Just a question, isn't that alot of pressure to put on just a wedge and a small bolt?
One of three almost finished, time is ticking...
- Thread starter IronSpadeCycles
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Stretch, that small bolt is a 5/8th inch grade 8 and the wedge is made from .250 plate. Total overkill! The first one I made years ago had a pivot point made from simple 3/8" bolt and 1/2" OD tubing. It worked without fail for over 6 years but it was on a stock sized wheel/tire combo. I figured this one needed to be stronger to match the larger/wider tire and wheel.
Tomb, I don't typically sell girders or springers by themselves cause everyone I've done in the past was built for the bike it was going on. I'm entertaining the idea of making frame and fork sets to order but that might be a little farther down the road. For starters the shock is the largest part of the expense at about $300 retail. I don't have a commercial account with any shock maker as of yet. For me to even come close to making a profit I'd have to sell them for around $600. I don't know anyone that wants to spend that for a bicycle fork.
Thanks for your interest. I'll let you know if I do start making them even in short runs. Later Travis
Tomb, I don't typically sell girders or springers by themselves cause everyone I've done in the past was built for the bike it was going on. I'm entertaining the idea of making frame and fork sets to order but that might be a little farther down the road. For starters the shock is the largest part of the expense at about $300 retail. I don't have a commercial account with any shock maker as of yet. For me to even come close to making a profit I'd have to sell them for around $600. I don't know anyone that wants to spend that for a bicycle fork.
Thanks for your interest. I'll let you know if I do start making them even in short runs. Later Travis
Another great build ,you have alot of great ideas ,i like the leaf spring idea,seat pan turn out awesome,the forks very cool and as for the HF tubing roller ,sye they need some work to them,there's to much play in it ,i have one ,had to shim it so the dies wouldnt move side to side when rolling,and the slower you go the better it turns out , a little less twisting to none ,but i also have a JD sq tubing bender that i love ,going to install a ram on it so i can put it on a rolling cart instead of bolting it to the ground. Now it's time for me to build another bike.
Awesome bike! Really like the front springer!
Thanks everyone. Dan the first bike I built, the red and black one above, back in summer of 99 I made it under the porch in my covered parking at my condo in Denver. My neighbors called the cops on me cause I was using the grinder at 8PM trying to finish up before a ride the very next day at the Tour de Fat in Fort Collins. I started it at around noon and was riding it at midnight. I built the entire frame and fork with only an old Mongoose BMX frame to use as a donor for the BB shell and the neck tube. I bent the main frame tubes with a propane torch and a vice clamped to my tailgate and the lower chain stays were bent cold off the bed of my truck.
I guess what I'm saying is I made the most out of the limited space I had at the time. I realize not everyone has space to work out of but that shouldn't totally stop you from making what you want. I recently found a bicycle co-op in Houston TX that teaches a chopper building class to inner city youth. They work on a volunteer basis and everyone is welcome to use their equipment if you help out with teaching others what you know. I know of a few other programs like this in other cities like Denver. That might be an option for you.
Anyway I'll post some more pictures tomorrow. I took today off to go grocery shopping and relax, I think I might have strained my back a little yesterday while working with the grinder and some tubing. I was hunched over for several hours and went to stand up too quickly and something went pop and a muscle spasm started. I sat in the hot tube late last night for almost an hour trying to get it to relax. I'm fine, I just wanted to take today off.
Back to the grind tomorrow. Later T
I guess what I'm saying is I made the most out of the limited space I had at the time. I realize not everyone has space to work out of but that shouldn't totally stop you from making what you want. I recently found a bicycle co-op in Houston TX that teaches a chopper building class to inner city youth. They work on a volunteer basis and everyone is welcome to use their equipment if you help out with teaching others what you know. I know of a few other programs like this in other cities like Denver. That might be an option for you.
Anyway I'll post some more pictures tomorrow. I took today off to go grocery shopping and relax, I think I might have strained my back a little yesterday while working with the grinder and some tubing. I was hunched over for several hours and went to stand up too quickly and something went pop and a muscle spasm started. I sat in the hot tube late last night for almost an hour trying to get it to relax. I'm fine, I just wanted to take today off.
Back to the grind tomorrow. Later T
Well I needed to make a seat for this one and I figured I'd try my hand at leather tooling. I did it a few times back in HS but that was over 20 years ago. I figured it was time to try it again so I got out all my old tools, bought some new leather from Tandy and got started with a pattern I came up with in Photoshop. I haven't started cutting the pattern just yet, only just finished the transfer but its looking very nice so far. The seat I made for the other bike was tooled by a pro down in So-Cal but I figured after the fact that with enough practice I could do it too. What do you think so far?
Talk soon T
Talk soon T
To start, your work is inspired, your passion for your craft is evident. It's one thing to sketch something, but to make it go from concept to reality is a skill I envy in all the builders in this forum. I love the "ace of sprockets" design on your seat, once it's tanned a little, it's going to be timeless.
Dr. T
Dr. T
Hey Travis ,do you make your own seat pans or buy them ,and is that going to be your logo , awsome design ,keep up the good work.
Yeah I hand formed the seat pan from 18G stainless steel with a hardwood hammer and a steel dolly I made from a 4" long piece of 1" dia cold rolled steel. The ends were turned down on a lathe and it was welded to a post. I need to get my English wheel and air planisher out of storage and start using them again. It would have made this pan a lot easier than to do it entirely by hand.
