Hey everyone,
I just found this site as I searched for more about scratch building bikes and thought I would share the one I built over the summer.
This is my first build, and it was difficult but, there are so many cool ideas on this site, it is going to be hard to stop with building just one...
So the story goes my son and I were looking at bikes online and saw some lowriders that he thought were pretty cool. Since I have some interest in building stuff, I figured I could crank out one from an old mountain bike my neighbor gave me and some other cobbled together stuff. Should take ohhhh "about 2 weeks". Well about 3 months later and a whole bunch of $$, I made a bike.
I wish I had taken more pictures along the way but I didn't think I would be posting about it.
Anyway, I started with an old but complete steel mountain bike from my neighbor (free!). I managed to grab this picture after I had hacked the back triangle off:
That was also about the time I build this wood "buck" to see if I could fit my son on such a stretched bike:
I then layed out the whole thing on some cardboard to get an idea (at this point, I still have no idea what I have gotten myself into).
Surely it would be as simple as laying it out on some cardboard, cutting some tube and smashing it all together - right?
I got all antsy because I didn't want to use just straight tubing. So let's try bending some stuff. Well the tube filled with sand bent over a form was a failure (and I second degree burn for my son).
Boom! More tubing ($) and a tubing roller ($) and some 1-1/4 dies ($) and I was up and rolling (sorry - pun):
It was hard to keep things flat (I should have started with some type of jig system from the start). I ended up with this, a sheet of plywood, with 2x4 underneath, and a whole bunch of spade bit drilled blocks. This was also my first real attempt at building something useful with a TIG welder, so that slowed things down (like someone else posted - "I've seen your welds, and you're getting a welder for Christmas". I finally ended up using the bottom bracket, head tube, and rear triangle (although I cut it up) from the original mountain bike. The rest was bent and welded by me. The original MTB fork looked awful with the rest of the bike, so I sprung for a triple tree.
Dreaming of what it would look like. Nothing beats the satisfaction of my son getting his first look at 144 spokes of bling.
Partway through paint. My neighbors thought I was putting together some type of gallows. They put up with a lot throughout this whole ordeal.
The finished article. It took way too long, it cost way too much, and it is a torture sled to ride but I still get a giggle every time I see my son (or myself) ride it.
Thanks for reading!
I just found this site as I searched for more about scratch building bikes and thought I would share the one I built over the summer.
This is my first build, and it was difficult but, there are so many cool ideas on this site, it is going to be hard to stop with building just one...
So the story goes my son and I were looking at bikes online and saw some lowriders that he thought were pretty cool. Since I have some interest in building stuff, I figured I could crank out one from an old mountain bike my neighbor gave me and some other cobbled together stuff. Should take ohhhh "about 2 weeks". Well about 3 months later and a whole bunch of $$, I made a bike.
I wish I had taken more pictures along the way but I didn't think I would be posting about it.
Anyway, I started with an old but complete steel mountain bike from my neighbor (free!). I managed to grab this picture after I had hacked the back triangle off:
That was also about the time I build this wood "buck" to see if I could fit my son on such a stretched bike:
I then layed out the whole thing on some cardboard to get an idea (at this point, I still have no idea what I have gotten myself into).
Surely it would be as simple as laying it out on some cardboard, cutting some tube and smashing it all together - right?
I got all antsy because I didn't want to use just straight tubing. So let's try bending some stuff. Well the tube filled with sand bent over a form was a failure (and I second degree burn for my son).
Boom! More tubing ($) and a tubing roller ($) and some 1-1/4 dies ($) and I was up and rolling (sorry - pun):
It was hard to keep things flat (I should have started with some type of jig system from the start). I ended up with this, a sheet of plywood, with 2x4 underneath, and a whole bunch of spade bit drilled blocks. This was also my first real attempt at building something useful with a TIG welder, so that slowed things down (like someone else posted - "I've seen your welds, and you're getting a welder for Christmas". I finally ended up using the bottom bracket, head tube, and rear triangle (although I cut it up) from the original mountain bike. The rest was bent and welded by me. The original MTB fork looked awful with the rest of the bike, so I sprung for a triple tree.
Dreaming of what it would look like. Nothing beats the satisfaction of my son getting his first look at 144 spokes of bling.
Partway through paint. My neighbors thought I was putting together some type of gallows. They put up with a lot throughout this whole ordeal.
The finished article. It took way too long, it cost way too much, and it is a torture sled to ride but I still get a giggle every time I see my son (or myself) ride it.
Thanks for reading!