Of Three Minds

[whoinphx]

So... I've decided to join another Build Off.
After doing minimal bike work for a couple years, this past year I've been finishing "projects" and moving along.
You all know, you have this frame, those parts, wouldn't that be cool. I've finally been actually doing, not just planning or dreaming.

Of Three Minds (O3M)
I couldn't come up with a name for the specific frame I decided to build. I had three different frames I'd narrowed my choices to. I'd decided on a 24" rear wheel frame, mainly because I found a Nexus 7 speed coaster brake laced in a 24" wheel. Until it came and was 26"....
What to do, which frame, do I use what the universe sent me or go buy another 24" rear?
That's how the frame I chose to build got its name. Yeah not the most exciting story or cool name...
But it Will have a Cool Headbadge...

 

[whoinphx]

So I decided on a Phat Coach Linkage frame I've had for at least 3 or 4 years.

Everything else is a bit up in the air. I am going to use the 26" Nexus 7 speed, and I want to go fat tire rear, and skinny front.
That was the only common thread for the 3 frames I was considering.

Quick mock up...

 

[whoinphx]

First issue I have to tackle is steering post bearings. The triple tree fork is from a adult size OCC Schwinn I believe. I picked it up at least 5 years ago. For it to fit in the head tube, I had to pop out the bearing cups on the Phat.

Something like this?

 

[whoinphx]

I had another Phat like this that I built and rode as a Daily Rider a number of years ago...

i sold it off about a year and a half ago...
i kind of miss it.

 

[kingfish254]

That serving piece headbadge is gonna be awesome!!!

Did you have to remove the headset because of length concerns or is it a 1 1/8 steertube in a headtube that was meant for a 1" steertube?

 

[whoinphx]

That serving piece headbadge is gonna be awesome!!!

Did you have to remove the headset because of length concerns or is it a 1 1/8 steertube in a headtube that was meant for a 1" steertube?

Because it's a 1 1/8 steertube 8n head tube meantfor a 1"...
It's the only forks I have that are long enough for that Phat headtube, it's 10" long...

 

[kingfish254]

You'll need to either locate a "Retro Ryders" reduced headset (currently out of stock). Or take a 1 1/8" headset and machine down the part of the bearing cup that slides into the headtube. That is basically all that the Retro Ryder headsets are.

Your other option is to machine out the inside of the top and bottom of your headtube.

 

[Funkme]

Cool interesting to see how it ends up.

 

[MattiThundrrr]

Is that seriously van Gogh on the absinthe spoon? Yup, that's pretty funky

That's gonna work great for your frame!

 

[whoinphx]

So the solution I came up

Is that seriously van Gogh on the absinthe spoon? Yup, that's pretty funky
View attachment 157577
That's gonna work great for your frame!

Yeah that's where I got it.
My ex and I had a bottle couple years back and I kept it for just this purpose.

 

[whoinphx]

So ... I've been working on the bike, but not posting so much... time to catch up.

My solution to my headtube bearing cup problem is this...

I bought brand new 1 1/8 headtube bearing cups, I then took my angle grinder and "dremell" and shaved them down.
Eventually I'll JB Weld them directly to the headtube.

This left about an inch gap to the top, so I brought the fork tubes up.
Next problem was the steering tube is threaded, so I went down to MY LBS and went through their used parts bin to find a cap to tighten it all down.

It was to wide, so out came the grinders again and I shaved off the plastic ring around the metal nut. Now it fits.

So that was a lot of fidely little crap. As I'm sure, most of you all know, you have to go through this using old parts that weren't meant or designed to go together.
I'll have to do some more fine tuning to button it all up in the final construction, but it's good enough for proof of concept at this atage.

 

[whoinphx]

I've also put on the chain ring crank I want to use. It came off a girl's Sears Spyder I picked up a while back. I had to put it on a crank with longer arms, since the girls bike was a 24".
I wanted to see how it rode as far as pedaling because it's a 50 tooth ring.
This also gave me the opportunity to try out a couple of apes on the bike.

At this stage I like the second bars better.
That is not the seat I'm using, (more on that later).
It rode well. I'm not used to the skinny 700 tire, I haven't rode one of those in years.
That isn't the Nexus 7 wheel either, just put on a single speed for test riding.

I also like this chain ring because it pays homage to the original Phat Linkage ring...

So that catches me up for now pretty much.

There have been little stories here and there with a few parts that I'm finding that I'll probably add later.

