AGENT ORANGE

[Bike Bum]

I love the way this is looking!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Thanks. It's been sitting in my living room for the last year waiting for me to finish it. Yeah, I got funny looks when people would come over.

 

[Bike Bum]

I got the frame all welded up this weekend and it looks great. But, my stupid mouse for my Mac died on Friday and when I went to buy a new one I decided I didn't want to spend $70 bucks on a stupid mouse!! Seriously, I love my Mac but $70 bucks for a mouse? These things are made in China by slave labor for pennies but Apple wants to charge their customers an arm and a leg. Anyway, I can't post pictures from my phone, which is what I'll be using for the next couple weeks, so as soon as I blow 70 bucks on a new mouse I'll be able to post pix.

 

[Bike Bum]

OK, I found an aftermarket mouse that will work on my computer for now. So here's what I did over the weekend.

I don't have a welder anymore so I went to my buddies house to use his. He has a 40 year old industrial welder so I just let him do the welding.

 

[Bike Bum]

This is what he has going on in his garage. He counted over the weekend how many hot rods he's built. This one makes 44!! He's far from done with this one but it's getting there.

 

[Bike Bum]

This is after I mostly smoothed out the welds. They don't need to be perfect since I'm going to use filler to really smooth them out.



I just capped the end of the bottom tube to finish it off with a slight curve to it. I'm really liking the looks of this frame.

 

[Bike Bum]

Now that the frame is all welded up, I can clean the snot out of my work shop so I can start the detail work of fitting the fenders then painting. It's getting there!!

 

[The Renaissance Man]

Looking good.

 

[Fv2]

Looks good.
Looking forward to mock up.

 

[LukeTheJoker]

Loving it! Looks great!

Luke.

 

[Alex Purvis]

I am absolutely in love with this build!!! I'm kinda a newbie in the bike world, I'm currently working on an Schwinn occ chopper and an already custom rat rod bike and let me tell you.. this is definitely going to influence my future builds!

 

[Bike Bum]

I am absolutely in love with this build!!! I'm kinda a newbie in the bike world, I'm currently working on an Schwinn occ chopper and an already custom rat rod bike and let me tell you.. this is definitely going to influence my future builds!

Thanks! It's fun building bikes. Much cheaper than my hot rods and take up a lot less space too. Good luck on your builds and be sure to post some pix of your progress. That's what we're here for.

 

[Bike Bum]

After spending 6 hours looking for my Mooneyes sprocket that I put where I wouldn't lose it, I managed to roughly assemble the bike without the fenders to see if all the work I did rebuilding the bottom of the frame and moving the BB up about 4 inches was worth all the trouble. YES!! I'm back to full size cranks and my pedals don't hit the ground even when turning.

As you can see, the chain looks way too long right now. It's actually not, I need to put a chain tensioner on the bottom so it doesn't hit the chain stays. Other than that and fabricating a new tab for the coaster brake to mount to, I should be able to mount the fenders, smooth the frame and get some paint on it!

 

[Bike Bum]

I still haven't figured out how I'm going to put a kickstand on without it looking funny. I might try to hide one up under the rear fender.

 

[Big Ape]

Man, it looks tough even without the fenders!! Have you thought about a double leg kickstand mounted under the frame? Maybe a custom made deal that hugs the curves of your rear fender when it is in the stored position? I am just throwing ideas out, but I think that a "train light" similar to an old schwinn or shelby would look awesome on your front fender!

 

[LukeTheJoker]

Long and Loooowwwww!

Luke.

 

[Bike Bum]

Man, it looks tough even without the fenders!! Have you thought about a double leg kickstand mounted under the frame? Maybe a custom made deal that hugs the curves of your rear fender when it is in the stored position? I am just throwing ideas out, but I think that a "train light" similar to an old schwinn or shelby would look awesome on your front fender!

It surprisingly rides very smoothly and straight. But don't even think about making a sharp turn! Something as simple as a kickstand will probably be the most difficult thing to make for this whole build. It needs to be either hidden or barely noticeable. That will take some time to sort out. As for a light on the front fender, I have an old Schwinn fender light that I'm thinking about using. This picture isn't it but it looks just like it. I'm going to mock it up tonight to see how well it flows with the rest of the bike.

 

[Bike Bum]

Long and Loooowwwww!

Luke.

I measured it yesterday without the fenders and right now it's just under 8 feet long. The rear fender adds just over 2 more feet to the length. I just realized, my bike trailer might not be long enough for this bike. Looks like I'll be adding a couple feet to that too.

 

[Paper Puncher]

It's one thing to have an idea floating around in your head, it's another thing to make it come out the way you envisioned it.

BB, that is the biggest worry that I have about building my first bike and I think that I may have bitten off more than I can chew.... I am still in the process of getting all of the bits n pieces first before starting to make sure that it will somewhat resemble what is in my head and that I have mocked up already on the PC!!

 

[Bike Bum]

BB, that is the biggest worry that I have about building my first bike and I think that I may have bitten off more than I can chew.... I am still in the process of getting all of the bits n pieces first before starting to make sure that it will somewhat resemble what is in my head and that I have mocked up already on the PC!!

I've learned from last years build off to have all the parts you think you'll need before you start building. Some parts took almost a month to get (and I just ordered 3 more parts this week). But in the end it still didn't matter, all that planning I did still didn't account for the bottom bracket being too low, even with 4 1/2 inch cranks the pedals still hit the ground. With a background of automotive design and graphic design you'd think I would have planned for every scenario. Oh well, as long as I remember that I'm doing this for fun and as a stress reliever problems like this shouldn't bother me too much. Good luck on your build, and remember, it's all about fun.

 

[The Renaissance Man]

Have you considered putting the chain tensioner on top of the chain stay? I know it's going to disappear behind the fender, so you could possibly hide it. Also, you would be able to remove the chain without having to break it.