Well I haven't really been on the forum in a while, I've been busy trying to pay the bills now that my shop is almost finished up and running here in TX. A few months ago I got an email from one of my So-Cal Chopaderos brothers wanting to pick my brain about a new bike he wanted to build. I told him I would locate all the parts on his wish list, crunch the numbers and bounce a price off him to see if it was in his price range. When I told him it was going to be close to $3K to build it, without a hesitation he gave me the green light to get started. So I came up with a contract, secured a deposit and a pay schedule, and began to order all the random parts last Monday.
The design parameters were a Hells Angels style "Frisco" chopper with a midsized springer fork, straight tubing rigid frame, a 24x4 rear wheel, 26x3 front wheel, hydraulic disc brakes front and rear and a dummy gas tank that will serve as a shell for a Camelback filled with liquid of choice. Well since I've already been a motorcycle fabrication shop for the last 10 years, specializing in British bobbers and choppers, building a bicycle to look like a motorcycle should be no problem. First thing I did was go into my shop and look through the mountain of spare parts, tanks, fenders and the like and figure out if I had any cool old school chopper parts that I could build into this bike.
Well I found an old beat up peanut 1.5 gallon fuel tank with a really deep tunnel that wasn't exactly to my liking. After a two day soak in rust killing solution (oxolic acid) all the old paint came right off and the rust was brought down to fresh bare metal. Right away I thought this deep tunnel had to go and I figured 1.5 gallon was probably a bit large so a 2" wide section was cut from the center of the tank leaving the two tank sides with a nice ready to weld parting line. Also with the tank in two pieces I can fix all the little dents the right way with a hammer, dolly and english wheel. This thing will look great on the bike, I can see it already.
The wheels are coming from Choppers US in pieces and a set of black spokes and nipples from Alfred E Bike will lace them up. Its been a few years since my last true wheel build but it like falling off a horse. The rear hub is a Sturmey Archer 3 speed from Choppers US for a wide rear wheel. I'm going with a single disc rear hub to use on the front to get the full sized chopper feel with my springer fork I've designed. A while back when Schwinn made that little kids OCC bike they used a 20x4 rear wheel and had to make a bottom bracket shell and BB axle in a long version to accommodate the wide rear wheel. Well those dam things are Chinese junk not to mention hard to locate. So I'm using two sections of chain and a small jack-shaft for the offset. I've done it before and it works without a hitch.
I'm also fabricating an under the seat mounted "oil bag" like on a full size chopper to house the rechargeable Lithium 12V battery for the high powered LED lights and it will also hide away a Kryptonite chain lock. A good friend of mine is trying to breakout into the custom tooled leather industry so we've partnered up on making some cool hand tooled leather solo chopper seats for the motorcycle industry and I'm incorporating one on this build with a Chopaderos theme. It's truly going to make this bike an outlaw chop! The paint scheme we agreed on will be a heavy metal flake silver base coat with a House of Color candy tangerine top coat. The forks will get a gloss black finish with gloss black flames on the tank over the silver/tangerine base. The wheels are black anodize and any "chrome" will be a simple brushed stainless steel.
Although this line drawing doesn't really do it any justice, this is what it will be close to looking like when we're done. And by the way that's a 1-1/2" wrench for a swing away kickstand!
As progress is made I will update the thread. The bike must be finished and delivered on September 17th so this should be fun!
Later Travis
The design parameters were a Hells Angels style "Frisco" chopper with a midsized springer fork, straight tubing rigid frame, a 24x4 rear wheel, 26x3 front wheel, hydraulic disc brakes front and rear and a dummy gas tank that will serve as a shell for a Camelback filled with liquid of choice. Well since I've already been a motorcycle fabrication shop for the last 10 years, specializing in British bobbers and choppers, building a bicycle to look like a motorcycle should be no problem. First thing I did was go into my shop and look through the mountain of spare parts, tanks, fenders and the like and figure out if I had any cool old school chopper parts that I could build into this bike.
Well I found an old beat up peanut 1.5 gallon fuel tank with a really deep tunnel that wasn't exactly to my liking. After a two day soak in rust killing solution (oxolic acid) all the old paint came right off and the rust was brought down to fresh bare metal. Right away I thought this deep tunnel had to go and I figured 1.5 gallon was probably a bit large so a 2" wide section was cut from the center of the tank leaving the two tank sides with a nice ready to weld parting line. Also with the tank in two pieces I can fix all the little dents the right way with a hammer, dolly and english wheel. This thing will look great on the bike, I can see it already.
The wheels are coming from Choppers US in pieces and a set of black spokes and nipples from Alfred E Bike will lace them up. Its been a few years since my last true wheel build but it like falling off a horse. The rear hub is a Sturmey Archer 3 speed from Choppers US for a wide rear wheel. I'm going with a single disc rear hub to use on the front to get the full sized chopper feel with my springer fork I've designed. A while back when Schwinn made that little kids OCC bike they used a 20x4 rear wheel and had to make a bottom bracket shell and BB axle in a long version to accommodate the wide rear wheel. Well those dam things are Chinese junk not to mention hard to locate. So I'm using two sections of chain and a small jack-shaft for the offset. I've done it before and it works without a hitch.
I'm also fabricating an under the seat mounted "oil bag" like on a full size chopper to house the rechargeable Lithium 12V battery for the high powered LED lights and it will also hide away a Kryptonite chain lock. A good friend of mine is trying to breakout into the custom tooled leather industry so we've partnered up on making some cool hand tooled leather solo chopper seats for the motorcycle industry and I'm incorporating one on this build with a Chopaderos theme. It's truly going to make this bike an outlaw chop! The paint scheme we agreed on will be a heavy metal flake silver base coat with a House of Color candy tangerine top coat. The forks will get a gloss black finish with gloss black flames on the tank over the silver/tangerine base. The wheels are black anodize and any "chrome" will be a simple brushed stainless steel.
Although this line drawing doesn't really do it any justice, this is what it will be close to looking like when we're done. And by the way that's a 1-1/2" wrench for a swing away kickstand!
As progress is made I will update the thread. The bike must be finished and delivered on September 17th so this should be fun!
Later Travis
Rock on, man! Can't wait to see it!
