Guess I might have voided the warranty a bit...
I put my Beast on a weight gain plan and stretched it out about 12 inches (305mm).
Back in June of this year I bought a green Mongoose beast with the intention of cutting it up and making some changes. For a while the only change that I made was swapping the bars & Stem off of a Genesis 32" for some cruiser style. That worked out to be too much fun and I ended up riding the Beast and never got busy changing anything else.
About the beginning of August I bought another red Beast for a friend and a blue Beast for my growing collection. This freed me up to chop up some green steel and see what I could come up with. Originally I had wanted to bust out a cantilever frame as I'm liking cruisers a lot these days. I bought a tubing roller, but never put it to use. I saw a few pieces of 1-1/2" (38mm) diameter conduit laying around on one of my job sites that had some interesting bends and scooped them up for possible use.
Once the planets lined up and the breeze was just right - out came the band saw and the mighty Beast met with some sharp teeth shredding it to a few segments. I was now free to start re-creating.
I better sneak a few pics in before carrying on...
Well, I know there are much better ways to do this...
But here is my "Budget frame jig" - it looks a lot like an uneven concrete patio doesn't it?
If I dug around a little, I could come up with clamps, rules, calipers, lasers, all sorts of things that could be useful for such an endeavor.
None of that though... cut, eyeball, tack, adjust, eyeball, break it apart, eyeball, tack, adjust... I did measure a couple of rough dimensions to set the seat to furthest pedal stroke. The rest sort of fell into place fitting the bends of the scraps from the job site.
Eventually it ended up back on 2 wheels
Honestly, there were moments that I struggled with and the frame had twists and turns that would have had me stuck riding in circles!
I ended up offsetting the rear triangle from the crank center line by about 1/4" (6.3mm) in hopes of a future gearing addition. For now I'm running an offset 20T rear gear.
So with no metal prep, ugly welds, and a conveniently located can of spray paint, the Beast took on its new color - Heirloom white - Satin.
I just wanted something to unify the bike in one color and slow down any rust while I gave it a ride or tow to see how things worked out.
I had a little issue with the chain line and ended up adding a roller from an old derailleur that the guy at my LBS gave me when I bought the offset gear. I suppose this would have been avoided with some plans, but it worked out to just need a little clearance over the chain stay. Anyway, I've had way too much fun riding the stretched Beast around for the last couple months to make many further refinements. It now sports the saddle off of the Genesis 32" and some W-i-d-e cruiser bars. The stretch makes for some great cruising and miles of smiles.
I've given thought to tightening up the rear triangle and cleaning up the chain line to lose the roller. Maybe take 2" (50mm) out of the overall stretch, but it's not meant for anything but riding and it's been great so far. Besides - I still have the blue one to cut up once it comes out of the box...
So here she is - The Arctic Beast in the wild
I put my Beast on a weight gain plan and stretched it out about 12 inches (305mm).
Back in June of this year I bought a green Mongoose beast with the intention of cutting it up and making some changes. For a while the only change that I made was swapping the bars & Stem off of a Genesis 32" for some cruiser style. That worked out to be too much fun and I ended up riding the Beast and never got busy changing anything else.
About the beginning of August I bought another red Beast for a friend and a blue Beast for my growing collection. This freed me up to chop up some green steel and see what I could come up with. Originally I had wanted to bust out a cantilever frame as I'm liking cruisers a lot these days. I bought a tubing roller, but never put it to use. I saw a few pieces of 1-1/2" (38mm) diameter conduit laying around on one of my job sites that had some interesting bends and scooped them up for possible use.
Once the planets lined up and the breeze was just right - out came the band saw and the mighty Beast met with some sharp teeth shredding it to a few segments. I was now free to start re-creating.
I better sneak a few pics in before carrying on...
Well, I know there are much better ways to do this...
But here is my "Budget frame jig" - it looks a lot like an uneven concrete patio doesn't it?
If I dug around a little, I could come up with clamps, rules, calipers, lasers, all sorts of things that could be useful for such an endeavor.
None of that though... cut, eyeball, tack, adjust, eyeball, break it apart, eyeball, tack, adjust... I did measure a couple of rough dimensions to set the seat to furthest pedal stroke. The rest sort of fell into place fitting the bends of the scraps from the job site.
Eventually it ended up back on 2 wheels
Honestly, there were moments that I struggled with and the frame had twists and turns that would have had me stuck riding in circles!
I ended up offsetting the rear triangle from the crank center line by about 1/4" (6.3mm) in hopes of a future gearing addition. For now I'm running an offset 20T rear gear.
So with no metal prep, ugly welds, and a conveniently located can of spray paint, the Beast took on its new color - Heirloom white - Satin.
I just wanted something to unify the bike in one color and slow down any rust while I gave it a ride or tow to see how things worked out.
I had a little issue with the chain line and ended up adding a roller from an old derailleur that the guy at my LBS gave me when I bought the offset gear. I suppose this would have been avoided with some plans, but it worked out to just need a little clearance over the chain stay. Anyway, I've had way too much fun riding the stretched Beast around for the last couple months to make many further refinements. It now sports the saddle off of the Genesis 32" and some W-i-d-e cruiser bars. The stretch makes for some great cruising and miles of smiles.
I've given thought to tightening up the rear triangle and cleaning up the chain line to lose the roller. Maybe take 2" (50mm) out of the overall stretch, but it's not meant for anything but riding and it's been great so far. Besides - I still have the blue one to cut up once it comes out of the box...
So here she is - The Arctic Beast in the wild
