The Prowler

[GeePig]

I, on the other hand, have a book and a head full of detail drawings, not much of a pile, and a growing sense of panic

 

[Frankie plekhand]

Cool Build! I'm gonna follow this one closely!
About your springer, how about putting the rockers on the inside and see if you can find a thinner locknut for your axle?

 

[Captain Awesome]

I, on the other hand, have a book and a head full of detail drawings, not much of a pile, and a growing sense of panic

I on the other hand have a head completely filled to the brim (mildly overflowing) with scattered and unorganized ideas. Some overlap in the strangest of ways

 

[ifitsfreeitsforme]

Eliminator frames are my fave muscle bikes.

 

[Bike from the Dead]

Man, your plans are detailed! Looks so good on paper already! I have a pile of parts and a picture in my mind, which changes as the bike becomes comfortable enough with me to tell me its secret desires

Thanks! It helps to have an actual plan and most of the main pieces needed to build it. Last MBBO, I wasn't even planning on entering, and when I did, my plans for build kept changing. This time, I had most of my ducks in a row, and I think that's going to save me a lot of trouble down the road.

I've done stuff similar to how you describe building your bike. Sometimes I don't know how I want to build something until I just mock up different parts on a frame. That's kind of how my Newsboy Special, Bad News, is getting put together. I didn't know how I wanted to build it until I just put this fork on it.

 

[Bike from the Dead]

I, on the other hand, have a book and a head full of detail drawings, not much of a pile, and a growing sense of panic

I've done stuff like that too! Can't say it works out well for me that way though...

 

[Bike from the Dead]

Cool Build! I'm gonna follow this one closely!
About your springer, how about putting the rockers on the inside and see if you can find a thinner locknut for your axle?

Thank you!
I tried that, but unfortunately that only makes the problem worse. The way this fork is built doesn't give me a ton of options to work with.

 

[Bike from the Dead]

I on the other hand have a head completely filled to the brim (mildly overflowing) with scattered and unorganized ideas. Some overlap in the strangest of ways

Oh gosh, with my OCD and ADHD, that's me all day every day! Still, overlapping unorganized ideas can lead to some of the coolest stuff!

 

[Captain Awesome]

Oh gosh, with my OCD and ADHD, that's me all day every day! Still, overlapping unorganized ideas can lead to some of the coolest stuff!

My wife says I'm OCD

 

[Bike from the Dead]

Eliminator frames are my fave muscle bikes.

I hear ya! They're one of the few styles of muscle bikes that aren't a copy of a Schwinn Sting-ray, or a copy of anything else for that matter. They're twin-tubed, mostly straight barred, and they're just different than most other muscle bikes. Plus, they're full of potential for custom builds!

 

[Bike from the Dead]

My wife says I'm OCD

View attachment 176840

Well, that may not be OCD, but devoting most if not all your energy to drawing bikes, building bikes, talking about bikes, or sharing pics of bikes on forums, that's definitely OCD! My family can attest to that, as I'm pretty much the only bike-guy in the family.

 

[hamqqea]

If I find I'm in a pinch and pressed for time, I can easily see myself doing that. Part of why I want to make my own rockers is for spoke clearance, but the other reason is for style and consistency. Note how on my sketch I made the rockers match the shape of the frame itself?
View attachment 176826

Making your own rockers is fantastic! Id' recommend stainless but that stuff's hard to cut.
What color are the fork legs, and what seat do you have in mind?

 

[Bike from the Dead]

Making your own rockers is fantastic! Id' recommend stainless but that stuff's hard to cut.
What color are the fork legs, and what seat do you have in mind?

Thanks! If I can get some scrap stainless and find a way to cut it, I'd definitely like to go that route.
The fork legs are currently gloss black, but I want them to look chrome. I know they make these forks in chrome, but I just bought this one at the last bicycle swap meet I attended. If I can make do with what I have, great. If I can get a set of actual chrome forks, even better. As for the seat, I've got an old Schwinn banana I was thinking of reupholstering. I met a guy at Buddy's Pedal Fest who has recovered his own seats, and since he doesn't live too far from home, I want to see if he could teach me how to recover this banana seat I already have.

