Can a guy create a Fat Tire Burrito in a muscle bike build off and still obey the rules? We'll see. I've false started this frame a couple times but I'm hoping the third time is a charm. Basic frame? A Columbia Twosome tandem. I've got some big ideas as usual but I'm pretty sure I can pull this off in the extended 4 month time allotment. Straight out of the virtual buildoff thread...
Right now it's a bare red frame and og wheels. The biggest challenge will be squeezing the 4x26 rear wheel into the frame. I've got a couple ideas. One involves stretching the rear triangle from an OCC stinkray I just picked up. I'm going to have to make a jackshaft to get around that fat tire and that will be a new venture for me too. I'll also be reusing the rear steer scheme I used on Harlequin minus the steering wheel. Gotta have apes ya know cuz I don't think it'll have a banana...
I'm looking for a long stem to lift the bars a bit and I may not cut the front seat tube down (like I did in the drawing) I also need a rough 30" from my BB center to the top of the seat to fit me. So placement of the new BB will make a difference, as will the seat height. I also can flip the seat post around too. It'll be in constant transition until it's not.
There's a thread up lately about two rims on a single hub. I have a 72 hole front hub I'm not using on anything. With a 26x4 on the back I can run just about any tire(s) I want on here and it'll still have Class 2 rule 1 covered. Since we also have a ton of time I just may have to try building a front dually (as if this bike won't be strange enough)
Chop day. So I cut up an OCC stinkray to get the rear triangle that I'll be cutting again to stretch around the 26x4 wheel. Then I looked in the rafters at the Columbia Twosome and figured I've got the cutting wheel on my grinder in my hand so... With a piece of string and an educated guess, here's where I am right now.
The rear clip still needs cut and stretched... the OCC forks went to The Wild One
if you look next to the yellow bucket, you can see where the upper tube got cut, and where it is now, about 5 inches lower (the frame is upside down in these pictures) I had to remove about 4 inches of it...
above, before I notched it
above, this series of cut is what changed the geometry and lowers it down
So when you have pieces cut up and then tacked it's time to line em' all up for a little mockup.
So there's no @KOTA bend yet on the fork, It'll need a little to get the bottom tube to sit level at about 4 inches off the ground. I'm going to do a chain driven remote steer again, this time using the home made Butterfly bars I created a few years ago for Cyclodelic (which has since been dismantled) The OCC clip will get stretched, the seat stays - I want to get parallel with the bottom tube, so the chain stays will need to be stretched further than the seat stays for it all to flow. I'm hoping I can fab up a jackshaft that will use the rear BB, the 26x4 wheel gets a 6 speed dérailleur too and I need to mount a disc brake hanger.
Looks like it may end up about a foot longer than Harlequin. The seat tube will be cut down and I'll be sitting just in front of the tire. Once I get the seat position figured out, I'll cut in another BB kinda recumbent style, definitely not a scraper. I want it to be nimble (like Harlequin) anyway here's where the monster is at today.
Well the second one was made from the outline of the frame AFTER I cut it... and I did eliminate one of the original cuts I was going to do. I liked the seat tube leaning back better and to get that rear clip right it's gonna need some major stretching, so I drew it that way. Now to get it made in reality.
So I went back out to my garage and started to weld... NOPE, I run out of wire and it's too late nothing is open except Walmart... Rats! I feel like I was on a roll too.
Got my fluxcore and I'm tacking away. Frame has a twist in it and the rear BB isn't setting level enough even by my eyeball jig. So that's a thing I'll have to tweak. If you look close the dropouts are above the axle I need to drill out the drops and fab some small plates. This style of axle doesn't have nuts so there will be no adjustment there which is no big deal as it is a derailleur. But still it's beginning to look like my cartoon.
Well after tweaking the frame, I was just looking at it you know? Eyeballing the chain line and there it was, change number 47. If I raise the connection point between the chain stays and the old rear BB the chain should clear the stays. I also was looking at pieces of the OCC I cut up and if I use the BB from it I don't need a jackshaft just an idler or two. The lower one at that rear BB should be a lot easier than fabbing a whole jackshaft and help line up the derailleur.