Cruiser for my Girl. Finished!

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Dman

Dman

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Oct 21, 2008
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Christchurch, New Zealand
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Started this thing a couple of weeks ago as a surprise christmas present for my Girl. Would've just brought something but despite the huge number of bike shops in my town, the only people they're interested in taking money off is spandex- wearing, shaved-leg, psuedo-racer types - couldn't find a single beach cruiser type thing anywhere. One place was importing Electras - for $900 each! What's a guy to do except build one?

n561043791_1829232_9054.jpg


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A random Avanti mountain bike donated the forks, headstock tube, rims (rear relaced to a single speed hub). The bottom bracket was cut from a shagged Raleigh 20. Have bent the rest of the frame using the old faithful sand-packing and oxy/acetylene method. Found the handlebars, basket, and whitewalls at the only half-decent store in Christchurch. Saddle will be an antiquey-looking sprung leather Brooks item and handle-grips turned out of wood and polished. Now gotta get movin on it - running outa time till christmas!
 
Re: Cruiser for my Girl.

looks brilliant! great build!!

Dman said:
... the only people they're interested in taking money off is spandex- wearing, shaved-leg, psuedo-racer types ...
Click to expand...

i laughed my head off when i read this - belgium has a long road racing tradition and in the summer these types in their spit ugly outfits clutter up the roads and bicycle lanes - i make a sport out of overtaking them on my transporter bike ringing my bell with a bored look on my face.

edit btw is that $900 aussie or us?
 
Re: Cruiser for my Girl.

Wow- that looks great. It looks like you are off to a great start. Best of luck.
 
Re: Cruiser for my Girl.

In my opinion your girl is lucky you didn't buy her a cruiser, because what you're building looks great! Will surely keep an eye on this build, it's going to be a really nice bike from the look of it so far! :)

bikepusher said:
i make a sport out of overtaking them on my transporter bike ringing my bell with a bored look on my face.
Click to expand...

:lol:
 
Re: Cruiser for my Girl.

Nice...I like your jig...
P.S. I put my peddles there too....easier to ride...can't wait to see it done...
 
Re: Cruiser for my Girl.

Thanks all! Your comments are much appreciated! Will keep you all posted on progress - will hopefully progress pretty quick given the December 25 deadline.

Bikepusher: That's New Zealand dollars. I think the Kiwi dollar is currently buying about US 55cents - freakin nightmare!
 
Re: Cruiser for my Girl.

Ready for final welding. Mock-up includes the new Brooks saddle and grips turned out of Rimu (native New Zealand timber). These I will stain to better match the saddle. Hopefully ready for paint on Monday.

n561043791_1852469_7220.jpg
 
Awesome job! Well worth it too by the smile on your girl's face. I'm diggin' the colour as well.

Seeing this has inspired me to scratch build a bit sooner than I was going to. I'm a Coppersmith by trade and spent 12 years packing and heat bending pipe/tube, so I have the skills needed.

I have a couple of questions:
What dia and wall thickness tube did you use?
When you built the jig, did you use an existing bike for measurements?
Did you MIG or TIG the frame?

Hope you can help.

bean
 
Cheers Guys! She's pretty stoked with it. Colour is straight out of a rattle-can (Duplicolor Light Yellow) after plans for a pro job fell through due to my paint 'n panel Guy's christmas rush. will probably strip it for a repaint or powder-coating in the new year.

Bean,
main tube is 38mm (inch and a half) diameter with a 1.6mm wall. Tube for the rear stays is 20mm and same wall thickness. Would have loved to have made these out of the the oval section "aerotube" that I used on my chopper (refer "Kiwi chop") for the forks and "seat post" (this was pie-cut every inch, bent, welded, and ground - never again) but think bending it would be tricky. Frame seems pretty strong and lightish. Something to think about with the big diameter tubing however is the seatpost. The mixture of donor bike bits I used (newish mountain bike, old stuff, and new but old style saddle) meant some interesting sleeving and reducer arrangements (and a fair bit of head-scratching) to make it work. I didn't think of this at the start because the seat on the chopper was a motorcycle style sprung saddle set-up as opposed to a standard bicycle post mounted type.

The jig is simply a horizontal beam with legs and axle posts designed to just be tacked in place and other uprights clamped to the side - wanted it to be adaptable to do different styles of bike, which is also why it's so long. I initially set it up to locate the axles, head-tube and bottom bracket of the donor mountain bike in their original positions. This was to preserve a factory style geometry and prevent having to shag around measuring and setting up for the correct trail angle. This went out the window however after I found the new fat front tyre fouled the new down-tube and had to rake out the forks to give some clearance. Rideability suffered slightly but isn't too bad. Positives include a lower overall profile and more hot-roddy (?) look. Also ended up moving the rear axle a fair way back for a bit of a stretch.

Welds are MIG. Haven't attempted TIG yet, not sure if my co-ordination levels are up to it. The MIG I used was a real nasty cheap little thing which is why I had to grind all my welds to make it look pretty - lost a lot of time here. Given more time, I would have used it just for tacking the frame together and then taken the whole jig and frame to my old work for finish welding on a nicer machine.

Two last tips are to check out the post on the Winmiter tube-notching template program in the How-to section, and if you have air-tools find some 3M "Roloc" 2 inch sanding discs for dressing welds.

Really sorry for the long-winded post. :roll:
 
Incredible! :mrgreen:
I think that is beautiful.. nice lines, hefty appearance, and the end result is the smile on her face!

Rat Royale
REC Elsewhere
 

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