A Lengthy Insanity

[Ulu]

OK forget what I said about cutting of those forks to make legs for my welding table. I picked up some heavy steel tubing today that will be primo for this purpose.

I also picked up something that could be totally useless or part of an art project. This is the pull handle for a big set of steel RV steps. The rest of it will make some fine gussets or get scrapped out with my junk.

 

[Ulu]

This could represent some serious rat biking.

These are the perfect thickness for rockers or drop outs & big enough to make both.

 

[Ulu]

Except for the three pressed tread plates, which could make nice banana seat pans, what I recovered was all 5mm pressed plates. (~0.2”)except the 2 big ones and 4 little angles are 2.5mm (0.1”)

Some of this will make its way onto bicycles, and some of it will make its way onto my welding jig, and some of it will make its way onto my grinder pedestal.

Yes, another project.

Currently my grinder is on a workbench, and it is impossible, because everything will shake off onto the ground when you turn it on.

To use the grinder I have to take everything off the top.

Yikes! My bearings!

 

[Ulu]

BTW, those black 3/8” ID flat washers are actually various thinesses of Delrin plastic washers. They’re in beautiful shape if a little dirty, and they will make nice anti-friction washers.

I am really thinking about Sprung Suspension here & I’m not sure which bike it is going to go to. Maybe both this one and the sting-gray? I don’t want to add too much weight to the Mongoose.

I’d like to hide the springs inside the fork tubes, and then have a rocker that anchors to the front drop out, picks up the spring plunger, and then the axle shaft.

I also have some rebound springs. They might keep the front end on the ground.

 

[Ulu]

I have been assembling the parts for a fancy stick shift, but I can’t find some of the aluminum extrusions I’ve been saving. I want it to have a swoopy housing.

I have decided that it’s time for a break before I rake.

In reality, it’s time to set this mongoose up on the jig and start chopping.

But…
I’m at the point where I have a very rideable bicycle (2 actually) and I still need to create a rideable motorcycle.

The good news is it’s 99.9% there. It just needs the clutch corrected.

I might have to take it apart two or three times to get it correct though. My first attempt was a flop.

But even more basic, I’m working around a huge junk pile in my work area (aka “the boatyard”) that needs to be organized and off the floor. At this point it amounts to a couple thousand pounds of stuff so I can’t afford to let it get any larger.

One unfortunate side effects in having started this cleanup already is that I realize I have enough stuff here to build a pretty cool motorized hybrid/electric/gas trike. 2-stroke. 24vdc. I don’t know how to build the regenerative controller though. Instead, it could be very primitive, with a reversible belt clutch lever. Think skiploader. Pick a gear, then one lever is forward or reverse.

But here I am just daydreaming and I need to go to the clutch job and pick up steel. I drug home another couple hundred pounds of heavy wall steel tubing yesterday. Now I’m trying to decide if my frame jig wants to be heavy enough to build a Harley Davidson.

 

[Ulu]

Well it never rains, but it often pours.

instead of looking at my motorcycle I am out here cleaning up some filthy bicycle parts.

My daughter is moving and today she picked up a pile of car parts someone had left in her parking spot, and brought them to me.

Now I have a lot more scrap steel, and I’m starting to get closer to the idea that I should recycle some of it. Very soon. Before I trip and kill myself.

 

[Ulu]

“ No sweetie. This tube is not for building bicycles.”

That’s quarter wall ASTM A500 (grade B)
5.5mm thick.

 

[Ulu]

Reading back I realize my original prediction was that A Lengthy Insanity would be 7 feet long.

I measured it today and so far it is only 6’-4” long. It just doesn’t feel insane enough yet. I am definitely going to lower the back of the bike.

In doing that it’s going to increase the rake, But I will have to pick up that extra 8 inches in the tail. Or part of it. I don’t know if I’ll get it all.

Meanwhile I am enjoying the heck out of riding this bike and I dread the day when I am going to strip it and cut the frame.

 

[GeePig]

That is always the problem, but then you are a bike designer - and a bike designer always has to give up something in order to move forward

 

[Ulu]

I’m just an amateur bicycle mechanic.

But I’m starting to get the rat rod thing a little more.

I bought some shiny new chrome bars today and I was going to put them on my black bike, but then I realized that it would be the only piece of shiny chrome on the whole bike.

I knew that it was going to look out of place. Believe me when I say I know the feeling of being out of place.

 

[Ulu]

Phooo . . .
I bought a couple more sets of handlebars the other day and I bought a set for the project 1” wider and 1.5” taller.

