Something out of nothing

[oldgreaser]

Starting with a pile of un-related stuff, frame stripped of paint, unknown fork, 27 x 1 1/4 wheel. 24 inch MTB rims

Going for something like this, with a seat built on the rear fender. Plans are to shorten the length of the frame, widen the rear and get the down tube right on top of and following the front tire better.

Unlaced the 24 " wheels, going to cut 1 side off each and reattach into 1 wide rim.

 

[oldgreaser]

Widening this rim using the same method OneHorsePower used, and in the how- to section. Started with a few hacksaw cuts up to the radius. Then bent this section out to get the cut started.

Used my sawzall clamped down on the bench with a blade guide to not take off too much material and get it cut as straight as possible.

Got them cut, still needed a lot of filing, sanding. Got a 2 inch wide piece of 1/8 aluminum from the Home Depot, It's bent into a circle and fitted to the 2 rim parts.

 

[LukeTheJoker]

Very cool and a great start! Keep it coming!

Luke.

 

[oldgreaser]

Aluminum strip was 72 inches long and about 53 inches are needed to go around the rim. Bent around and pressed rim halves on. Really tight fit and no gap where the strip comes together.

With the 2 halves touching, the 2 inch wide aluminum hangs over.

Spacing them 1/4 inch apart, makes the profile on the outside look better. Rim bead to bead measures 2 inches.

Bad pic for now, but the widener doesn't stick out past the radius,

 

[LukeTheJoker]

That looks great! Make sure your rim strip or whatever you end up using covers the cut edges well to protect the tube though. Love these homemade fat rims!

Luke.

 

[XC204]

Very cool! The saws all trick with the guide on the opposite side I gotta remember really good Idea . Let me know if you need any thing welded.

 

[oldgreaser]

Thanks Luke, count on the rim strip to be a homemade solution. (cheap ) Looking for small Allen head bolts and nuts or rivets, either method, strong enough to hold, easy to protect from the tube, and not terribly ugly on the outside.

XC204, if I would have had a longer, stiffer blade for the handheld jigsaw, I would have used it. It was late and Harbor Freight was closed. Thanks for the offer on welding. On this project, I will glob together the frame myself. I'll take you up on that offer when it's time to add disc brakes brackets to the other project.

 

[ifitsfreeitsforme]

very clever. Thanks for sharing.

 

[LukeTheJoker]

Looking for small Allen head bolts and nuts or rivets, either method, strong enough to hold, easy to protect from the tube, and not terribly ugly on the outside.

What about screwback spikes? They would look cool, would probably need to loctite the threads to stop them coming undone, but they really could look awesome! Check this out, 100 would cost only $8 delivered...

http://www.ebay.com/itm/10mm-Cone-Screw ... 43bbb185b4

Just an idea...

Luke.

 

[oldgreaser]

Luke,
Thanks for the idea. The spikes are a little medieval for me.

WD-40 and steel wool took the rust off the rim half. Started spacing the width with 2 pencil lines 1/4 inch apart down the center of the widener. That required pulling 1 rim side off and fighting it back on. That got the width close, drilled and screwed 4 holes in the outermost spoke holes, to get started . Then cut this angle at 2.200 inch, and clamped and moved along checking and rechecking.

This photo for illustration purposes only. Bending and clamping scratched the aluminium pretty bad, polished happened when I got 4 screws in each side. Using #6-32 x 1/2 countersink phillips screws, they sit reasonably low, flat in the spoke holes, I don't expect to have an issue with covering them with rim strip. On the outside acorn nuts.

28 holes drilled, deburred and screwed with a drop of epoxy

This is where things get more complicated. My idea was to reuse the original 28 hole rear hub from one of the rims and the spokes.

The rim turned out so much better than I expected that I rethought the hub........... the coaster brake would be better. It's 36 hole and a different flange diameter. After going to 3 different on-line spoke calculators and comparing results.Switching the lacing pattern it might be possible to reuse the spokes and lace in the coaster hub. The coaster hub was a little wobbly and needed excessive back pedaling to brake, disassembled and cleaned up there was a ball bearing missing. Regreased, polished ready to go in. Plus offset sprockets are available for these.

Next up, lay out for the Re-drilling spoke holes.

 

[LukeTheJoker]

Wow! Seriously nice work!

Luke.

 

[XC204]

Impressed!

 

[oldgreaser]

36 spoke holes laid out on masking tape, stuck on to get the least interference with screws that hold the rims together. Repositioned so only 2 spoke holes had to get moved over 2 or 3 mm.

All screws in, spoke holes drilled, demurred. Better shot of the installed height of screw heads.

4 cross lacing, worked out so far.

Sits like this right now, starting truing tonight. Really need to get the fat tire mounted to get the frame changes started.

 

[LukeTheJoker]

That rim is nice!

Luke.

 

[Endlesschain]

looking good,wish I had the time to do this

 

[iven]

Nice work buddy.. My next build is going to be a fatty '20 dual rum bike.
Gotta love the gehtto double rims haha

 

[ADDiLiberto]

craftmen ship is absolutely amazing amazing bike . cheers brother

 

[ornery37]

that is a very cool idea, Nice Job!

 

[oldgreaser]

Thanks to all for the compliments, soon there will be welding, then it's going to get ugly. Now on to the frame. Nice curved pipe just needs to be in the right spot. Cut off the top tube and using it to continue the curve, trying to follow the front tire.

Whoa, All chopped up,That looks more like a pile for the scrap man that a bike. Didn't like the distance between the down tube and the front tire.

This is how I attached the 2 tubes together. The smaller piece is 1 1/2 inch long cut off, slotted and squeezed to fit inside the frame tubing. 3 holes drilled in each end to make plug welds on 2 connecting pieces. Later I'll go around the tube.

Tacked together, radius looks okay,follows the tire, I wanted the down tube closer to the tire. Cut 3/8 inch off the bottom of the head tube. Changed front tire to 26 x 1 3/8,

Too much clearance here.

Cut, grinded, and filed the drop outs off the fork, then 7/8 inch off the tubes. Pressed the drop outs back into the fork tubes.

Still need to take off a little more,

Next time, more cutting, welding and rear drop outs.

 

[LukeTheJoker]

Nice work! I love the way you are inserting steel behind the weld, nice and strong!

Luke.