The Military Mountain Chopper

[Loki182]

I think a Surly Endomorph would be perfect on the front end.
http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dl...ff12ba2&itemid=220524357191&ff4=263602_263622

TOURIST BEWARE!

Dr. T

That tire would be sick! That's definitely one that i would have to save up to possibly upgrade to down the road though.

A competition compound bow?

nope its a cross bow hes mounting on the handle bars :lol: to shoot all them yapaneese bikes :lol: well i got my plans for this build .but if you sell me the back rim ill be all set :lol: so i dont have to build one ..this chopper is looking great .im going to try to build one but i want my frame to be different .im going to see how yours looks first .it s looking good allready . what size rim are you useing on the front ? you back rim is a 15x8 old cragar rim and the 20"spokes fit good .ok stop reading and get building :lol: it s looking great

Haha, nope not any kind of Bow. Although you guys are giving me bad ideas. :mrgreen:

As of right now I will be using a 26" mtb wheel up front.

*hint* it's not a weapon

"until you reinstall the charging handle."

HAHAHAHA! :lol: I about lost it when I read that. Nope not a rifle either.

Let me know if you guys give up... another hint...

It has nothing to do with the bike, although I might bring it with me to the boardwalk at the beach also.

 

[udallcustombikes]

Fishing Rod? One of those big 20' monsters?

 

[Loki182]

Alright I am going to go ahead and put you guys out of your misery. I don't think you guys would have ever guessed this one...

It's a hand made Carbon fiber long board.

As far as the bike goes, about the only other thing I have been able to get since the last update was to bend up and cut the seat post tube. It still needs to be burned in but I loaned out the welder for the weekend so I'll have to wait a little longer to get that done.

 

[Loki182]

Once again, not a whole lot to update, but I have begun working on the forks. I have decided to go ahead and revert back to the original-original plan which was just to use the triple clamp fork from the BMX bike and extensively modify it. I really liked the idea of building it 100% from scratch but there were just too many variables and I didn't want to ruin the fork geometry. The fork from the BMX bike was originally a suspension fork but I am making it a solid fork. I started by removing the lower suspension part of the fork and was left with a couple foot long, 7/8" diameter fork leg stubs to work from. Well with a little ingenuity and about 3 scrap bike frames I was able to build some spacers to go over those original fork tube stubs so that my new 1 1/4" fork tubes would slip snugly over them which hopefully will ultimately add strength to the design.

The next step it going to be to drill some holes in the new fork legs and plug weld them to my custom spacer/adapter pieces which have already been welded to each other and the original fork tube stubs. Then weld the new fork tubes to the original bottom plate of the triple clamp. I will probabaly add at least one if not more cross braces between the fork tubes also. Once all that is done it is just a matter of figuring out the angle and the actual position of the front wheel on the fork tubes. The nice thing about going with this fork design is that it is going to leave me with a ton of flexibility down the road of how to mount the handlebars. I have been going back and forth a lot but I think I am going to eventually go with some sort of clip-on style bars.

 

[Loki182]

Ok, got quite a bit done last night and this afternoon. I'll keep this short but basically finished building the front fork and welded on the head tube. Also finished up the rear dropouts and welded them on the frame. I also started working on building some dropouts for the front fork out of some 1/4" steel plate. Oh, and don"t mind the handlebars in the pics, they are just for mock up purposes.

 

[mrflibbles]

looking good, doesnt look like theres much left to do!

 

[Loki182]

Went out today and busted out the front dropouts. It's hard to believe this was just a piece of 1/4" plate steel this morning. But i think they turned out pretty good for just being made with an angle grinder and a lot of patience.

After we got the front wheel positioned and those dropouts welded on my son came out to give me a hand.

Once we got the wheels on it I took it off of the "stand" and rode it down the driveway... yay! this thing is going to be insane! It's wheelbase is only about a foot shorter than my truck! so the turning radius is... well it's going to interesting. Oh and once I got it back in the garage i promptly installed a smaller chainring... I can tell already that this beast is going to need some really low gearing.

 

[Gruppe6 Garage]

So Sick!!!

 

[nwlee]

Nice bike, and the pink handlebars are a nice touch. Maybe paint it purple and pink cammo? Kinda yin and yang, super macho bike with a feminine touch.