Hope you all are liking the build so far. I'm pretty pleased overall.

 

[kingfish254]

So ... I've been working on the bike, but not posting so much... time to catch up.

My solution to my headtube bearing cup problem is this...View attachment 158159View attachment 158160View attachment 158161

I bought brand new 1 1/8 headtube bearing cups, I then took my angle grinder and "dremell" and shaved them down.
Eventually I'll JB Weld them directly to the headtube. View attachment 158162

This left about an inch gap to the top, so I brought the fork tubes up.
Next problem was the steering tube is threaded, so I went down to MY LBS and went through their used parts bin to find a cap to tighten it all down. View attachment 158164View attachment 158165

It was to wide, so out came the grinders again and I shaved off the plastic ring around the metal nut. Now it fits. View attachment 158168

So that was a lot of fidely little crap. As I'm sure, most of you all know, you have to go through this using old parts that weren't meant or designed to go together.
I'll have to do some more fine tuning to button it all up in the final construction, but it's good enough for proof of concept at this atage.

What is keeping the bearing cups from moving? Are they inserted into the headtube at all? It would seem to me that they would just shift out of alignment with the headtube and you would end up with the steertube riding against the headtube.

Looking good though. I just must be missing something from your solution.

 

[whoinphx]

What is keeping the bearing cups from moving? Are they inserted into the headtube at all? It would seem to me that they would just shift out of alignment with the headtube and you would end up with the steertube riding against the headtube.

Looking good though. I just must be missing something from your solution.

For now they're just pressed in there by the triple tree forks. Yes that isn't a long term solution, they would shift out of alignment.
My solution in the end is to JB Weld the cups directly to the head tube. I'll do that after I do paint removal and before I paint the bike.
I never built that frame because I just don't dig the yellow...

 

[kingfish254]

That should work.
These are cool frames.

 

[whoinphx]

Haven't posted anything in a bit, doesn't mean I haven't been doing anything...

Honestly most of my time was taken up working on other bikes. I choose not to own a car so I ride my bikes everywhere. I get into a rut riding the same bike or two all the time. This past week I decided to ride a different bike to work each day (approx 13 miles round trip). So I had some minor/ major repairs and maintenance to do on some.
Here are the bikes I chose for the week...

The one bike I wanted to get finished for Sunday, but didn't is the one that took the Most time....

I took it apart and cleaned, regreased, and polished every last little part of it. It was in a bad way, I haven't rode it in at least 5 years or more. Put NOS tires on it, didn't have any 26x1.95 tires, but I like these Uniroyal chain treads 26x 1.75.

So.... that's where the majority of my time went.

 

[whoinphx]

As you can see from my last post, I like ape hangers and banana seats...
That's the direction I'm going with this build as well.
Mocked up an old seat to test ride...

I liked this, but wanted to try a laid back seat post. Had to order one and wait...
Here's the first configuration...

Not comfortable with the shorter Dyno apes...

Brought the seat post down and it made a world of difference, much better riding form. I like the lines of the bike with the seat this way.

Then I tried something I haven't done before and flipped the seat post...

This was the most comfortable riding configuration, but I'm iffy about the lines/ look of it. We'll see...

I've had some fiberglass seats that came out of old office chairs for a bunch of years.
I've always had the idea of cutting them up to make a banana seat, so I decided to finally give it a go for this build.

I got out my angle grinder and got to cutting.
I got the rough form of a seat cut out, but didn't like the downward lip on the front of it. Unfortunately I didn't get a picture of this stage.
Since I was cutting off the front of it, and I have a number of old nanners that have to be redone, I thought to combine the two.
I picked an old seat that I liked shape of and took it apart.

After a lot of rust and old glue removal, I started to shape the fiberglass form to fit the pan of the seat.
So in the end, instead of making the seat from scratch, I'll be extending an old seat into something new and hopefully better.

More work to do on it of course, but this is where I'm at...

Gotta say I've been following quite a few of the builds and I'm digging the heck out of them.

 

[kingfish254]

Super cool idea to try and make a nanner with an integrated sissy bar. One of the George Barris muscle bikes had a huge swooping nanner.

As far as the seatpost goes, I think the stock straight post flowed the best with the build.

 

[MattiThundrrr]

I dunno if this is a Barris, couldn't confirm, but it's rad as heck

And this, just cuz he's the King

 

[GeePig]

So many lines to align