It's Back!
May 1st, and time once again to assemble some mildly usefull two wheeled (or three, as in this case) machinery.
I'm building a sidecar bike this time around and it has a purpose. By contest end, my one and only Grand daughter will be one year old, and ready for some new adventures. Even before she was born, I was dreamin' up ideas on how I'd haul her around.
My first thought was a trailer, but I find myself not enjoying the idea of dragging her 6 feet behind me. They're hard to monitor and it's kind of impersonal. The second idea was a trike with a front mounted kiddy seat but that meant frame mods that were out of the scope of the contest. So I've settled on the side car idea, it's kinda' like a sociable tandem, but one person isn't capable of helping with purpulsion. To get down to the level of the sidecar, I need a low bike, and one of the easiest ways to do that is 20" wheels.
I took a solemn oath to never build another 20" bike for the buildoff, but this isn't being built just for me. Safety has to be part of the formula and low helps stability. Which leads to my choice of;
"The Bike everyone Loves to Hate",
The Schwinn OCC Chopper!
First off, these things are terrible, they're too heavy, and they're sized for kids. So I'm once again goin' to take the rulebook to the woodshed and stretch the frame with extentions (bolt-on of course!) and a lay-back seat post. The next issue is gearing, or more like the lack thereof. With the rear wheel moved back 6", there will be room for a jack shaft. I've got parts for a 5 spd cluster and an outboard brake disk (aka, the Veg-o-Matic!). I'll be putting it on a diet as well, I can reduce some weight here and there. And i'll keep track of any weight savings. Most components of the side car are aluminum. And I'm hopin' to build the body out of coroplast.
I'm going with my "Build first, get it working, then strip apart and paint" construction technique again this time around as this with be the most complicated build-off bike to date. I really like to keep things simple, but that just wouln't cut it for this.
Challenges;
1 The baby enjoys riding in it.
2 Keeping the weight down.
3 Safety.
4 See #3
5 Transportability.
Some of these I have plans for, some will be blind luck. For #1, I plan to use a regular infant car seat in the sidecar, the idea being I can take the seat out of the car baby and all and strap it in the sidecar for the least amount of baby stress. This will help with #'s 3 & 4, and eliminate the need for a helmet, which doesn't work good on babies anyhow. When she gets older, I'll install a bench in the car and then graduate her up to a helmet.
Well I don't want to give every detail away, it's time to get to buildin'!
The Pile O Parts;
May 1st, and time once again to assemble some mildly usefull two wheeled (or three, as in this case) machinery.
I'm building a sidecar bike this time around and it has a purpose. By contest end, my one and only Grand daughter will be one year old, and ready for some new adventures. Even before she was born, I was dreamin' up ideas on how I'd haul her around.
My first thought was a trailer, but I find myself not enjoying the idea of dragging her 6 feet behind me. They're hard to monitor and it's kind of impersonal. The second idea was a trike with a front mounted kiddy seat but that meant frame mods that were out of the scope of the contest. So I've settled on the side car idea, it's kinda' like a sociable tandem, but one person isn't capable of helping with purpulsion. To get down to the level of the sidecar, I need a low bike, and one of the easiest ways to do that is 20" wheels.
I took a solemn oath to never build another 20" bike for the buildoff, but this isn't being built just for me. Safety has to be part of the formula and low helps stability. Which leads to my choice of;
"The Bike everyone Loves to Hate",
The Schwinn OCC Chopper!
First off, these things are terrible, they're too heavy, and they're sized for kids. So I'm once again goin' to take the rulebook to the woodshed and stretch the frame with extentions (bolt-on of course!) and a lay-back seat post. The next issue is gearing, or more like the lack thereof. With the rear wheel moved back 6", there will be room for a jack shaft. I've got parts for a 5 spd cluster and an outboard brake disk (aka, the Veg-o-Matic!). I'll be putting it on a diet as well, I can reduce some weight here and there. And i'll keep track of any weight savings. Most components of the side car are aluminum. And I'm hopin' to build the body out of coroplast.
I'm going with my "Build first, get it working, then strip apart and paint" construction technique again this time around as this with be the most complicated build-off bike to date. I really like to keep things simple, but that just wouln't cut it for this.
Challenges;
1 The baby enjoys riding in it.
2 Keeping the weight down.
3 Safety.
4 See #3
5 Transportability.
Some of these I have plans for, some will be blind luck. For #1, I plan to use a regular infant car seat in the sidecar, the idea being I can take the seat out of the car baby and all and strap it in the sidecar for the least amount of baby stress. This will help with #'s 3 & 4, and eliminate the need for a helmet, which doesn't work good on babies anyhow. When she gets older, I'll install a bench in the car and then graduate her up to a helmet.
Well I don't want to give every detail away, it's time to get to buildin'!
The Pile O Parts;