Victim # 2 - Officially named the Drag Queen!

[Pete Gossett]

So I was pretty happy with the way my crusty cruiser turned out for a first project, so I decided to really take the plunge and do something a bit more extreme. I'm not a good welder by a long-shot, but I can usually get two pieces of metal to stick together, and a couple years ago I built a prototype trials frame from some junk bikes & spare tubing. It turned out OK, so I built a crappy jig, ordered some decent tubing & got a *real* frame tacked together. I sent it to a friend for final welding...and haven't seen it since! :lol:

Anyway, I started with this K-mart woman's frame that I'd robbed all the parts off for the cruiser build.

It's a real nice frame :roll: lol. The seat tube curved forward almost 1/4", and the down tube isn't centered on the head tube.

I sanded to bare metal, then took the tubing cutter to the front triangle so I could flip it over.

I cut loose the seat stays in preparation to lower them, then crimped the chain stays & bent them up slightly.

I found some old pipe in the garage that was pretty close to the ID of the tubing, so I cut it into 2 short lengths and drilled a couple holes to spot-weld them into place.

As I mentioned at the top - I'm a crappy welder, using crappy equipment(Harbor Freight flux welder), but this tubing is thick enough I think I can grind down my welds & use a little bondo if I need to smooth things out.

Here's a rough idea of what I'm shooting for. I'll need to find some forks with 20"-24" of length, but I do already have the cranks at least. I'll also either find or make some type of laid-back seat post, so I can put the seat almost on top of the back tire. I'm thinking I'll take a pair of drop-bars & try to straighten them out. Reuse & recycle will be the motto with this build as well, but I do want something a little nicer looking than the cruiser.

 

[masterpoop63]

Re: Victim # 2 - it's a real chick-magnet!

now i know what my slightly more expensive harbor frieght welder can do thanks i have the mig/flux 150 amp one

 

[Pete Gossett]

Re: Victim # 2 - it's a real chick-magnet!

Glad I could help! lol

I tried welding some nice thin-wall tubing when I built a trials frame a couple years, but it just blew right through even on the lowest setting. These old junk bikes seem like 18-gauge though, so it works pretty well on them. :lol:

Sorry it's been so long in updating, it's been crazy both at home & work over the past couple weeks - though I have made a bit of progress(I actually need to take some more pictures, as things have progressed beyond this state). One of the delays was I'd also been searching for a cheap 10-speed for a parts bike, but I needed something with good chrome on the wheels(preferably with good tires/tubes), nice over/under brake levers, and whatever else I could scavenge. I gave up after a few weeks searching & browsing craigslist, and ordered a cheap set of wheels from a friend's shop, so I'm waiting for them to arrive this week.

Here's one of the distractions that I thought you might enjoy. I bought this old steel staircase for my building, it was in pieces but well built(Bethlehem steel, looks about 100-years old!). I wasn't able to assemble it until we were ready to put it into place...which was *after* I had the concrete pads poured. Apparently, I'm either really lucky, or actually remembered trigonometry from all those years ago, because it fit perfect! :shock:

There was this point in the middle that was a little scary though...

...but it ended up fine.

These are the forks I think I'm going to use for this bike, which by the way now has a new name - The Drag Queen! The stance reminds me of a drag bike, so I'm going to build a wheely bar for the back...and since it's a girl's bike, the Drag Queen name just seems to fit. The forks are from a cheap Huffy mtb. They had an ugly plastic cap on top which covered almost all the chrome & the spring. I was very surprised to pull it off & see how cool they look.

Here's the most recent pic I have - but I promise I'll get more updates!!!

 

[stretch]

needs apes and a banana seat for sure! :mrgreen:

 

[Pete Gossett]

Thanks!

A couple more updates from last night.

I got most of the parts painted up. I've been using Rustoleum Hammertone paint, the silver turned out really nice, but the green on the frame didn't go on as well. There's a bit of a technique to it also, as you have to lay it down almost to the point of it running to really get the hammertone to work.

I also picked up the new wheels & tires. This was the first time I'd actually had tires on the bike, so I really wasn't sure how the clearance was going to work out for the cranks, but it seems good. I went ahead and started assembly, too. I need to deal with the chain, front derailure and pedals tonight. I'm still waiting on a guy to get the brake levers for me though, and I need to pick up handlebar tape...and of course, I'll need to do some cutting/welding on the seat post to get the seat back over the rear wheel, like it is in this pic. Then I can start on the wheely bar! :lol:

 

[stretch]

lookin pretty sweet! is it comfy with the touring bars?

 

[stretch]

lookin pretty sweet! is it comfy with the touring bars?

 

[Pete Gossett]

I still need to get the pedals on & seat post worked out to really tell, but squatted down over the back tire it's pretty comfy reaching the top of the bars. It would be a stretch to the 'down' position though, but I really never liked that anyway.

This build is really more about developing a concept and trying to work it into the real thing. It will be *rideable*, but I don't expect to put many miles on it. I'm really just going for the cool/wow-factor.

 

[Sinner4]

Nice work, I like it. Pete just run the rear gears, 5 or 6 speed's and keep it klean up front. I might copy you on this one, I have a crap load of the lady frames around here.

EDIT: I just remembered this bike from the chopzone.com The Tour D heck, make these bars for your bike

http://chopzone.com/tour.html

The bars that I made, weld on the forks to the ends of the bars

viewtopic.php?f=1&t=23028

 

[Pete Gossett]

Oh THAT'S cool!!! :shock: Are those "rams-horn" bars???

 

[yoothgeye]

EDIT: I just remembered this bike from the chopzone.com The Tour D h***, make these bars for your bike

Imagine sitting still on that bike and trying to turn the front wheel, needs power steering.

 

[Sinner4]

Oh THAT'S cool!!! :shock: Are those "rams-horn" bars???

Used regular road bars... in the pic the bars are upside down for the ultra wicked look, like stay the h*** out of the way slacker, I mean business....

Weld front forks on the road bars, minus the drop outs. Cut the forks off up top, place in vice to round them out to take out the oval. Weld, bondo, unless you can make perfectly round. Paint and tape up the bars to hide the transformation from paint to chrome, or paint the whole thing.

 

[Sinner4]

EDIT: I just remembered this bike from the chopzone.com The Tour D h***, make these bars for your bike

Imagine sitting still on that bike and trying to turn the front wheel, needs power steering.

Is that you??

 

[Galtbacken]

Cool looking build! Never seen springer forks constructed like that, awesome!

 

[Pete Gossett]

Well, it's pretty much done. I need a different rear caliper and some nicer pedals, but it rides!

As some of you probably already knew, my trail is way off, causing the bars to flop from side-to-side. I engineered a redneck stabilizer of sorts to help correct it.

Here's a crappy pic of the semi-finished product. I'm undecided on whether to build a wheeley bar for it. I originally thought it would look cool, but I think I'm OK with it as is.

I'll get some good photos soon, and I've promised a youtube vid for a friend, so I'll link it here as well.

Thanks for all the encouragement, I can't wait for the next one!!!

 

[yoothgeye]

Good idea on the stabilization for the fork, but wouldn't it work better with 2 springs? Both mounted centrally to the frame where the 1 is now, but one going to the left side of the fork and one to the right?

 

[Greedy Glutton]

Right on bro ... nice job

 

[masterpoop63]

it dosent seem extreme enough yet . more extreme!!!