Hey everybody.
My name's Travis, but you can call me Vonpotter. I'm from Eastern South Dakota. I've lurked the sire for years now and decided it was time.
MY bike story would be as follows: Tinkered on them and rode MTB like crazy when I was a kid, but then I bought a car. Years later, I went off to Wyotech for Streetrod Fab and Custom Paint. During my time there I fell into a BMX phase. Graduated and moved, forgot about bikes again. Years later, I realized that living on the flats isnt too conducive to MTB or BMX. Got back into bikes for the third time. This time was the most addictive. I started building Cruisers, Single Speeds, Fixies, MTBs, Roadies, Choppers, Tallbikes, Trailers, Racks, Tools, Doodads. Its gotten so bad that I design parts and accessories in my free time at the day job, and work part time at the LBS.
But really. You aren't reading this to learn about some weird dude in the middle of South Dakota. You want to see some bikes.
This one started out as a dept. store 10 speed. I think it was an All-Pro. I stripped the frame down, removed all the cable ties and brakes. I had an extra set of s6 wheels laying around with a coaster brake in the back. Then I decided that a woodgrain paint scheme would be perfect for the bike. I call this one my faux-fixie. all the clean looks and tall gear ratio of a fixie, but with the ability to stop
This was one of my first builds when I got back into building bikes again. I'm a pretty short dude, so I wanted to build up the "Ultimate BMX"
This bike has since made a triumphant return to my scrap heap. Just wasnt what I wanted it to be
This next one is by far one of my favorite builds. Started out as a kids 20" from the late 80's early 90's I'm pretty sure it was a Murray
That was upon first completion. It had exercise bike parts on it at this point. (they were leftover from a failed project) the pedal actually snapped in half about 2 hours after this picture
The second phase of the bike: It grew a few feet longer and a few cans heavier. Sadly the cooler idea kind of fell through one night after the cooler was a little more empty than full and I had a Beach related accident. It will be rebuilt someday.
Here is how my little Hot-rod bike sits today. It now has nostalgiac Choppper forks on it and a spring seat from a 70's roadbike. Haven't gotten around to the Banana yet.
A friend of mine dug the chopper forks, and was having trouble getting his mini-human to ride bike to school, so we set him straight.
Winter hits pretty hard here in SD, so I decided a Skike was necessary
Yes this is a tandem. But it wasn't always. Started life as two roadmaster mountain bikes. The welder and a few coats of paint fixed that. As it sits now, It has a 3 speed internal hub and is chains and cables away from completion.
I dug this tallbike out of the back of a barn. I haven't really done much with it other than clean it up. It will need a restoration/restructuring someday.
A little out of place on RRB, but hey, I'm showing off the goods, might as well show it all right?
Built myself a nice MTB this summer.This Hard tail Fuji was my first Frame-up build with all new stuff.
Trailer I'm currently working on. The idea is to have a multi purpose trailer that can be reconfigured to many functions with a few turns of the wrench. This is the Crocery/ dog cage version. The trailer's frame is made of Polypropylene and can easily haul 150 pounds. it can be broken all the way down to just a flatbed in minutes
But here is my Crown Jewel (for now) She started life as a 90's Huffy. The purple paint wouldn't do. so it was all stripped down
Before she went in
And after.
Fabbed up a neat rear reflector out of a light housing from....something. fitted with a cut down reflecor and bolted in place. looks good
The rack up front was custom made by me. Its an old Coke flat that will of course hold 4 six-packs of your favorite beverage. The rack is actually constructed of Polypropylene (I work for a plastics fabrication company) which i knew wouldn't suffice if I was trying to make this bike era-specific. So I coated it with the same Hammered steel look paint that coats my chainguard and stem
After the first test ride with the Beer...err Coke rack, We discovered the hard way that something was missing
I also fabbed up a cupholder
Decided the cruiser needed a little more "uniqueness" so I felt the need to add an air horn. Now powering an air horn is easy. If you have a tank. Filling a tank is easy, if you have a schraeder valve. releasing air into the air horn on a bicycle? not so easy. Enter the fire extinguisher.
Soft copper tubing runs from the tank to the horn, and its activated by squeezing the handle. gave the tank a quick repaint to match and hit the streets to test it out. Trust me it is LOUD
That's all for now. I currently have 2 other cruisers in the works for the wifey, and another low-down cruiser in the works for me (will be very salt-flat inspired when finished)
Look forward to building with you guys. Feel free to lend out any suggestions, criticism, or whatnot.
