Strip dragger

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Joined
Apr 19, 2012
Messages
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Location
Whangarei,New Zealand
Finally found the frame/fork, the fork is not original, its from a 27inch road bike but most likely will swap for a longer fork
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It's a 20inch wheel frame, plan is to sand down the frame, check and smooth the bondo/bog, I have a vintage front wheel I think maybe 22in with skinny tyre for that vintage drag front wheel look, fat back tyre, not sure of the rest yet but will be tall bars and B seat
 
I like the crown on the fork. Does it have a lock in there?
Not the locking ones but I know them, this is a Raleigh fork from the chopper era, o think they used this style for a while on a range of their bikes, probably copied from the euro bikes with the locks, it takes a 26 or maybe 27 inch wheel, I like it but I have a slightly longer old skool fork for 28inch wheel that I may use to give it overall chopper/drag length
 
Cool details on the frame and that Raleigh fork should give it just the right amount of chop to it.
 
Cool details on the frame and that Raleigh fork should give it just the right amount of chop to it.
Thankyou and I had to bondo and smooth the seat clamp area as the post is well and truly stuck in the seat tube, not sure if I want to do straight bars for a proper dragstrip look or more apeish bars for a street look, we will see, it's another loose plan build that will take shape as I go
 
Mock ups. Show us everything!
Starting to cobble together parts, to start with I found the drag style front wheel, 20 spokes, a little worse than I thought but I will see how well the scrunched up tin foil trick works, ultimately may have to paint hub, spokes, and centre line of rim leaving the outer rim chrome, we will see
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You can just make out the chrome rim on either side of the tyre giving it the stretched over look although it's not low profile looking from the side
It's 18x1 3/8 wheel and matching tyre, the rim is 40mm wide
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And the tyre holds air
 
Most definitely, if I can't get the rim cleaned up nice it will have to be plan b for a front wheel,I don't want it to be too rough and ready, tonight I mocked up with a street look but no photo's yet, I will do 3 mock ups, 70s Street, proper drag strip and finally a more rebellious hardcore look
 
So here the old skool 70's mockup with the lower wider apes, not going to play around with the back much other than wheel/tyre choice and whether to go with chrome for old skool look or black for a more modern look sissy bar, seat will be most likely my black banana seat with the white stripes from my "low certification" build, may do some sort of wheelie bars/parachute bag but not sure, paint in my mind will still be black but again who knows I may go with patina scheme
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Beautiful sunny rainy sunny climate of NZ, day off today so in between chores around the home I'm putting in work on a few bikes, here's a mockup with the drop bars, I didn't think I would like this style but actually looks super cool
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We got Stormy weather coming in for a few days so taking advantage of the so far nice day
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Looking at your last picture I kind of get why lots of people call New Zealand the "Switzerland of Down Under". Nice!
Thank you, I live in a city called Whangarei which is in a basin so nicely and mostly closed in by hills and ridge lines and a nice town basin with cool marina, it is a good country to live in, it does seem to be a destination to live, lots of English and European people come to live, a reasonable amount of u.s/Canadians too, if you want cold and snow in winter and hot in summer then the south island is for you, if you want warm winters and hotter summers then the upper end of the north island where I am is for you, we like our patch of land around our homes so hardly any semi detached or rows of joined houses, I would say the beaches coves and bays are the drawcard for tourist, absolutely beautiful, I do miss the ancient history of England where I grew up, as NZ only has a few hundred years of colonial building history, with a population of just over 5 million there's plenty of room to spread out
 
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