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My first time entering!

I have a perfectly usable Dutch bike that I'm going to ruin!
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I've chosen this as the base for my project for two reasons, it's a steel frame (and not the fancy Reynolds tubing stuff- no, it's good thick nice to weld stuff) and it has drum brakes, but not a coaster brake.

So my plan for it has two stages.

Firstly I'm converting it to electric assisted. Now please don't shoot me down for this. I've done conversions before but they have been home made lash ups, and quite frankly, dangerous! I've always wanted to do one properly and this seems like a good time!

Secondly I'm going to be making an aluminium "body" for it. It's going to be all swooping and curvaceous, streamlined and all covering.
There will be hammering of metal, the English wheel will be used and a fair bit of polishing.
At this stage I'm not sure if I'll paint it, I quite like the bare aluminium look.
Anyway, I'm off to the workshop to make a start!
 
Well there's the first snag, the tyre supplied with the electric kit is way too big for my forks.
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Replacement tyre on order.
 
Love the plan. Will the be low to the ground like the side car you did or more like a motorcycle fairing? Will def be watching this one...:thumbsup:
 
Hmmm, for your first time entering, my fellow ratters seem to know quite a bit about your skills. ;)

It all sounds like a very RaT-isfying build idea!
RaT oN~!
 
The battery pack arrived this afternoon, man it's heavy!
The instructions said to fix it to the bike with two small screws and zip ties. Nope. Not on my bike!
I've made a support bracket for it to sit on. Started with a card template to get the angles right.
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Transfered it to some steel sheet and folded it with my magnetic folder
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Looks OK, needs something..
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Holes! That's what it needs! This punch cuts the hole and creates a return around the hole in one go. Stronger and lighter!
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I'll weld it in tomorrow.
 
Just tacked on for now
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I need to make some sort of metal strap for the top of the battery next.

You will notice that there will be frequent small updates on this thread. I'm spending half an hour or so on the bike most mornings. I've just gone self employed (as of the 1st of May!) so I have to ration my time on this or I'll have no money! Lol
 
So that's the electric conversion done. I need to sort and neaten the wires, but that can wait.
Swapped out the handlebars for some black ones, turned upside down for the "race look"
Took it for a tryout this evening. I linked out the speed limiter as here in the UK ebikes are restricted to 15mph. It just keeps on accelerating! It's EPIC!!

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Now on to the really fun stuff...... The body shaping.....
 
Well you have a lot of angles and straight lines on this bike, and the pedals are rectangular. Plus they are bare metal and fit the battery mount you made and the nice shiny crankset.
Oh, and those spikes are really nice when wet for your shoes to stay firmly on the pedal.
:crazy:
Ah, the "bodywork" will be covering 90% of the frame, and that will be anything but straight and angular......
If you could see into my head....
 

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