Now the story. I am a city bus driver by profession. I had an elderly passenger get on with a new bicycle. A single speed road bike. I asked him about his bike as I am a bike guy and he starts cussing about the Veterans administration and Social Security. Apparently he was in Nam and an officer flying attack helicopters. He got 3 purple hearts and a silver star for combat valor back in the late 60's. The Veterans administration has not paid him a dime due to some 35 year paperwork processing error. He FINALLY has his back check coming, retro-actively. 35 years of back pension at around $2500.00 a month = over 1 million dollars. The social security department found out about this and cut his SS pension a month before his gold strike, so he basically has to sell his new bike to a bike shop for $50.00 so he will have enough money for food. I felt bad for him because this is no way to treat a veteran of the military that served with valor and that he was only getting $50 lousy bucks for a new bike that probably was worth $300 easy. I stepped up and said I will give him $100.00 for it and we made arrangements for me to pick it up after work. He was happy, and I was happy. I now have a bike to turn into my board track racing project.
I started to cut it up within a few days to get the dimensions right. I am nearly 6' tall and I needed an extended wheelbase or I would look funny on a bike too short for me. I ended up with the dimensions for me. I needed to stretch the front steer tube 5" forward and make the rear axle 4.5" farther back. With my handy dandy Harbor Freight hydraulic tube bender I made the first bend, a new top tube that is 5" longer than the stock frame.
Here is my new motor. I ordered the "Phantom" kit because it had the rear heavy duty axle and heavy duty brake. This is my first motorbike so it sounded good. I do not like the chrome finish as it is too flashy for what I am trying to accomplish. Nothing a little emery paper can't take care of. I am test fitting it in my frame.
Now I need to put a bottom top tube in the bike. If the engine is too low in the frame it is going to look funny from too much "air space" within the engine area. If it is too high, I wont be able to put the spark plug socket on the spark plug to remove the plug when I need to. I will NOT remove my whole motor to change the spark plug! (I have seen cars like this). So here is a shot with my elevated engine and the top tube held on with tape so I can take measurements.
My plan is to have an elevated engine with a "Faux" bottom end to make it look like a realistic flywheel at first glance. Total form before function.
I am really liking the Felt bicycle "Abraham Lincage" front monarch type fork. It has the right look for an old school motorcycle front fork.
The stock handlebar looks good upside down.
The wheels on the bike so far are the bike's original 700 c's. I was originally going to go with 24x3 tires, which would look great, but two things stopped me. Apparently you can't order white 24x3 tires anymore, or at least they are very hard to get. I tried to get thick brick cream colored tires for a long time and you can't even order them on the factories site anymore. Too bad. The second reason is you can only put 40 psi of air into them. I wanted higher pressure for better handling. I chose to go with 26x2.35 in cream. You can get cream tires all day long in this size and you can put 55 psi of air into them. They have brown tires also that are just as easy to get. Here are some 24x3's that I borrowed from my USAAF bike for fitment. The 26x2.35 with be the same outside diameter.
Now here is the original shot of the stock chain stays. See how close it is to the seat post tube?
Here is the new extended chain stays. 4.5" farther back.
I used an old heavy duty front fork for my new chain stays. I cut off the brackets off of each and welded the old brackets onto the new former front forks. Very strong. I was actually test riding the bike out front without seat stays and there was no flex or bending. With seat stays welded on they are going to be anvils.
They are the next size up of tubular steel than the original seat stays. Gives the impression of heavy-duty, and rightfully so. They are strait up till they clear the end of the tires and then bend in to the seat tube. At the bend is a cross brace which will do double duty as a mounting point for the rear fender. The rear fender is going to be a necessity for.....
...the Center Stand! Here is my first mock-up of the center stand. It has to look good, not be too large, lock up to the rear fender, and most importantly support the weight of the bike and rider as the rider peddles to start the engine in the prone position. It was an difficult to engineer correctly.
The mock up was not strong enough. So I had to add gussets for strength and it actually looks good
and swings up
The gussets that I added to the center stand sent me on a different design direction. They reminded me of turn of the century, antiques, and "steam punk".
So with my quasi "steam punk" theme wanted to use bits and pieces of brass, copper, and aluminum. I was at a metal wholesaler that had lots to choose from. They had 11" diameter aluminum disks that were about 3/8ths thick. Perfect for my faux lower engine. Then I used brass screws, nuts, and washers, brass high pressure fittings and copper tube. I'm getting the look I want.
I used emery paper to get the chrome shine out of the side engine covers and used a wire brush on a 25,000 rpm die grinder to get the effect on the the aluminum disks. The real engine and the faux engine blend in nicely. I used a 5" giant bolt, nylon lock nut, and a series of washers to go into the center of the faux engine. Does double duty of bolting all the way through and holding everything together solidly. This will not fall off the bike, lol!
I am using 20 gauge steel. I was originally going to taper the tank on the front and the back but I like the width all the way down the tank. It will hold a lot of fuel! I think the tank being slab sided all the way down from front to rear gives it an older look. Basically the only bends or curves on the tank will be the top piece. The bottom is flat as well as the sides. I am using an interesting idea for a fuel filler cap. I have a huge 1"7/8 nut, bolt, and washer that will be my fuel cap with an O-ring on it. The six sided cap looks victorian era
Now I am all caught up in real time as far as pictures go. I am on vacation (yippee!) this week so I expect to make good progress. I have the wheel builder building my wheels as we speak. I have the heavy duty band brake on the rear billet heavy duty axle. For the front I have a Sturmy-Archer front drum brake with dynamo. The front dynamo (english way of saying "generator") is really cool. Within the hub itself is an electrical generator that produces 6 volts of power for front and rear lights. I plan on commuting to downtown on this when I am done so light will come in handy. I have the cream tires and they look gorgeous! Can't wait till I can put them on the new wheels when I get them. I also have a leather Brooks B-190 seat. It is the largest brooks saddle and has the full quad spring in the back and the huge spring up front, so it will look period correct, cool, and be comfortable at the same time. Till again....
Well I have been contemplating it all day long and I was really pessimistic but I started the fuel tank and It worked out well. A word of advice. I recently on a whim purchased a Harbor Freight 25,000 rpm electric die grinder because I thought it would be useful. Basically a full size dremel tool. I could not have done the fuel tank without this tool. With the cutting disks it was super easy to get into weird angles and cut steel perfect. I HIGHLY recommend an electric die grinder. Lots of clamps too!Here is a shot of the tank before the sides are put up. It was easy to fit by welding it as it was bolted into the frame.
It was time consuming but if you take your time and measure everything you can do it. Oh, i upped the resolution of my cell phone camera so the pictures should be better from here on out. Thanks for the input!
Remember I said I was going to keep the sides of the tank strait? Well in a bold move spurned of self confidence and bravado, and a new die grinder I decided to do a complex shape to the tank. The front of the tank is steeply cut at a 45 degree angle and the rear is more shallower cut for leg room for pedaling to start the engine. I am glad I decided to do this because it looks more three dimensional and has more detail. Here is a good shot of my huge nut gas cap.
