Finally a long bike! Updated pics...

Advertise with us
shop deals on amazon
BOXKARS
Shop deals on ebay
Rat Rod Bikes Bicycle Forum

Help Support Rat Rod Bikes Bicycle Forum:

This site may earn a commission from merchant affiliate links, including eBay, Amazon, and others.
ADVHOG

ADVHOG

Joined
Aug 30, 2014
Messages
370
Reaction score
702
Location
Northern Ohio
Rating - 100%
20   0   0
I've wanted a long bike or long cargo bike for years. I've gone over plans in my head and even started bolting things together several times but I always stalled out.

Thanks to franconuevo and his build off bike, "a long tale" I've got the bug again.

It didn't help that I got my wife a tandem for our wedding and a tandem is just a two seater long bike!

I started with two girls mtn bikes from the scrap heap...
20160624_142851.jpg

Applied some of this...
20160624_142954.jpg

And have a rough shape...
20160624_154403.jpg


I'm thinking five speed rear should be good and big cargo rack.

Please stay tuned...
 
I'd suggest maybe an internal gear hub; with that reallllllly long run of chain, you're going to have your chain rubbing the frame, especially in the low gear. Truth be told, you'll likely have that happen with a singlepeed or a hubgear, just not as much. But, it'll be easier to install some jockey wheels with the straight run afforded by foregoing a derailer. It's possible to do it with a derailer system too, but it can gt a bit wonky, as the derailer will struggle to take up slack as smoothly.

But, yeah.... longtail cargo bikes are awesome. Really cool concept. I've always wanted to build one with a Nuvinci hub....
 
ADVHOG said:
I was thinking about using a double chainring in both bottom brackets. A chain from front to rear, then another to the derailer and rear wheel. It's kind of how some tandems are run. I'm not sure if it's gonna work. If it doesn't, I've got a sweet 3 speed internal I can run in it. :)
Click to expand...

That seems like it'd work very well, in terms of limiting the chain slap....:thumbsup:
 
ADVHOG said:
I was thinking about using a double chainring in both bottom brackets. A chain from front to rear, then another to the derailer and rear wheel. It's kind of how some tandems are run. I'm not sure if it's gonna work. If it doesn't, I've got a sweet 3 speed internal I can run in it. :)
Click to expand...
The rear cranks on a tandem usually are special with extra space for a second sprocket. But one from a mtn bike with 2 sprockets will work, as long as the front sprocket has the same amount of teeth as the one it connects to in the rear. That's for a tandem, on a long bike it wouldn't have to match, but your gear ratio might be a little too high or too low depending on which rear sprocket goes to the hub. If you had another one like on the roadmaster, it would work great on the rear.
 
I came up with two double ring chain rings with the same teeth...
20160625_154805_1.jpg


20160625_155429.jpg

I like the idea of this but the rings are two close together to run two chains at the same time...
20160625_160050.jpg

I'm gonna have to think about this over a beers and see what I come up with. I'm thinking maybe triple ring chain rings and skip the middle rings?
 
Just allow for a bigger discrepancy in size between the 2 rings used on the rear crank. Easiest thing way to achieve this would be to run smaller rings for the timing chain. There's a lot of ways to do that for really cheap.
 
Bicycle808 said:
Just allow for a bigger discrepancy in size between the 2 rings used on the rear crank. Easiest thing way to achieve this would be to run smaller rings for the timing chain. There's a lot of ways to do that for really cheap.
Click to expand...
Thanks for the reply! Those are 38/48 sprockets and I've got a pair of 39/52 I can try. I think I'll probably end up with just a single ring on the front, once I figure out which one.
 
Are those rivets holding the outer ring to the inner, or nuts? You could separate the ones that will be used for the rear and put washers or a spacer between each bolt to get clearance for the chain.
 
Wildcat said:
Are those rivets holding the outer ring to the inner, or nuts? You could separate the ones that will be used for the rear and put washers or a spacer between each bolt to get clearance for the chain.
Click to expand...
They are rivets and it looks like a small dot of weld at each rivet. I can still separate and maybe bolt them back together.
 
horsefarmer said:
Maybe you can find 3 speed front sprockets from 21 speeds to get the gap you need?
Click to expand...
I've got a couple of three speed sprockets if it comes to that. I'd like to drive the rear wheel with the 38 tooth sprocket though and if I did three speed sprockets I'd have to run the small or large to the back wheel.
 
Dr. Tankenstein said:
If you can separate the chainrings, could you swap the second and third rings and use the smallest as a spacer?


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
Click to expand...
I'm gonna get it figured out this weekend. I think spacers is the way to go. I'm gonna get some tubing cut too. Work is cutting into my fun time too much!
 
Ok...I have a three ring mtn bike sprocket. The small ring is separate and I can flip it to make more room for both chain's...
20160701_213324.jpg


I'm running a small sprocket in the front to the small inner sprocket in the rear, then the 38 tooth to drive the rear wheel...

20160701_213455-1.jpg


I've got to lose the third ring on the rear and grind up all my cuts and I think this part is done.

Tomorrow is for cutting tubing and tacking it up....
 
Some cutting, grinding, and tacking and it Has a rough shape...
20160702_152804.jpg

It's got a little twist that I hope I can pull out before I finish the welds and weld on the rack supports...
20160702_152826.jpg


I should have made a simple frame jig but I ended up throwing it together on the garage floor.
 
The cordless grinder, my favorite tool! :D Good stuff man!
 
Changed the chain rings for the last time. The front to middle is 1/8 and the middle to back is 3/32. I put a space between the two middle sprockets and had to do some weld/grind. I think this is gonna work...
20160702_201214.jpg
 
Alright, I did a bunch of ugly welding last night and now I've got a roller. I even rode it around the block a few times last night and it's holding up. I spent the first money on it today. I ordered a extra long tandem shift cable.
20160703_172846_1.jpg

I'm gonna got the farm store tomorrow and get some tubing to make the long rack. I wanted to use all materials I have but I don't have any tubing long enough.

20160703_172854.jpg


I stripped the rear part of the frame last night with a propane torch and steel wool. It stripped great but the same tactic didn't work at all on the front. Much sturdier China paint I guess.

More progress tomorrow I hope...
 

Latest posts

Back
Top