Air Ride Bike

[OCD]

Haven't had much time to work on this bike with home renos and my newly finished seat taking up time. Managed to get my wheels laced up and the various pieces mocked up in a quick jig to check out the height/length/seating of this project. I've also make the rear suspension mounts as well, now all I need to do is build a frame to hold it all together :wink:

 

[voodoo curse]

Oh man that thing's gonna be sick. Transmission received. Please send more!

 

[Uncle Stretch]

Really like the rims and tires. Should look killer.

 

[OCD]

Thanks Uncle S: Once it's built I plan on polishing the rims like I did on my fixie. I'm going to use the 3 leading/3 trailing spokes and polished hub/black spokes/polished rim, it makes a nice contrast. I'm currently laying the frame out full size on the cardboard and will likely bend/roll some tubes this week.

Like this but much wider :mrgreen:

 

[Uncle Stretch]

From there you have so many options on your bends. I love the planning stage. All the dreams come to reality :mrgreen: :mrgreen: Makes me want to roll some tubing. If I wasnt in the middle of all this cleanup stuff , I would be bending too. :wink:

 

[cruisinfornia]

Nice to see you starting on your custom air ride. what size are your tires and rims? they are going to look really good with your frame. I should have put big tires on mine. I also saw your custom seat. You did a good job on it. Are you going to show a pic of your seat on the bike? i've been fixing little problems on mine. I finally mounted the seat but not the way I had originally planed it. today i managed to ride it for the first time. I rode all over town on one pump from the tank. I was waiting for something to break or fall apart, but it held up pretty good. once you have your air ride done you are going to love how it rides.

can you roll different sizes on your rolling bender or just one size. did you build your own rolling bender? Nice jig too!

 

[OCD]

Glad to hear your bike is rideable now, we'll be expecting pics/video soon. Due to the fact my home made roller uses laminated oak dies, I dare not try anything over 1" with it for fear the dies may split under the pressure. My rims are 24"x65mm and the tires are Kenda Kraze 24"x3". As you can see I have a cheapie Chinese pipe bender which works okay, I hear filling the tube with wet sand and plugging the ends can help keep things in shape.

 

[cruisinfornia]

a fellow that i know uses the exact same orange bender you have for making motorcycle handlebars. he let me use it to try it out. it did not work well for me. it crushed my tubing, though it does work well on thicker gauge metal. so, are you going to build your bike out of 1 inch?

 

[Uncle Stretch]

I have both, a roller bender and the hydraulic one. The hydraulic one only does pipe , My roller bender will do good if your bend is just one way . A compound bend dosent work because it swags the tubing down and when you turn it over to do the one the other way it really starts to act silly. The only way I have had any luck is to cut the tubing and then weld another on that has a differant bend in it the opposit way if that makes sense.

 

[nascar]

Wow really excited to see the progress of this ride. Good luck.

 

[masterpoop63]

is that a handy dandy vw steering wheel on there?

 

[OCD]

Yes, that's a '68 Beetle steering wheel left over from the donar car I'm building my rail from. I only recycle the best junk :wink: . Amazing what you can do with stuff on hand. :idea:

 

[masterpoop63]

sweet i love me some aircooled vws and i cant wait for this bike to be done

 

[OCD]

Just trying to figure out where everything will sit. Appears to be a bit over 8' long too. :idea:

 

[cruisinfornia]

sweet

 

[deorman]

If the middle is anywhere near as cool as the ends, people will be :shock: 8) at this puppy everywhere it goes.

 

[OCD]

Today's progress

 

[Granth]

all you guys have me wanting to buy a tubing roller. i've got a design i really like but I can't see myself buying one right now. oh well! killer work!

 

[OCD]

You could always build your own. The laminated oak dies were cut round using a bandsaw and the v-grooves done with a table saw. Investment can often be replaced by ingenuity. :wink:

 

[cruisinfornia]

i f'n love it. i wish i had your wheels. does anybody sell them other than choppers us?