Rough Dayton Huffman Twin flex frame

[PeteMcP]

Oh man...with the fog of years of neglect clearing, we're beginning to see the vision you had in mind for that frame when you made the wise decision to fund its cross-continent journey.
I'm a motorizing guy, so I can only imagine how cool that sprung frame would look paired with a pre-war '30s Villiers twin-port motor (pic attached) I have in my lounge here. I'm visualizing the combo with a riveted/patina'd in-frame tank as we speak...!
Inspired so much by the sprung rear end of this rare beauty of a frame.... enough to want to have a stab at fabbing same kind of set-up on a future build.

 

[Gravelgrinder59]

Wow that motor is crazy! Funny you’d say that about putting motor in it. The guy who gracious got it for me, thought it was from some kind of moped/whizzer. Like the visual of a riveted tank. Not a motor guy, but it would make killer motorized ride, but for me I’d never go that route with this.

 

[Sphinx]

Id like to respond to your comment again. I can tell you and I think alike. I got people calling this frame a “ rust bucket” and a “ Sh——y” looking frame? This is “ Ratrodbikes “ by the way people. I Don’t get people putting fake patina on new bikes and stripping nice “Real patina” off old. You maybe be wondering why I’m doing what I’m doing ? Because I my opinion, and if you’d seen in person the frame I received few days ago you might agree. If I didn’t already have bare metal builds I might heed your advice. ,if you look at my other builds you can see I don’t mind crust. Look at what I been riding lately, crustiest frame I’ve ever built up. I like your idea. Kudos to you for seeing beauty in the rough. I appreciate that a lot. I also know I don’t need to sand it, I’m gonna have it bead blasted in the end anyway. In some weird way I like sanding and spending time with bike in my hands cleaning it up. I don’t want to just hand off a bike and let someone else do it all .

I think sometimes people want something so bad, they berate it in hopes to kill your spirit and talk you into giving up on it, maybe even selling it at a loss. Don't let that happen. I have one of those as well, I've had it forever, time for doing anything with it just hasn't materialized yet. I'd rather saw it in a hundred pieces than have someone beat me up on it. When you own some cool stuff, you tend to attract a lot of "Instant Buddies".

 

[Tallbikeman]

What a cool full suspension design from back in the day. Looking forward to seeing the painted version of this lovely old bike.

 

[Tallbikeman]

Oh man...with the fog of years of neglect clearing, we're beginning to see the vision you had in mind for that frame when you made the wise decision to fund its cross-continent journey.
I'm a motorizing guy, so I can only imagine how cool that sprung frame would look paired with a pre-war '30s Villiers twin-port motor (pic attached) I have in my lounge here. I'm visualizing the combo with a riveted/patina'd in-frame tank as we speak...!
Inspired so much by the sprung rear end of this rare beauty of a frame.... enough to want to have a stab at fabbing same kind of set-up on a future build.
View attachment 183954

I've seen a lot of motorized cruiser bicycles and their frames from mild steel really don't hold up well. I believe that the frame and fork need to be a bit tougher, therefore heavier, if made in steel. Mopeds use 50cc two stroke engines and they are a much stronger build than your everyday cruiser style bike. And they hold up much better under use. I think copying this twin suspension design but in a stronger way would be wonderful for a motorized bicycle.

 

[PeteMcP]

I've seen a lot of motorized cruiser bicycles and their frames from mild steel really don't hold up well. I believe that the frame and fork need to be a bit tougher, therefore heavier, if made in steel. Mopeds use 50cc two stroke engines and they are a much stronger build than your everyday cruiser style bike. And they hold up much better under use. I think copying this twin suspension design but in a stronger way would be wonderful for a motorized bicycle.

I agree whole-heartedly. My previous and my current ongoing motorized builds (pics below) were constructed using frames that were reinforced with waterjet-cut gussets and slugged DOM tube inserts to provide additional strength where necessary. A very real design consideration if using any motor other than the standard itsy bitsy China Girl 66/80cc engines.

 

[MattiThundrrr]

N
Those are nice gussets/panels. Do you cut them yourself?

 

[PeteMcP]

N
Those are nice gussets/panels. Do you cut them yourself?

Thanks Matt. Profile cut from my drawings by local metal fabrication company here in the North East UK who offer flame, laser and water-jet cutting in a variety of metals and thicknesses amongst their many other services. Surprisingly cheap to be honest. Way more cost effective than buying-in the raw materials and spending forever laboriously hand-cutting parts such as these.