Who's punk is this?

[LeMad Hatter]

I've had an idea for a fast, agile cyberpunk style bike for a while now and figured this was as good of a time as any to get started on it. The starting point is this Kent hybrid flip flop frame I got last black Friday just for the wheels. Which sucks, because now I don't have wheels for this project. But that's okay, because I'm building a custom wheelset for it. It will have drum brakes front and rear, which I know isn't very cyberpunk, but they're cool

I also have this Schwinn blade fork I was just about to throw out which fits this build perfectly, and as an added bonus the new headgear threads perfectly onto it

 

[LeMad Hatter]

Got the bits I needed from the frame. Chop chop!

 

[LeMad Hatter]

Got the fork mostly cleaned up and the drum brake fitted.

Obviously, Schwinn didn't make provisions for fitting a brake from a 20 year newer motorized scooter on their blade forks, but I took care of that. Made a small spud from some 1/2" round stock and welded it on, then I filed it down to match the brake mount

I mounted the brake backwards because I want to hide the cable inside of a truss rod for a cleaner profile, and not because I'm an idiot and welded the spud on the wrong fork leg.

 

[OddJob]

Gettin' after it!

 

[LeMad Hatter]

Gettin' after it!

Just spinning my wheels cause I ain't got none yet. I should get the parts tomorrow, then the fun really gets kicked into overdrive

 

[LeMad Hatter]

Cleaning and organizing my workshop today, still waiting on parts for my wheels and I came up with a simple hack to keep my tire collection organized and ready for use. Turned my almost unused garage shelves into an upright tire and wheel storage device. Now I can stop ordering extra tires because I can't find the ones I want

 

[LeMad Hatter]

I've had this frame jig that I built two years ago and I've only built one bike on it. Getting it set up for the second frame right now

 

[LeMad Hatter]

YES! My wheel building parts just arrived a minute ago. And the tires look absolutely perfect for my build, they even have a red pattern woven into the sidewall.

But to my dismay, the tires are folding bead.

I've never, EVER! been able to get even one half of folding bead tires mounted on a rim. So I called up Amazon to get an exchange, and apparently Jim in customer service is a fellow bike enthusiast and he suggested to just try one tire on before I go any further with the return process. So I huffed, and I puffed, and I pulled my big boy pants all the way up, gearing up for a fight for the ages! And the danged tires simply fell onto the rims! The valve stem was way more of a fight to get in the hole than anything else. The wheels are going to look amazing with stainless spokes and black nipples

 

[LeMad Hatter]

Got the front hub painted satin black tonight.

It was looking good until I realized that the rear hub was all wrong. It's a Schwinn tandem rear hub and the freewheel was seized onto it. So I decided to hack the hub in half and widen it for a front wheel I was building. Now I'm converting it back into a normal width rear hub

Here's the method to the madness. Find two hubs of similar size and thickness, cut them to the desired width, insert a sleeve, square it up, then burn them together.

Of course, I made things complicated by mating a drum brake and a normal flange hub together. Not to worry, I made a custom hub flange from a Huffy chainring.

The new hub didn't quite want to play along, so I heavily beveled it at the weld seam and convinced it to play along with a sledgehammer

 

[sdframe]

You ARE Le Mad Hatter! Crazy cool work.

 

[LeMad Hatter]

You ARE Le Mad Hatter! Crazy cool work.

I am but a humble bumble. Thanks for the compliment

 

[Son of Kradus]

WOW, those rims look fantastic!

 

[SkyknightJohn]

Cool rims & tires!

Out of curiosity, I’m guessing you know/tested, but the drum brakes work in either direction? I woulda thought they were optimized for one direction like disks and even rim brake pads.

Watching with interest…

 

[LeMad Hatter]

Cool rims & tires!

Out of curiosity, I’m guessing you know/tested, but the drum brakes work in either direction? I woulda thought they were optimized for one direction like disks and even rim brake pads.

Watching with interest…

I have (accidentally) used a different drum brake backwards on another project. It still worked fine, and much better than rim brakes

 

[LeMad Hatter]

Got one wheel built tonight. I'll wait until I have both wheels built to true them. I still have to paint all of the nipples black, but couldn't resist refreshing my wheel building skills

 

[OddJob]

DUDE you are on a RoLL ! Those tires look cool, size? I see they are American Classic. Good look all around!

sKinNy oN ~!

 

[LeMad Hatter]

DUDE you are on a RoLL ! Those tires look cool, size? I see they are American Classic. Good look all around!

sKinNy oN ~!

Tires are 700x32, mounted on 28x1" rims. I wanted to use Thickslicks, but the 29" tires are 2" wide, and the 700 tires are only 23mm wide, which is too narrow for the look in going for

 

[kingfish254]

Love the wheel build so far. That hub looks huge!

 

[Ulu]

View attachment 211432

My second engineering job was designing stuff like this at Manlift Inc. I did rollover trunions of different sizes. Lots of jigs and fixtures and templates. That was 1982… I’m surprised I can still remember it.

 

[LeMad Hatter]

FINALLY got back to work on the rear hub. The new flange was about 1/4" too large, so I turned it down to size with my redneck lathe

Here's a video of the action. I controlled the hub's speed by the angle and pressure of how the grinder was held

After it was the right size, I made marks for the spoke holes and drilled them out

Lastly, an old painters trick. Stuff your hand in a plastic bag, grab your part, and maneuver it while painting to get every inch evenly covered