The Jua Kali

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Graylock

Graylock

Joined
Mar 15, 2009
Messages
1,469
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Location
Brewster, Massachusetts
Quoted from another website in Kenya:
"Jua kali literally means hot sun in Kiswahili, and refers to the informal small traders who work outdoors in the sun fabricating mostly work metal and wood items, fixing cars and other household items. Unable to afford new tools they fabricate their own out of locally available materials." I found this site from C.S. (thanks).

These people make cool cargo bikes with limited source of materials. Kinda like Rat Builders. I had this idea for a while so I think this is as good a time as any to play it out.

I have no pictures. By the time I choose one of my two frames someone will have their's nearly done. Lot of guys are hot to trot, me?.......I'm going to start out slow and ease off a bit before I slowly pick up a pace that will end up with a mad rush for the due date. It's never failed me yet, I'm not changing.

The bike will have some paint and some "Mitumba", yeah some mitumba and will become a very usefull and outstanding cargo bike. Rat Rod? Good question.

Graylock
 
Oh boy!...FINNALY a build off bike with a GIGANTIC pile of clothes on it! Will it fit through the "tunnel"?
 
I have at least a dozen lady bikes that I was choosing from. So after sifting through I chose the Hercules Ladies bike. Some of the others I just couldn't do this to them but this one was like a doggy in the window. It will do this girl good. Most of it because I'm taking the 3-speed Sachs off along with the seat for other projects and putting on a 6-speed derailer. Cargo is what the theme is for this work bike.

Later..............GL
HerculesLady-02.jpg
 
All right!! The heat is on!!!
Now that you are in, I´m considering to involve my self in this build off! :wink:
 
Nearly the end of the first month and I just started some stuff on the Jua Kali last weekend. For what I did for the build so far I could have bought into it long ago. In the theme of Jua Kali we don't buy we build. So far we have spent zero. There are things needed to buy like really long cables. I could strip them off my tandems but my wife would have a conniption, not good. Here's some pictures from my wifes camera I dropped :roll: and now it doesn't have a view finder, I just wave it around and take a lot of pictures that I sort out after.

JK_03.jpg

This thing is the coolest. I made it up from a mountain bike rear end with a bunch of retangular tube steel from a bed and some thick steel pipe and seat stay tubes. All bolt holes have been reinforced with the small tubing so the bolts won't crush the tubes. What I like about it is that it would fit on most bikes without hurting the bike by attatching it to the dropouts and the kickstand mount. Everything that's needed will be part of this extention. It turned out to be stiffer then I thought it would be.

JK_04.jpg

JK_05.jpg

By Sunday I had this so far. I used wheels from a Royce Union bike that had an aluminium frame which I stripped down. I took it up the street to the top of the hill and rolled down and up the drive. Needs brakes :shock: . I found out that the front wheel rubs the forks. Last night I took the Hurcules fork off and found that the races fit from Royce Union. Tonight changed out the forks so now the wheel doesn't rub and I get good front brakes. Next I have to run the brake cables so that if I have the urge to roll on down the road I can at least stop. After that I have to do some chain management. I might have to do something like what I did on The Shadow. I thought of a few ideas on that and after it's sorted out the rest of the build will be easy. This would be the first time I would have a riding bike that I can use while I work on it. My cargo area will go last and I think I'll have plenty of time to sort things out on it.

Graylock
 
cman said:
Looks nice and solid. Good idea on the stepthrough frame. I forgot my kids were on my Xtracycle and kicked them when I swung my leg over the saddle. In case you or any of the other longtail build want the Xtracycle measurements, here they are. http://xtracycle.com/longtailtech/index ... _Standards
Click to expand...
Thanks for the link. As always you think you've seen it all and some Rat Brotheren comes up with some helpfull info. Wish I saw this before I started, I've been winging it so far and it takes a lot of your time to think it through. Too many times in the past I was too quick with the grinder and in a few moments weld what turns out to be an hour worth of damage :shock: We learn this way. When I use to build boats I would use what is known as a moaning chair, used properly you can sit down and look at what you messed up and .......moan.............In the end from this position you can figure out how you can bring it all back home.
Hooch and xddorox thanks.

Graylock
 
It's been a couple of weeks since I posted but I have been doing some things to the build so I could ride it instead of rolling down the hill out of control. I managed to get both brakes working. I did have to buy a rear tandem brake cable for $2.99 which pushes my total spending to $2.99. Had to do it because my wife wouldn't let me touch her tandem. The cable cases I took from a box of used ones I had and welded on cable stops I cut off other bikes frames. This saved me from buying a long casing by using shorter runs. The pictures show them a bit long at the bars but thats how I do them while building. When the bike is in it's final stage of build I will recut them to their proper length.
But before I set the brake's up and temp rigged the shifter I made up an idler wheel to divert the upper chain run. Last year in the build off I made the Grunge Runge as a fixie board racer. It came out nice but I found out we don't do fixies. In fact I didn't like it as a board racer. These things made it difficult to ride for long rides so I ditched the bars, seat, and fixed wheel to make it a better cruising bike, which I was happy with the results. So with this fixie hub I had laying about and never to be used by me, I hacked it off the rim with my cut off grinder.
JK_06.jpg


I cut some dropouts off a road bike and welded it onto rectangular tubing I've been using and set the thing up as my idler wheel. As an amateur welder I had a great day of this, never burned a hole or stuck a rod. Best welds I've done in a long time. You amateur welders know what I'm talking about.
JK_07.jpg


I took this beast out for a ride in my neigborhood and had a blast with it. A nice smooth ride, gave me a limo feel and the large turns :shock: . Got to love it.
JK_08.jpg

JK_09.jpg


Now that I have this to ride I can start on the rear cargo area. But first
I better put a kick stand on it so I won't have to lean this.

GL
 
Bikes gotta nice profile to it, looks natural..........We don't need NO stinkin kickstands!........Kickstands are for kids.
 
LOVE IT! Screaming for a different seating system :wink:
I´m thinking seat and cargo area all integrated into one...
an image popped into my little mind,
I´ll see if I can get it out and draw it... :roll:
 
Graylock said:
KOTA said:
Bikes gotta nice profile to it, looks natural..........We don't need NO stinkin kickstands!........Kickstands are for kids.
Click to expand...
KOTAs.jpg


Ain't this your ride?

GL
Click to expand...
That's mine...........I ain't no kid. :roll:
 
Haven't had the time to work on the build but I took it out on a 20 mile test ride. It caught the eye of a couple of kids on the Rail Trail. They thought it was way cool. They thought it was a transformer, silly kids. The adults thought I was insane and stayed clear. No matter. The plan of the ride was to pedal down to my Dads house and put his mower deck on his lawn tractor. The bike had a smooth ride like a tandem with one rider. On the way back home I spotted a work buddy and went to the corner Clam Hut for a beer. So three beers later it started to rain hard so we put the bike in his pickup and (he) drove to his house. His son had welded up a land sailer at school. That kid is cool, he showed me videos of it sailing. It stopped raining and I continued home. I had this dirt streak on my back, looks like I'll need to work on water management. I took no pictures but ................

Last year when I built The Shadow, I had used pipe that I thought was from a hammock. The Dump Gods were very good to me this weekend and gave me 7 more. They told me they were from some portable car park, seems right. Can't wait to make bikes out of this load.


CurveTubes.jpg


TheShadow-42.jpg


GL
 
Did you ever think about making a "helicopter" bike? :idea: .....I'll take the video.
 

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