had to kiss the inside of the fork with a flap-wheel to eliminate rotor rub. Next was a crank swap, from the old single to a triple chainring, not sure if i'm going to bother with a derailler yet.
Cobbled together one freakishly long chain to tie front to back, swapped on the only brand new part in the whole build (a new tire) and it was time for a test ride! :D
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http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IF5Zy7zxDoUTest ride vid. (22 seconds)

The spin-out mechanism is driving me up the wall. While it lifted the back of the trike fine on the bench, on the ground, it's a diferent story. I can't seem to get 100% reliability out of it, but i'm going ahead with it anyway. Maybe once it's all put together it will gell.
I'll get some daylight pics at lunchtime.

Rick
My builds; http://www.ratrodbikes.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=6&t=24681
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Re: Big wheel 2.0

Postby rick74304 on Wed Nov 25, 2009 6:50 am

Spent most of my lunch hour working on the little details, running cables and such, making the deadline is going to be tight. Had to cut a new hole in the frame so the cable would be on the proper side for the derailleur. Taped paper to a factory hole and rubbed a piece of metal to copy it.
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Needed a quick way to hold the bogie wheels in place, yet still be easily removable. Took a piece of this futon frame and 1 of the bolts, turned it into a spring perch. A 2nd set of rear dropouts welded under the originals takes care of the pivoting action.
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Kept at it after work, filling in holes, grinding down welds, got a little carried away with the flap wheel :D :shock:
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Forgot to take that daylight shot before tear-down though, guess you're all going to have to wait until it's back together. Normally by now I know exactly what i'm doing as far as paint goes......this time, I havent got a clue what i'm going to do.
Lets hear what you'd do of it was yours.
Rick
Edit; fixed broken pic link
Last edited by rick74304 on Wed Nov 25, 2009 11:52 am, edited 1 time in total.
My builds; http://www.ratrodbikes.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=6&t=24681
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Re: Big wheel 2.0

Postby deorman on Wed Nov 25, 2009 9:36 am

Paint scheme-

Image :mrgreen:

Don't forget the streamers! :wink:
it's all about the bikes, man. viewtopic.php?f=6&t=50053
I was going to update my sig line, but I'm not seein' anything worth plagiarizing right now.
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Re: Big wheel 2.0

Postby rick74304 on Wed Nov 25, 2009 12:01 pm

deorman wrote:Paint scheme-

Image :mrgreen:

Don't forget the streamers! :wink:


:roll: :P I should have realized I was setting myself up for that, Deorman! Somehow, I dont think the blue n yellow works for me.
Actually, if you want to reminisce and kill 2 minutes and see a ton of different versions, go here;
http://www.originalbigwheel.com/ then click history, then click Big Wheel Flashback!
I never realized they made so many different versions.
Any other (ahem) constructive advice?
Rick
My builds; http://www.ratrodbikes.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=6&t=24681
My website; [url]rickscustomcycles.webs.com[/url]
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Re: Big wheel 2.0

Postby CCR on Wed Nov 25, 2009 12:47 pm

Ihad a gi joe big wheel as a kid (the one in the lower left) i think id still dig the army green and black color scheme now (we wont drag out the smurfs bigwheel with the smurf head on the bars)

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okay here it is
Last edited by CCR on Wed Nov 25, 2009 10:01 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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Re: Big wheel 2.0

Postby rick74304 on Wed Nov 25, 2009 9:59 pm

LOL, O.k., I see the kind of advice that i'm going to get this time around :P :roll: All I know is as I sit here typing, it's Nov. 25 and the deadline is hours away
(5 days or so worth of hours, but still....)
I already own too many red bikes, and my last bbo entry was flat black....maybe i'll just go see what colors I have kicking around.
Rick
My builds; http://www.ratrodbikes.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=6&t=24681
My website; [url]rickscustomcycles.webs.com[/url]
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Re: Big wheel 2.0

Postby rick74304 on Sat Nov 28, 2009 10:56 pm

So, it's now Sat. night, close to midnight eastern by the time this post is done. Started in the shop at 9am.
Been a long time since i've played with body filler.
The frame is just sitting in the bench-vise waiting to be hung.
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This is my hi-tech frame painting system, a pair of old braided steel cable bike locks (the type you use with a padlock)
Hung from a sprinkler pipe, height ajustment via vice grips;
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A look at the base coat color;
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Action shot of the mad rattle can man in action;
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Ya, ya, ya, I know I said I already have too many red bikes, but I wasn't going to waste time going paint shopping.
This is what u call working with the stuff I had on hand.
So, tremclad white for the rear.
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Camera batteries went kaput, so the pics of the rest of the paint dont exist,wasnt stopping 4 those either lol.
OK, off to bed, tomorrow morning means putting humpty together again.
Rick
My builds; http://www.ratrodbikes.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=6&t=24681
My website; [url]rickscustomcycles.webs.com[/url]
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