Suhr Bicycles

[LarzBahrs]

http://www.jalopyjournal.com/forum/show ... p?t=284002

Found this while browsing the hamb, these bikes are pretty sweet if i might say. I did a search on here for it and did not see any posts so i thought you guys would enjoy it.

 

[gashuffy63]

Bookmarked, thanks for posting this, looks like you just came up with the inspiration for my Winter work.

 

[LarzBahrs]

Helping outs what I'm here for. Cant wait to see your project when its done!

 

[Chainsaw]

He claims it's rideable and his video shows him riding it, but he's doing very little pedaling. Most of his riding is coasting. I'd love to see this bike on a five mile ride that isn't all downhill. I think his face would look like this ....
Take his measurments of the bike, the fact that he's 6 foot tall and do the math. Not much comfortable pedaling and in the vid his knees seem to get in the way of turning.

As a pedal bike ..... Can he ride it .... Yes. Is it rideable ... I say No.
I'm 5"10" 300 lbs. I can ride a kids tricycle but (for me) a kid's trike is not rideable. The same is true of a Greyhound bus with pedals. On a downhill I can pedal it and ride it but it's not rideable under normal conditions.
The bike has a nice look and would be a cool gravity racer as is. The motor will definitely make it a fun ride.

 

[LarzBahrs]

Its more of a show of his talent as a builder, fuctional art... thats what custom building is about

 

[Uncle Stretch]

I build a bunch of frames, and I expect some people to like them and some not. I have learned that no matter what the end product looks like if that person took the time to build his own frame , then he tries. That kid has the skills. His welding is top notch and I liked his design. If he doesn't stop he will only get better.

 

[Chainsaw]

Its more of a show of his talent as a builder, fuctional art... thats what custom building is about

I'm not knocking the bike as far as it's looks. In fact I like it. I also appreciate all the time and work spent in creating the bike. Is this your bike or a friend of yours? You started the thread like it was someone elses, but you seemed to have taken some offense to my reply. If I offended you, I'm sorry.

Also I do realize that everyone has their own interpretation of what rideable is. All I was stating is that the way he has it set up, even for him, it didn't seem very comfortable or agile to ride. He seemed to be having problems pedaling and turning. It coasted real nice though!

As far as functional art, yeah I guess it's funtional as bicycle art. It's even funtional as a regular bike if the builder's goal is to ride it around a show or festival or a few hundred feet in front of his house. It's even functional as a pub crawler providing the crawl isn't very far.

But to ride it for any signifcant distance the way it it set up and actually pedaling it, in my opinion makes it not rideable, even for the builder. Like I said earlier everybody has their own definitions of "rideable".

"Custom building" is also open to interpretation.
In my opinion ...Whether it's a bike, car, motorcycle or boat, it should serve the purpose of being ridden or driven. What the driver or rider is willing to put up with while doing so is their concern. I"ve never been fond of trailer queens or "wanna be" human transporters. The vehicle of choice should be able to prove itself roadworthy. Otherwise it's just the vehicle saying,
"Look at me! I'm not living up to my potential, but I sure am pretty!"

The guys that I build and ride with ARE custom builders of bicycles. Our group's bikes bring home plenty of the trophies from the shows we enter and several of our bikes make it into various magazines or webzines. Many of our show bikes average several hundreds of miles a year. :lol: We build to ride first and formost, the ooohs and ahhhs come because people see that our bikes are fully rideable for distances.

 

[LarzBahrs]

Its no worries chainsaw, I'm not offended by any means I understand where your coming from now and I apologize for the brashness in my comment. It is a strangers bike that just happened to come upon so ive got no personal ties :mrgreen:

 

[Chainsaw]

It's all good Larz. :wink:
I sometimes come across as an A-hole to people but I only post when something or someone catches my eye. I'm always interested in knowing what other people's perceptions are on a subject and I sometimes use my posts as a cattle prod to get things moving. All of us are learning from others on the board and I think that it eventually makes the custom bike scene stronger. Some may disagree and that's o.k. too. 8)

I actually got back into custom bike building about 6 years ago because Sam McKay had his version of a boardtracker posted on his site. I've always been interested in the history of the old motorcycle boardtrackers, flattrackers and speedway bikes. So because of Sam's bike I was inspired to build my own modern version of a boardtracker minus the engine. Someday I hope to find the pictures of my old bike or possibly get the frame back out and finish it like it really needed to be done.

I think that if the guy in the video had stretched the bike out a little more and/or moved the seat back 3 or four inches, he would have enjoy peddling the bike more. It definitely would have been "sized" better for him. By itself, the bike ROCKS! But with him on it, the bike is way too small.

Thanks for your comments,
Chainy

 

[Lonewolf]

I love how he only had a few cursory pictures and then a frame fixture pic and then the final result. It made him look like he did everything in a few minutes.

Even still, he is a supreme hoss and very talented.


"Hmmm, let's see.... I like that bike. Pow! done."