They were awful. I will soon take them off and go back to the bars I had.

But in the conversion I lengthened my cables enough to route them back thru the frame properly. I also installed a better (used) shifter, and it seems like a much better fit for the derailleur that I have. I’m going to leave the cables too-long so that I can stretch the rear drop outs.

I thought it looked so bad that I didn’t even roll it outside to take a good picture. I don’t need anybody to see it like this.

 

[Ulu]

I switched those handlebars back around, and I am much happier with the way everything looks and works.

I got sidetracked today doing a minor resto for a friend, on his daughter’s Electra stretch cruiser. What a POS that thing is. It’s a shame they bought it from the most expensive bike shop in town, because it strictly a Walmart bike to my mind. All the Chinese bikes I own have better welding than this Electra.
When I agreed to do it he hadn’t told me it had been sitting unused for eight years.

Fortunately it was covered & everything mostly came apart easy.

He has no idea that I should be charging him $600 plus parts. Probably twice what you could get this bike for new. I’ll take a picture of this clunker when I get the chain guard back on it and take it off the stand.

 

[Ulu]

I really don’t like the structural design or the styling of this frame. I might like it better with the dropouts re-slotted and some chrome chain tugs.

But nothing would make me like it well enough to own it. I’m not sure how I got talked into fixing it.

Enough distractions!

 

[GeePig]

View attachment 196303
I really don’t like the structural design or the styling of this frame. I might like it better with the dropouts re-slotted and some chrome chain tugs.

But nothing would make me like it well enough to own it. I’m not sure how I got talked into fixing it.

Enough distractions!

It is good not to like it, you just have to like your friend without envying his possessions...

 

[Ulu]

It is good not to like it, you just have to like your friend without envying his possessions...

Well I’m not a bicycle designer, but I did work as a structural engineer for decades, and so my habit to criticize the structure of everything will never die.

My friend, however, will probably get some stern words about his bicycle maintenance schedule.

 

[Ulu]

I didn’t want to be a total jerk so I didn’t criticize my friend too heavily about his filthy rusty bicycle habits.

But he deserves some kind of punishment for this abomination of laziness.

So I told him that I stole something off his bicycle, and he’ll never figure out what it is. He didn’t either.

The thing is that it’s a very bare coaster bike with nothing . . . nothing to remove except a bicycle bell and some reflectors.

But he’ll never read this thread, so I will tell you that I stole the chrome acorn nuts off the front axle, and replaced them with plain nuts.

The acorn nuts are now on my project bike.

 

[threeforks]

Hi,
If an acorn falls off a bike, and nobody is there to see it, Is it really missing?

Sorry for the bad joke, just couldn't resist.

Thank you for all your posts and updates on your build.
Of course I have a different approach to doing things, but I am inspired by yours.
Most everything I make or use comes "in need of repair" or worse.
So now I have yet one more thing to consider.
Buying a new bike just to cut up and use parts.

It looks like your build will turn out to be very cool and special when done.

Thumbs up !

 

[Ulu]

Hi,
If an acorn falls off a bike, and nobody is there to see it, Is it really missing?

Sorry for the bad joke, just couldn't resist.

Thank you for all your posts and updates on your build.

Well these were as silent as could be and they’re never gonna talk.

I hope to see your build soon.

 

[Ulu]

When swapping the handlebars back, I reversed the gooseneck again. Now it goes forward and up in a stylish manner.

Zip ties suck though…

Then I went for a nice ride this AM.

I had started out this way, but inverted.

I reversed it when I pushed the seat back, and later I inverted it as well.

So now it has been on in all four possible positions, and no matter which way I turn it I still don’t like this thing.

Of course I would like it better if I polished off the black.

Ultimately I will buy a better one or build it because this one is too far off center. When it is forward it is too far from the seat. This makes the bike oversteer an uncomfortable amount. Too twitchy.

When reversed it works better. The bike had less tendency to oversteer and slide the rear wheel in sharp corners. Today I was much less happy.

The little Bulldog beer insulator holds my water.

This is a relic of a project I drew for someone 22+ years ago. He waited too long to get approvals and blew the whole sale because of a minor printing error.

I had some hours of layout time on the PC, but I never had any cash in it. In fact I got cash up front for the CAD work. And I got to keep the prototypes that they rejected.

 

[Ulu]

Why I am not welding today.

I went riding this morning and walked the dog . . . before it got to be 75°.