DFBO: Longoria 1908-BTR

longoria · Sep 1, 2007

Well this is my DFBO submission. It is inspired by a 1908 Indian Board Track Racer. This was a frame salvaged from trash day. It was a Magna mountain bike that I found with a bent fork and rusted components. I cut off all the unnecessary tabs and rounded all the welds and joints with Bondo. I fabricated the seat post and seat post bracket out of two seat posts and .500 mild steel tubing, respectively. I cut a Taiwan chrome fender and sanded off the chrome. Everything was sanded and Rustoleum primered before spraying on Rustoleum Regal Red paint. the Fork is Taiwan and the hadlebars are vintage huffy. The wheels and tires came from a What-mart* donor bike. I built it in 10 days and the paint hadn't cured when I assembled it.
I meant to make a torpedo tank for it out of 4" PVC but I had a time constraint and ran out of paint anyway and my Home Depot was out as well. Some gold pinstriping and lettering may follow as well as an motorized bicycle kit.

ratrodrob · Sep 1, 2007

WOW!!! very very nice bike!! i love what you did to the seat. one question tho. is that another pair of forks you are using to hold the back of the seat on?

longoria · Sep 1, 2007

No, not another pair of forks. I used a 1/2" roundstock I bought at Northern Tools. I tried bending it perfectly round to match the curvature of the fender but as you can see I couldnt get it perfectly round because I cold-formed it. The best way to form metal is to heat it. I had to bend and weld together three different peices to get what you saw. I flattened the bottom ends and welded the tab on the top to run a screw to the seat tube I made. I welded the end of the seat tube and then drilled and tapped to accept the screw you see on the back. The fabrication wasn't extensive but just unconventional- just a lot of little details. I didn't want to fill the forum with pictures so I just put up the big stuff. I really hope everyone likes it.
A buddy of mine commented on the seating position but he's used to mtn bikes. If you guys know board trackers, you know that this is the perfect, traditional "monkey on a stick" position. I personally don't think it's the most comfortable either but I just wanted to be true to the idea.

ratrodrob · Sep 1, 2007

don't be silly i would love to see more pictures

ACD · Sep 1, 2007

I'm suddenly embarrased by my Board Tracker. Very nice bike. You got lucky finding a Mountain Bike frame with Horizontal drop outs. I'm using an old 3-spd Columbia and it has the right drop outs but the frame and fork would need expansion for the fat tires from a Wally World Donor... I went and priced em and it's far cheaper to buy the whole bike that just rims and tires..sad. So I'm still on the quest for the solution to my wheel tire problem.