VP
My name's Travis, but you can call me Vonpotter. I'm from Eastern South Dakota. I've lurked the sire for years now and decided it was time.
MY bike story would be as follows: Tinkered on them and rode MTB like crazy when I was a kid, but then I bought a car. Years later, I went off to Wyotech for Streetrod Fab and Custom Paint. During my time there I fell into a BMX phase. Graduated and moved, forgot about bikes again. Years later, I realized that living on the flats isnt too conducive to MTB or BMX. Got back into bikes for the third time. This time was the most addictive. I started building Cruisers, Single Speeds, Fixies, MTBs, Roadies, Choppers, Tallbikes, Trailers, Racks, Tools, Doodads. Its gotten so bad that I design parts and accessories in my free time at the day job, and work part time at the LBS.
But really. You aren't reading this to learn about some weird dude in the middle of South Dakota. You want to see some bikes.
This one started out as a dept. store 10 speed. I think it was an All-Pro. I stripped the frame down, removed all the cable ties and brakes. I had an extra set of s6 wheels laying around with a coaster brake in the back. Then I decided that a woodgrain paint scheme would be perfect for the bike. I call this one my faux-fixie. all the clean looks and tall gear ratio of a fixie, but with the ability to stop
This was one of my first builds when I got back into building bikes again. I'm a pretty short dude, so I wanted to build up the "Ultimate BMX"
This bike has since made a triumphant return to my scrap heap. Just wasnt what I wanted it to be
This next one is by far one of my favorite builds. Started out as a kids 20" from the late 80's early 90's I'm pretty sure it was a Murray
That was upon first completion. It had exercise bike parts on it at this point. (they were leftover from a failed project) the pedal actually snapped in half about 2 hours after this picture
The second phase of the bike: It grew a few feet longer and a few cans heavier. Sadly the cooler idea kind of fell through one night after the cooler was a little more empty than full and I had a Beach related accident. It will be rebuilt someday.
Here is how my little Hot-rod bike sits today. It now has nostalgiac Choppper forks on it and a spring seat from a 70's roadbike. Haven't gotten around to the Banana yet.
A friend of mine dug the chopper forks, and was having trouble getting his mini-human to ride bike to school, so we set him straight.
Winter hits pretty hard here in SD, so I decided a Skike was necessary
Yes this is a tandem. But it wasn't always. Started life as two roadmaster mountain bikes. The welder and a few coats of paint fixed that. As it sits now, It has a 3 speed internal hub and is chains and cables away from completion.
I dug this tallbike out of the back of a barn. I haven't really done much with it other than clean it up. It will need a restoration/restructuring someday.
A little out of place on RRB, but hey, I'm showing off the goods, might as well show it all right?
Built myself a nice MTB this summer.This Hard tail Fuji was my first Frame-up build with all new stuff.
Trailer I'm currently working on. The idea is to have a multi purpose trailer that can be reconfigured to many functions with a few turns of the wrench. This is the Crocery/ dog cage version. The trailer's frame is made of Polypropylene and can easily haul 150 pounds. it can be broken all the way down to just a flatbed in minutes
But here is my Crown Jewel (for now) She started life as a 90's Huffy. The purple paint wouldn't do. so it was all stripped down
Before she went in
And after.
Fabbed up a neat rear reflector out of a light housing from....something. fitted with a cut down reflecor and bolted in place. looks good
The rack up front was custom made by me. Its an old Coke flat that will of course hold 4 six-packs of your favorite beverage. The rack is actually constructed of Polypropylene (I work for a plastics fabrication company) which i knew wouldn't suffice if I was trying to make this bike era-specific. So I coated it with the same Hammered steel look paint that coats my chainguard and stem
After the first test ride with the Beer...err Coke rack, We discovered the hard way that something was missing
I also fabbed up a cupholder
Decided the cruiser needed a little more "uniqueness" so I felt the need to add an air horn. Now powering an air horn is easy. If you have a tank. Filling a tank is easy, if you have a schraeder valve. releasing air into the air horn on a bicycle? not so easy. Enter the fire extinguisher.
Soft copper tubing runs from the tank to the horn, and its activated by squeezing the handle. gave the tank a quick repaint to match and hit the streets to test it out. Trust me it is LOUD
That's all for now. I currently have 2 other cruisers in the works for the wifey, and another low-down cruiser in the works for me (will be very salt-flat inspired when finished)
Look forward to building with you guys. Feel free to lend out any suggestions, criticism, or whatnot.
VP