 

[mrflibbles]

whats the length of the bike? started planning mine out today and worked out it was possibly going to be around 7 foot long, just want to check im in the ballpark on mine!

 

[Loki182]

Thanks guys... this thing is going to be crazy cool when it's done. And lol as much as i like the idea of pink/purple camo... I think i'll stick with green.

Honestly right now I don't know what the actual overall length is but it's a monster. If i had to guess I would say it's at least, if not longer than 8 feet wheel tip to wheel tip. But if you are around 7 foot i would say roll with it. Honestly if it were feasible I would shorten my frame a bit. The way it sits now it is going to be a stretch to ride.

 

[Loki182]

Ok So I was able to pick up a couple of things over the weekend mainly a new Front wheel some non-pink handlebars :mrgreen: and a rear fender. I'm not 100% convinced that I like the rear fender yet but I thought I would throw it out there to get some feed back. As of right now it is not mounted in any way shape or form, just in case I decide to return it. However I will say I was amazed at just how well it matched the size and shape of the rear tire.

The other thing I need help with is this fantastic stem that I found, unfortunately it is slightly too small to fit snugly into the head tube and it is also not sized to handlebars with the bulge in the center... however I found a strange work around that... well just works, almost too perfectly actually. Which is to install the neck on one of the fork tubes (in which it fits perfectly) then clamp it just to the side of the buldge in the center on the handlebars. And before you ask, yes I have looked everywhere trying to find a seccond matching stem, with no luck. But the question is... does this just look too weird? From a functional standpoint it works perfectly... I just don't know it it is too weird looking to actually use it like this.

Thanks in advance for any feedback you can give!

 

[udallcustombikes]

Is a second identical stem out of the question? Mounted on the other side. Fender is awesome, keep it!

 

[user 135]

I am digging the fender too. Either another stem or find some other bars.
http://www.choppersus.com/store/product ... raight-CP/

 

[Loki182]

Is a second identical stem out of the question? Mounted on the other side. Fender is awesome, keep it!

I am digging the fender too. Either another stem or find some other bars.
http://www.choppersus.com/store/product ... raight-CP/

Sweet! I'm glad you guys like the fender, I will just need to figure out a good way to mount it. As far as the Stem I would absolutely love to find a second one and mount it that way, but I have looked... and looked, and I can't find another one like it anywhere... which of course just makes me want to use it even more. All I know is that I pulled it off of an old Kick scooter.

I guess the other option would be to just get a different matching pair of stems, because I really do like the idea of mounting the bars through the fork legs instead of the headtube.

 

[nwlee]

WOW! I love the handlebars and the fender,perfect for this bike which has great lines and proportion, too bad about the stem.

 

[udallcustombikes]

Get some good pics of the stem and throw a post into the wanted section. Surely somebody has one lying around.

 

[deorman]

Brake cylinder hone plus this: http://www.niagaracycle.com/index.php?cPath=125

 

[mrflibbles]

loving the rear fender! lots of room for cammo paint on it! the headstand is fine, but would look better with 2 so it matches, just my 2cents worth!

 

[Loki182]

Thanks for all of the encouragement guys! I really do appreciate it. I was able to figure something out with the handlebars. I decided to take a chance and try grinding down that center budge to see if I could get then to fit the stem and I figured worst cast scenario If I weakened the handlebars too much I would just cut them and weld in a new piece. But It turned out great it appears that that piece was just added on top of the bars and the original bar diameter goes straight through.

So I was able to get the handlebars to fit the stem and I was able to shim the stem to fit the headtube. I really like the way it turned out... Still all the same I would love to find another one of these stems, even if I don't use it on this bike they are still really cool looking. Unfortunately that's about all I have been able to get done lately. However I also just got done assisting in a production at my church this past weekend that I have been helping with for months and hopefully this will allow me at least a little more free time to work on the bike.

Oh and I keep forgetting to add this in here but i actually went out and measured it the other night and this beast is actually exactly 9 Feet long wheel tip to wheel tip :shock: ... that shocked even me! I mean I knew it was big but I never realized it was that big! I think my next project might just be a trailer so I can actually bring this thing places.