back to the drawing board....

[junknutz1975]

i thought this would be a fun topic that we all can learn something from please share ......
lets be honest , we all have made mistakes ..... i.e...... looked really cool but my weld broke , bad ride position was not rideable , testride gone wrong , pedals hit the ground , now where the heck am i gonna put a seat , over-engineered , under-engineered, whatever, etc.
what sent you back to the drawing board?
post pics of the duds, what didnt work but looked awesome in your " vision "
i am already working on my first custom rat ( cant post pics yet cuz im doing a mini 4 way build off with local friends and i dont want them peeking :lol: ) and i am curious what wont work so i can pass go hahahahha
so far its going great but i thought it would be cool to put all of our worst feet forward so others can learn something :mrgreen:

 

[deven_science]

When I seriously started building at the beginning of last year, I tried a whole bunch of stuff that failed. I was just building things I'd never seen done before, only to find out that there was a reason why it never had. I learned a lot from those fails, though.

Failed tandem that had the forward person pedaling the front:

My short bike, which worked, technically, just not well:

My adult sized Green Machine. Again, worked, but not well:

There are countless others that I didn't get photos of.

 

[Terry66]

I guess the thing that got me was the chain rubbing the tire on the 24X3 on the back of my RRBBO7 bike the first time I assembled it. Ended up putting a spacer in the crank...still rubbed. The rear sprocket had a slight offset, so I flipped it to get a little more clearance. Still was too close for comfort. I noticed that a Schwinn clover sprocket has an offset gear, so I scrapped the sprocket I intended to use and went with the Schwinn. Also the 24X3 would only fit if the rear tire was a little back in the dropouts. Too far forward and it rubbed. Removing a link from the chain to get it back was either too loose or too sloppy. I messed with that thing till about 2am one night!

 

[junknutz1975]

this is great!!

keep em comin!
:wink:

 

[junknutz1975]

deven-science,

wow those are wicked creative ideas!
did they ever see the road after a lil tweak here n there?
i love the two wheel drive idea on the tandem :wink:

 

[junknutz1975]

any more duds? :wink:

 

[Uncle Stretch]

I had seen a particular style of frame being built, and wanted to do one. Its pretty simple.
You wind up with a frame that looks good , but there really isn't a place to put a seat that
flows with the build.

Had all the comments tell me to just put the seat on top of what would be the seat stays. Now that would
look good and if you had midget legs and arms 5 feet long you might could have ridden it. Even though
I explained it several times, I still had people suggesting it. So I actually got mad and cut it up. Guess we all
have our moments.

 

[LukeTheJoker]

I had seen a particular style of frame being built, and wanted to do one. Its pretty simple.
You wind up with a frame that looks good , but there really isn't a place to put a seat that
flows with the build.
Had all the comments tell me to just put the seat on top of what would be the seat stays. Now that would
look good and if you had midget legs and arms 5 feet long you might could have ridden it. Even though
I explained it several times, I still had people suggesting it. So I actually got mad and cut it up. Guess we all
have our moments.

Love the frame, I dont suppose mounting the seat higher and slightly over the rear wheel, and adding long, drawn back bars would have worked? Looks great in my head! :lol:

I made a rookie mistake on my current Cadillac build, forgot to allow room for the chain running back to the derailler...


DSCN2377 by LukeTheJoker, on Flickr

Still working on fixing that issue...

Luke.

Edit: Probably qualifies for over engineered too...

 

[deven_science]

deven-science,

wow those are wicked creative ideas!
did they ever see the road after a lil tweak here n there?
i love the two wheel drive idea on the tandem :wink:

The Green Machine was chopped up into little pieces, I still have the short bike, though I've never done much with it, and the tandem was cut down in length, and became my very successful Frank Bike:

It used all the same frame pieces as the tandem, just re-arranged.

 

[LukeTheJoker]

became my very successful Frank Bike:
It used all the same frame pieces as the tandem, just re-arranged.

That is one cool bike!
Is that motorbike pegs I see as handgrips? Do they still fold? That could be interesting while riding! :lol:
Those are some really short crank arms, must be off a 16inch?

Luke.

Edit: Never mind, looked up your build page and got my answers! Cool bike, just trying to imagine 4+1/2inch cranks... Gunna have to try that one day...

 

[deven_science]

became my very successful Frank Bike:
It used all the same frame pieces as the tandem, just re-arranged.

That is one cool bike!
Is that motorbike pegs I see as handgrips? Do they still fold? That could be interesting while riding! :lol:
Those are some really short crank arms, must be off a 16inch?

Luke.

Edit: Never mind, looked up your build page and got my answers! Cool bike, just trying to imagine 4+1/2inch cranks... Gunna have to try that one day...

That is Harley foot pegs used as grips. No, I securely bolted them in place, so no folding. Yes, the BB was too close to the ground, so I just put on kids cranks.

 

[junknutz1975]

wow! that caddy frame is awesome!
how are/have you remedied the chainline?
does that bike weight a gazzilion lbs?
awesome work!

my FAVORITE classic car is the 59 caddy. ( i've always dreamed of owning one since childhood......hmmmm, someday )
8)

 

[LukeTheJoker]

wow! that caddy frame is awesome!
how are/have you remedied the chainline?
does that bike weight a gazzilion lbs?
awesome work!

my FAVORITE classic car is the 59 caddy. ( i've always dreamed of owning one since childhood......hmmmm, someday )
8)

Thanks for the comments!
Still working on the chainline, hoping to make some progress tomorrow, check back on the build thread in a day or two... viewtopic.php?f=48&t=65514
I expect the bike to come in at about 70kg (150lbs) however the new chainline modifications and guard may add a little more... The rear tire/wheel makes up a huge portion of that weight, It is heavy, I admit, but should be an awesome bike... After all, Cadillac's are fairly heavy...

'59 Cadillac would be an awesome car to own, I think this bike is as close as I will get to owning one...

Luke.

 

[junknutz1975]

I had seen a particular style of frame being built, and wanted to do one. Its pretty simple.
You wind up with a frame that looks good , but there really isn't a place to put a seat that
flows with the build.

Had all the comments tell me to just put the seat on top of what would be the seat stays. Now that would
look good and if you had midget legs and arms 5 feet long you might could have ridden it. Even though
I explained it several times, I still had people suggesting it. So I actually got mad and cut it up. Guess we all
have our moments.

wow! that bike was amazing :shock:
those remaining "chunks" have alot of potential!
were they ever recycled into another project?

 

[TubatronSXT]

I have a frame that about 8 or 9 years ago was cut up and turned into a chopper. It was fine, as long as you went in a straight line and could sustain a wheelie for the duration of your ride. I rescued it from my uncle's back yard about a month ago, complete with 6 foot forks and drag bars. I am currently working on uses for the many parts of that beast.

 

[oleskool]

PICS PLZ

 

[TubatronSXT]

here's a pic of my failed chopper when she was put together last.

 

[junknutz1975]

:shock: :!:
thats the longest rakiest chopper i think ive ever seen :wink:

 

[TubatronSXT]

:shock: :!:
thats the longest rakiest chopper i think ive ever seen :wink:

Took up quite a lot of real estate with 6 footers up front. I have since disassembled her and plan to do some more work on that frame.

 

[LukeTheJoker]

I have a frame that about 8 or 9 years ago was cut up and turned into a chopper. It was fine, as long as you went in a straight line and could sustain a wheelie for the duration of your ride. I rescued it from my uncle's back yard about a month ago, complete with 6 foot forks and drag bars. I am currently working on uses for the many parts of that beast.

:shock: Yeah, I bet that thing was hard to ride!

Looks cool though!

Luke.