 

[69SHOVLHED]

some stainless is gummy-- for lack of a better adjective-- and it will just make the teeth on your tools glow and lose temper, but some stainless cuts, drills and welds like butter. i like to make anything i can out of stainless because i'm too lazy to clean chrome or carbon steel and it ends up a pile of rust.

for those rockers you should go full on Sugar Bear. hell its not like your gonna be going so fast that rake and trail are a huge issue. if you're not familiar with sugar bear rockers google him.

 

[GeePig]

I would knock out a set of rockers in normal steel, try them, and then later down the line when the bike is together and you love it, then go stainless. That way you are less likely to get side-tracked, plus you might want to modify the design further.

 

[hamqqea]

6061 aluminum plate is a valid material to make temp rockers, easy to high polish.

This is the rocker pivot bolt system I was alluding to earlier. A collar with a near outside diameter as the rocker holes slides closely over a standard bolt. The collar must be slightly wider than the rocker width to prevent the rocker from binding when the pivot bolt nut is tightened. The rocker moves freely around the collar. The fork leg ends are in contact with collar edges only.
Collars are trickery to find in the proper widths though, why I collect them during salvages. They can be cut to size from tubes.

The bolt head can be on either side

 

[GeePig]

6061 aluminum plate is a valid material to make temp rockers, easy to high polish.

This is the rocker pivot bolt system I was alluding to earlier. A collar with a near outside diameter as the rocker holes slides closely over a standard bolt. The collar must be slightly wider than the rocker width to prevent the rocker from binding when the pivot bolt nut is tightened. The rocker moves freely around the collar. The fork leg ends are in contact with collar edges only.
Collars are trickery to find in the proper widths though, why I collect them during salvages. They can be cut to size from tubes.


The bolt head can be on either side

And you have just answered all my rocker questions

 

[Bike from the Dead]

some stainless is gummy-- for lack of a better adjective-- and it will just make the teeth on your tools glow and lose temper, but some stainless cuts, drills and welds like butter. i like to make anything i can out of stainless because i'm too lazy to clean chrome or carbon steel and it ends up a pile of rust.

for those rockers you should go full on Sugar Bear. heck its not like your gonna be going so fast that rake and trail are a huge issue. if you're not familiar with sugar bear rockers google him.

Ok, thanks for the warning! Hopefully someone I know can cut the stuff with the right tools.

There's a little bit of Sugar Bear inspiration in the rockers I came up with, but I really want the rockers to match the shape of the frame if I can.

 

[Bike from the Dead]

I would knock out a set of rockers in normal steel, try them, and then later down the line when the bike is together and you love it, then go stainless. That way you are less likely to get side-tracked, plus you might want to modify the design further.

Yeah, that makes sense. My fabricator friend might know of a good strong steel that will get the job done for now, and I can always paint the rockers if I have to.

 

[Bike from the Dead]

6061 aluminum plate is a valid material to make temp rockers, easy to high polish.

This is the rocker pivot bolt system I was alluding to earlier. A collar with a near outside diameter as the rocker holes slides closely over a standard bolt. The collar must be slightly wider than the rocker width to prevent the rocker from binding when the pivot bolt nut is tightened. The rocker moves freely around the collar. The fork leg ends are in contact with collar edges only.
Collars are trickery to find in the proper widths though, why I collect them during salvages. They can be cut to size from tubes.
View attachment 176919
View attachment 176920
The bolt head can be on either side

I'll be on the lookout for some 6061 scrap then!

That's definitely a good idea, but I think just modifying the rockers so the spokes will clear the existing hardware will be enough. If I was planning on using the original rockers, I'd definitely use that idea, but I like the idea of making my own chopper-inspired rockers better. Thanks for the advice though!