Sting-Gray

[Ulu]

Awesome bro!!

Thank you Sparky.

I’ve had the forks apart on this bike for a few days and I’m trying to decide how I’m going to take the rake out of the triple trees without making brand new ones.

What I’m probably going to do is use two of the top triple trees which have identical offsets, or use two bottoms.

Using the larger bottoms would mean less positive trail than using the tops & I’m trying to get some positive trail.

That means I have to cut the steering tube off of one and weld it on to another

 

[Ulu]

I finally got back to this build a little bit.

I have studied these triple trees quite a bit and decided that I really don’t wanna work with them at all.

Each piece is slightly bent and I don’t have a top tree for the third bottom.

I have three sets of legs, so the best solution might be to make one top from scratch & make it the same as that bottom tree and I won’t put any rake in the assembly.

Or, I should say that I will take the rake out of the bottom.

With a welder and a grinder, so much is possible.

 

[Ulu]

Well much may be possible, but very little has been done, here in bike Project limbo.

I have been Shuffling the Stingray project around in my welding shed with the forks off for months, and I need to get it assembled and out of there.

I decided to use one of the sets of stinkray trees and modify the extra bottom clamp/stem into a top clamp. This will get rid of the excess tree rake, which is causing the bike to wobble.

I’m going to end up with whatever trail and rake I end up with, and I will probably play with different wheel sizes until I find something stable. I’m hoping this will be a lot better right off the bat.

So now it’s saw & grinder time. Goodbye, old steering tube…

Dad’s old 1970 Craftsman hacksaw cuts just as crooked as it always did lol.

Mostly I detached this with the hacksaw as my little cut off wheel is not very deep.

Well that’s pretty rough…

Time to grind. Here I have shaved it down on both sides and it’s ready to drill.

Good Lord! Is my little 1/2” drill press actually gonna turn this 1” bit?

Well it did!

Unfortunately there’s a problem.
That’s my largest drill bit and it needs to go out to 1.125” dia.

It’s way too much to file and hone, so I will have to rough grind it first and then straighten it out.

 

[Ulu]

But wait!
I do have a 1.125” on this tree bit.

This worked, but it was a struggle. I had to drill hard weld metal, and this cheapo HarborFright bit got sharpened at least six times. Whew!

Those bits are easy to sharpen but I had to take my setup apart each time.

Here it is after some burnishing on the wire wheels.

I think this is actually going to work!

 

[Ulu]

Before it had too much rake and negative trail. Now it is just barely positive, with the 20” Chinese Huffy mtb wheels.

This makes for a very fast steerer. Not relaxed at all. Not dangerous, But you wouldn’t want to ride this bike without your hands on the bars.

With this arrangement, the top of the fork tubes are not covered so I will need to put some caps on these.

Aside from the fact that going downhill on my driveway felt like exactly 0 trail, the bicycle felt very solid with this triple tree arrangement.

I just buffed these off on the wire wheel, and there is no clear paint or anything on them. I don’t wanna spend much finishing time and then decide I needed to weld something.

In fact I was already planning to weld up the 4 little holes for the reflectors, which establish significant weakness in the front flange of the stampings.


Anyhow, this is a complete and rideable bicycle and was successfully test ridden, and now it’s out of my shed!

I still have most of the parts I need to put together a little huffy bike but I think it’s going to get this front wheel and I’m going to put a 24 inch front wheel on the Sting-gray.

 

[Ulu]

I have been looking at the photographs of this bicycle trying to decide what else it needs. It definitely needs to have alloy crank arms, silver pedals, chrome derailleur, and shiny sprockets.

I guess I could blow it all apart, repaint the frame, put more chrome on it, reupholster the seat, and put it in the build off competition as a muscle bike.

I might do that if there’s time, after I finish working on the chassis for my toy car.

For now, I’m afraid I have to put the bicycles aside until I finish fixing my VW frame.

 

[Slow-Rider]

Well as I was afraid of, stripping chrome electrolytically does produce hexavalent chromium. I can still deal with it. I probably got enough acid to convert it to a less toxic phosphate.

Otherwise I am reduced to acid stripping. I may just go right to this step first.

I didn’t like the flat bars at all and I picked up some more stingray style bars today.
View attachment 196160
I also picked up another stingray seat but I don’t like the color. It’s kind of too turquoise. This sissy bar is too short.

Anyhow now I have a seat I can take apart and put back together and use for a model to make an even larger seat. And more importantly I won’t have to take apart the one on the bike I’m riding every day.

<edit>I’ve looked at that picture for a while now, imagining that bike with all the blue paint scraped off down to bare steel, brush finished and clearcoated.

I think the turquoise seat will be fine. It’s just the blue paint making it look odd.

bring frame to bare meatal flat clear it. throw on a black banana seat. give it the tough guy home built chopper look.

 

[Ulu]

It’s probably my granddaughters who will be riding it. I don’t have any grandsons.

 

[Ulu]

bring frame to bare meatal flat clear it. throw on a black banana seat. give it the tough guy home built chopper look.

I do have a black banana with white stripes and I think I will put it on here.

Also I am pretty sure that I have a chrome seat post to fit this, and alloy crank arms. The ones on it are plastic coated steel.
I haven’t put together the little huffy bike yet. That one would look better with the turquoise seat.

 

[Ulu]

I managed to get to the bicycle shop today and I picked up this like new 24” alloy wheel assembly. I had to mount the tire myself, but I got tire tube liner and wheel for $30.

It’s not inflated in this photograph. I didn’t want to start the air compressor in the middle of the night. LOL

Anyhow, I will put this on tomorrow morning and see how the bike rides with a little more trail.

 

[Ulu]

I charged up the compressor and pumped up the new wheel and put it on the bike for a quick ride. In the process I decided to push all the completes outside and take a photo.

It is quite stable by comparison, but the seat position and bars must go forward now. The center of gravity is too far back.

 

[Ulu]

Despite the photograph, it appears that these seats are exactly the same, except that the black one has better foam because I changed it.

The blue seat is going to wind up on a girls bike.

 

[Ulu]

I put the seat two inches farther forward to improve the weight distribution, and I put the handlebars forward about 3”.

This will improve the riding position, and cut down on the unnecessary wheelies.

I think it looks better already and though I didn’t ride it, I will, and also get some nicer shots outdoors…

 

[Ulu]

All you guys can see that I did not Quit working on the bicycles and Start working on the car. I don’t know why, but I guess because we have car, truck and motorcycle, and all with low miles.

I’ve been putting the car off because I want to drag it in the garage to do the welding. That means I have to evict the car (that my wife drives.)

So I have to have all my ducks in a row before I bring it in here because I will not have an unlimited amount of time to design and try and fit and screw around with it.

Meanwhile, I am juggling too many bicycles in my garage.

 

[Ulu]

Oh yeah, new chopper forks for the Sting-gray!

These are a little bit shopworn, but I got them for a very good price. They are takeoffs from a display bike they never rode.

It looks like they never even tightened the front wheel. This was hanging in their show room.

It has a blemish on it , but it would not photograph. It will have more soon…