Renegade

[100 mile howie]

I built this extended fork for my skinny wheel entry but the 20" tire was oversize, so what to do? Use it on a different frame and enter this genre. I am not known for being a multitasker, so this is a bit of a strech for me. Here again I am challenging myself to do a credable job of it with parts that I already have on hand. Its fun so far and I hope that you guys are enjoying your projects as well.

 

[GeePig]

That is a nice fork you have there. I have a number of small forks like that, and I should do something with them as well.

 

[MattiThundrrr]

I don't know that specific bike, but that looks like a Tange sticker on the seatpost...good steel. With that and the sweet splatter paint, I'm guessing late 80s/early 90s MTB. Should be funky fun. Are the shocks functional after the stretch?

 

[100 mile howie]

I don't know that specific bike, but that looks like a Tange sticker on the seatpost...good steel. With that and the sweet splatter paint, I'm guessing late 80s/early 90s MTB. Should be funky fun. Are the shocks functional after the stretch?

I just checked the sticker and it reads 1020 Hi-Ten Uni-Lite, but the design of it imitates the Tange ones.
The paint on that frame is unusually tough, glossy and best of all cool. I'm pretty sure that it was a department store bike that had a few upgraded parts on it that I wanted for a project. I gutted the shocks and welded them solidly to the extensions. I suppose funtionality could be retained if I had the patience to figure it out. The extension was as much challenge as I wanted to take on and it had several little problems. I don't know yet how the bike will handle set up like this, but soon.

 

[tucker]

Great name Howie. The frame and fork look good. Let us know how it rides.

 

[100 mile howie]

The paint on the fork is cured enough to assemble on the frame and I just had to get the wheels on it to get a better idea about this evolution. Its looking sort of tall and short even without the apes on it yet. Sometimes to me

it looks kind of tractorish with the widely different size wheels. lol.

 

[OddJob]

Really digging the closely matched vintage whitewalls on this, custom fork, frame color, and overall stance.

I see hot rod. And as a farm boy growing up, after my bicycle, my first motorized 'hot rod' was our farm tractor!

 

[Pondo]

It's looking good already, I really like the forks! I think the proportions will show better with bars and seat installed. Great start, it's going to be a cool bike!

 

[metalchewy]

The paint on the fork is cured enough to assemble on the frame and I just had to get the wheels on it to get a better idea about this evolution. Its looking sort of tall and short even without the apes on it yet. Sometimes to me View attachment 215005it looks kind of tractorish with the widely different size wheels. lol.

Love the tire size differences.

Looking really good.

You might think about bringing those front forks down a bit to straighten out the frame and get those pedals closer to ground.

You can always trim the top of fork tubes once you decide the height.

 

[100 mile howie]

Love the tire size differences.

Looking really good.

You might think about bringing those front forks down a bit to straighten out the frame and get those pedals closer to ground.

You can always trim the top of fork tubes once you decide the height.

I'm going to see how the bike handles before I change the stance and geometry. The way it sits now reminds me of the motorcycles that were modified with fork extenders in the 70s.

 

[100 mile howie]

Backtracking a little, a shot of welding the head tube extension in place.

 

[100 mile howie]

She's a roller now. 1st test ride soon.

 

[GeePig]

Backtracking a little, a shot of welding the head tube extension in place.View attachment 215370

I mostly spend my time cutting them shorter, but I would like to have a go at extending some of mine like this. That's a nice job!

 

[100 mile howie]

I slapped on the first bars and saddle that came to hand and took her out for a test spin. I was pleasantly surprised at how well behaved and predictable it handled. Now I find myself wondering if I dropped the back end a few inches which would slacken the head angle, how would it affect the handling characteristics? I could cut the chain stays between the bottom bracket and the little fender mount cross tube, bend the rear triangle up and back and weld in a filler to reatatch the stays to the bb. Or I could try to make a bolt-on extension to kick the rear wheel up and back, resulting in drop and stretch and maybe staying within range of the original brake pivots?

 

[MattiThundrrr]

Or I could try to make a bolt-on extension to kick the rear wheel up and back, resulting in drop and stretch and maybe staying within range of the original brake pivots?

Extensions would definitely be easiest, and if you don't like the ride, it's always easy to undo. I don't know about getting brakes to line up though, could be possible, but my mind's eye can't see it. Cutting and welding would be simpler for the brakes and derailleur. Is there anything left on the front fork that could mount a brake?

 

[100 mile howie]

Extensions would definitely be easiest, and if you don't like the ride, it's always easy to undo. I don't know about getting brakes to line up though, could be possible, but my mind's eye can't see it. Cutting and welding would be simpler for the brakes and derailleur. Is there anything left on the front fork that could mount a brake?

You are right about the bolt-on extension being easy to undo if the desired results are not achieved and we will see if its possible to line up the brake. There is a bridge on the fork sliders, but it is very close to the 20" tire as the fork was originally for a smaller wheel. Here again, some modification could accomodate a front brake.

 

[Ulu]

Howie, I would keep the anchors and mod the brake mechanism. You should be able to move that wheel back and up a few inches.

As you drop the tail of the bike, the steering gets slower and slower, requiring you to lean more in a turn. The forks will also start to flop. Imagine if you dropped the tail until the forks were parallel with the ground, you would have zero steering and 100% flop.

Here’s something that I have been wanting to try but I haven’t had the time to get around to it yet.

Make a sissy bar with a substantial mounting base that attaches to the frame in more than one place. Move the wheel to drop outs added on the sissy bar itself.

Of course this type of sissy bar will not pivot on the axle so you have to get the seat position just right the first time.

 

[100 mile howie]

I decided to try dropping and extending the rear a moderate amount by the addition of a bolt-on extension. I started with two pieces of 2" X 6" x 1/8" aluminum. I drilled a 3/8" hole close to either end and mounted the wheel on one end and the other to the triangular cutout in the dropout. I then pivoted the wheel upwards right up to the seat stay bridge.

 

[100 mile howie]

I then pivoted the wheel down until the brakes were in range of the rim. I marked carefully for a hole for the second bolt in the dropout to lock the extension in place.

 

[100 mile howie]