Even before signing up for the board, I was mooching ideas and designs so I figured it was about time to break with my lurker tendencies and start participating. My name is Jeff. I'm kind of a dual-resident between western Mass & central Jersey. A friend and I started building bikes to ride around the swapmeets at Raceway Park in Englishtown. Once I had the first one "finished" I was hooked. The NoHo-E'Ton-NoHo run put on by the NERRBs was my first "encounter" with other RRBers. It was a great event and I had a blast meeting new people and seeing some great bikes in person. I did say that I would be more active and post up some pictures; so here we go!
This is my first project bike and therefore is never completely finished. It started life as a West Coast Customs chopper, but now has a SA internal three speed with pistol grip shifter, 18" apes, ammo can saddle bag, hip pack front bag, headlight, tail lights, slung back seat, and motorcycle style kickstand. The next big change and possibly the final one is to try and fab up an inverted springer for the front end.
The next project was one I painted and helped fab up a seat mount for a friend. The dreaded OCC chopper. I don't exactly know where she came up with the king and queen motorcycle seat, but it makes an already awkward bike completely treacherous. And some level of insanity is recommended for riding double up.
While my WCC Chopper is fun to ride, it doesn't have the most ergonomic riding position. So I put together this boardtracker so I could actually go places. It has a 7-speed Nexus hub, removable wooden inserts, copper candle holder LED converted headlight, and re-pop springer front end. I have the inserts held in with some rare earth magnets so that I can easily pop them out when I want to put the bike on a car rack.
My younger brother asked if I would show him how to customize a bike. So we went through design, fabrication, breakdown, paint, and reassembly. Other than a few "let me show you an easier way" moments and a slight wariness of MIG welding the kickstand, he did all the work. We missed one minor detail, though. When swapping to a more modern rear tire/rim size I didn't pick up on the brake arms being too short to reach the new rim. So once we find or make new arms the rear tire will match the knobby front.
My cousin jokingly asked when I was going to make one for her. That Christmas I surprised her with this: an early 70's Huffy ElDorado. I picked the frame, tank, and fenders from a Craigslist ad. I had a 26" cruiser all set as a donor bike to make a quick & cheap, but still thoughtful gift. Unfortunately I wasn't paying attention and it was a 24" bike. Okay, so on to Plan B. Needing a set of 24" wheels and tires I picked up something nice and flashy. Because this was going to be a gift for some one in a suburban area I figured it needed so still have some safety features. (Plus this was going to look awesome.) There wasn't any room for wheel reflectors, and I remembered someone with a Bratz bike had done some nice work with LEDs. So using that as inspiration I came up with a completely internal setup that turns on with a small plug in each rim that completes the circuit. Battery changes require pulling the tire off, but it's a small price to pay for the cleanliness of the installation. :mrgreen: As for the paint, it is Metalizer purple over a pearl white. It really pops in the sun.
So I will definitely put up a thread about the WCC chopper with more pictures and details from the build. If you want to know more about any of the other ones let me know. I've got a couple of other projects in the wings including a frame flip of an older Janou frame from a trike.
-- Jeff
This is my first project bike and therefore is never completely finished. It started life as a West Coast Customs chopper, but now has a SA internal three speed with pistol grip shifter, 18" apes, ammo can saddle bag, hip pack front bag, headlight, tail lights, slung back seat, and motorcycle style kickstand. The next big change and possibly the final one is to try and fab up an inverted springer for the front end.
The next project was one I painted and helped fab up a seat mount for a friend. The dreaded OCC chopper. I don't exactly know where she came up with the king and queen motorcycle seat, but it makes an already awkward bike completely treacherous. And some level of insanity is recommended for riding double up.
While my WCC Chopper is fun to ride, it doesn't have the most ergonomic riding position. So I put together this boardtracker so I could actually go places. It has a 7-speed Nexus hub, removable wooden inserts, copper candle holder LED converted headlight, and re-pop springer front end. I have the inserts held in with some rare earth magnets so that I can easily pop them out when I want to put the bike on a car rack.
My younger brother asked if I would show him how to customize a bike. So we went through design, fabrication, breakdown, paint, and reassembly. Other than a few "let me show you an easier way" moments and a slight wariness of MIG welding the kickstand, he did all the work. We missed one minor detail, though. When swapping to a more modern rear tire/rim size I didn't pick up on the brake arms being too short to reach the new rim. So once we find or make new arms the rear tire will match the knobby front.
My cousin jokingly asked when I was going to make one for her. That Christmas I surprised her with this: an early 70's Huffy ElDorado. I picked the frame, tank, and fenders from a Craigslist ad. I had a 26" cruiser all set as a donor bike to make a quick & cheap, but still thoughtful gift. Unfortunately I wasn't paying attention and it was a 24" bike. Okay, so on to Plan B. Needing a set of 24" wheels and tires I picked up something nice and flashy. Because this was going to be a gift for some one in a suburban area I figured it needed so still have some safety features. (Plus this was going to look awesome.) There wasn't any room for wheel reflectors, and I remembered someone with a Bratz bike had done some nice work with LEDs. So using that as inspiration I came up with a completely internal setup that turns on with a small plug in each rim that completes the circuit. Battery changes require pulling the tire off, but it's a small price to pay for the cleanliness of the installation. :mrgreen: As for the paint, it is Metalizer purple over a pearl white. It really pops in the sun.
So I will definitely put up a thread about the WCC chopper with more pictures and details from the build. If you want to know more about any of the other ones let me know. I've got a couple of other projects in the wings including a frame flip of an older Janou frame from a trike.
-- Jeff
