Pre-School Chopper

Rat Rod Bikes Bicycle Forum

Help Support Rat Rod Bikes Bicycle Forum:

This site may earn a commission from merchant affiliate links, including eBay, Amazon, and others.
Joined
Jun 27, 2017
Messages
2,099
Reaction score
6,308
Location
Willow Spring, NC
Won't be a real old school chopper, but I will be taking styling queues from old school sickles to do something with this freeby 16" Huffy BMX-ish bicycle.
IMG_20190915_183535.jpg

The size charts say this size bike is for 4 to 8 year old kids. I started on a 20" Huffy convertible at 5 and rode it until 8 or 10 or so then went to a 24 incher. This poor thing seems so tiny. Can't imagine a 7 year old kid stuck with riding it!
Anyway, I have a 26" fork planned for install on this bike and a smallish set of apes that may be a little big on Junior here. LOL
Also some new tires are planned. Something more streetable. Maybe white walls.
I want to give it an old school motorcycle chopper vibe something like these...
ba18dfbed51c4129193be1ff45fd09ec.jpg


171.jpg


Pretty tall order for such a small bike.

Got my first grandkid coming the end of March. May just keep this one tucked away until the little one is ready to ride next summer! LOL
 
Last edited:
Tried some mock-ups this evening. Black forks are some 24 inchers I had. Blue ones are 26". Figure the brake mounts can be used in fabbing a truss/fake springer.

Also have a wooden display cart to build this month for my daughter-in-law's pottery business. She needs it by November 1 for the holiday shopping season. Gonna have 24" wheels so can't enter it in the build off. :)
c9cd03ca5bc4cab7061b9b768e51ad67.jpg
d2833d4de93de8c76739100932407d42.jpg
70bb73f88e127543cbaea38f0836299d.jpg


Sent from my Pixel 2 XL using Tapatalk
 
Another freebie I'm going to use for parts. Mainly the wheels. The rusty brown ones on the chopper now are pretty flakey on the inside. I wouldn't want my kid to ride on them. These other rims are pretty clean inside. Just trying to keep it really rideable.
62d8eca1133a2c19b4134fde46a1e431.jpg


Sent from my Pixel 2 XL using Tapatalk
 
  • Like
Reactions: KJV
Extensions roughed out and tried on for size. Need a little more work with the grinder and file and some more holes drilled. The idea behind the longer wheelbase was to help decrease the tendency to pop wheelies all the time.
7e209a07e5fd7618aaef7d9b48bd9b16.jpg


Sent from my Pixel 2 XL using Tapatalk
 
A few of us call it Kota bending the forks, after the member @KOTA who while maybe not "pioneered" using a hand electrical conduit bender, he definitely made it popular. It's not that hard to do. Keeping things square and taking your time is the trick. I just set the bender in the original crook of the fork and give it a nice easy pressure bending it just an inch or two, more over to the second fork blade and repeat, moving back and forth little at a time until it's what i want.

Carl.
 

Latest posts

Back
Top