Been a couple months since I completed my 1st frame modification involving a welder (stick). I'm a newbie welder, but she's still holding up so I think I'm ready to go on to welding project #2. Well, not ready in the sense that I'm a more proficient welder, but just ready to start hacking away again
I'm trying to keep the welds simple and to a minimum. So this time I'm going for a basic tall bike, working with a group of kids that come to our church's weekly bicycle ministry.
So here's the flipped Huffy frame to raise the bottom bracket. Keeping it as is for now. I think this has a bit too much rake, making it harder to ride, but I'm not gonna mess with it. We'll see.
Instead of stacking 2 frames, I figured it'd be easier to just make a super long stem. I needed to extend the steerer tube a little for some holding power. Inside this extended steerer tube is the bottom of a stem for added support. This is not lined up well, but it works. And as you can see, I'm not lying about being a subpar welder.
So here's the stem/handlebar. Made from 3 pieces of a cruiser frame welded together. Luckily all 3 pieces were slightly different diameters and fit nicely into each other. That usually never happens to me. This will get clamped (using a couple seatpost clamps) onto the extended steerer tube. I needed the curves in there since the rake of the head tube would've put the handlebar behind my head.
Remember the stem I cut apart for the steerer tube support? I salvaged the clamp part and welded that on to this long stem. So far, this is my biggest fear... since the clamp has no bottom part extending down into the stem, it's really only the weld holding this in place. Given there will be some downward force as I try to mount and dismount, I could potentially lever this piece off so this weld has to be solid. If it happens to fail (and I survive) I suppose I'll stop being cheap and weld on a complete stem for added support.
So you may be able to envision that this won't be a pretty bike. It's gonna be freaky ugly and probably only marginally rideable. But it's a learning process and who knows, I may get lucky!
I'm trying to keep the welds simple and to a minimum. So this time I'm going for a basic tall bike, working with a group of kids that come to our church's weekly bicycle ministry.
So here's the flipped Huffy frame to raise the bottom bracket. Keeping it as is for now. I think this has a bit too much rake, making it harder to ride, but I'm not gonna mess with it. We'll see.
Instead of stacking 2 frames, I figured it'd be easier to just make a super long stem. I needed to extend the steerer tube a little for some holding power. Inside this extended steerer tube is the bottom of a stem for added support. This is not lined up well, but it works. And as you can see, I'm not lying about being a subpar welder.
So here's the stem/handlebar. Made from 3 pieces of a cruiser frame welded together. Luckily all 3 pieces were slightly different diameters and fit nicely into each other. That usually never happens to me. This will get clamped (using a couple seatpost clamps) onto the extended steerer tube. I needed the curves in there since the rake of the head tube would've put the handlebar behind my head.
Remember the stem I cut apart for the steerer tube support? I salvaged the clamp part and welded that on to this long stem. So far, this is my biggest fear... since the clamp has no bottom part extending down into the stem, it's really only the weld holding this in place. Given there will be some downward force as I try to mount and dismount, I could potentially lever this piece off so this weld has to be solid. If it happens to fail (and I survive) I suppose I'll stop being cheap and weld on a complete stem for added support.
So you may be able to envision that this won't be a pretty bike. It's gonna be freaky ugly and probably only marginally rideable. But it's a learning process and who knows, I may get lucky!