Yeah the logo was just something I cooked up for this seat and since I screwed it up a little while ago I'm going to have to rethink it a bit. No worries, I bought a whole side of leather for $30 at Tandy. So I've got plenty. I'm so embarrassed I'm not even going to post any pictures of it. I was using the wood burner to trace the lines of the spade and the fine tip broke and burned a nice size spot. Totally ruined the whole thing. I tried using a different tip and that just made it worse. :x
Thing is you never learn if you don't at least try. So I tried and failed. I learned a few things along the way, possibly what not to do in the future, or how to do it differently. Thing is I never thought I'd get it perfectly right the very first time.
Just in the time it took to write this all down, I figured out how I'm going to change the seat to simplify the design and make the end result much better. Here it is.
Here is the logo for my motorcycle business.
Later Travis
Yeah the logo was just something I cooked up for this seat and since I screwed it up a little while ago I'm going to have to rethink it a bit. No worries, I bought a whole side of leather for $30 at Tandy. So I've got plenty. I'm so embarrassed I'm not even going to post any pictures of it. I was using the wood burner to trace the lines of the spade and the fine tip broke and burned a nice size spot. Totally ruined the whole thing. I tried using a different tip and that just made it worse. :x
Thing is you never learn if you don't at least try. So I tried and failed. I learned a few things along the way, possibly what not to do in the future, or how to do it differently. Thing is I never thought I'd get it perfectly right the very first time.
Just in the time it took to write this all down, I figured out how I'm going to change the seat to simplify the design and make the end result much better. Here it is.
Here is the logo for my motorcycle business.
Later Travis
OK so I couldn't leave well enough alone. I started the "new" Spades and Sprockets seat cover tooling after the last disaster. I figured I'd keep it stupid simple this time. I really like the look of the skip tooth sprocket much better. And it was much easier to cut and recess the leather with 18 teeth instead of 36 teeth. I still want to do some kind of texture detail on the recessed area between the sprocket and the spade but I'm apprehensive about it. I don't want to screw it up one more time. I'll probably just go ahead and do it, but I think I'll wait till tomorrow.
Here is the progress so far.
Later Travis
Here is the progress so far.
Later Travis
OK so I got the seat cover finished and dyed. I'm happy with the way the color turned out although I think there may have been a mistake with the color label as this is not "Tan" as printed on the bottle. Its more like blood red than tan. I also used black India Ink on the sprocket portion prior to staining the rest of the seat. I'm going to look in my paint box tomorrow and see if I have any striper's enamel in red to detail the lettering with. I think overall this project is turning out quite nicely. I'm thinking I'm going to have to bang out a new seat pan for this one that has a bit more cup in it and less rolled lip like the other one I made. No worries I can use this one somewhere for sure.
Here is a progress shot and then a finished shot.
Later Travis
Here is a progress shot and then a finished shot.
Later Travis
Well I'm almost finished with this bike. Well its almost ready for paint anyway. I'm struggling with a decision on paint color. After the seat cover came out so dark I was leaning toward a "PK Ripper" brown with a cream or white and silver pin striping. I took the advice of some of you and removed the "tank" sheet metal. I've got some grinding and fill to do before paint but no worries. I like the look of it sans tank. I was going to do the bike in all black but I'm rethinking that now as well.
I also need to change the spring on the fork. The one that came on the Marzocchi shock is a 700lb/inch rate and I need closer to a 350lb/inch rate. It barely moves with the 700lb spring. I had an old pair of 180mm Tange one piece cranks and put them in for mock-up purposes. They had been on an old Race Inc. BMX frame I'd been holding onto since I was just a kid. The race ring is old school style with the larger star pattern that only fits 43 tooth and up sprockets. I need to put a 38 or 39 tooth sprocket on so it looks like I've got to order one.
I've also got to bang out one more seat pan cause the cover doesn't fit the pan I had made for it. Long story but the pan was cut with an arbitrary pattern and the leather was cut from a different pattern and then trimmed to a symmetrical shape. From now on I need to make that seat leather first and the pan second. The pan can be changed but once the leather is done it can't be changed at all.
I must have had 30 different random cans of paint in my paint cabinet that were various shades of brown but after spraying samples onto cardboard none of them were to my liking. I want either a medium chocolate or not-dark coffee color. Its tough cause there are so many different shades of brown. I guess it needs to be just light enough that the black wheels complements it but not blend in with it. Wow that being said I might now look at more of a dark mocha tone. I don't know we'll see.
Later T
I also need to change the spring on the fork. The one that came on the Marzocchi shock is a 700lb/inch rate and I need closer to a 350lb/inch rate. It barely moves with the 700lb spring. I had an old pair of 180mm Tange one piece cranks and put them in for mock-up purposes. They had been on an old Race Inc. BMX frame I'd been holding onto since I was just a kid. The race ring is old school style with the larger star pattern that only fits 43 tooth and up sprockets. I need to put a 38 or 39 tooth sprocket on so it looks like I've got to order one.
I've also got to bang out one more seat pan cause the cover doesn't fit the pan I had made for it. Long story but the pan was cut with an arbitrary pattern and the leather was cut from a different pattern and then trimmed to a symmetrical shape. From now on I need to make that seat leather first and the pan second. The pan can be changed but once the leather is done it can't be changed at all.
I must have had 30 different random cans of paint in my paint cabinet that were various shades of brown but after spraying samples onto cardboard none of them were to my liking. I want either a medium chocolate or not-dark coffee color. Its tough cause there are so many different shades of brown. I guess it needs to be just light enough that the black wheels complements it but not blend in with it. Wow that being said I might now look at more of a dark mocha tone. I don't know we'll see.
Later T
Well its almost ready for paint and I've decided on a color, "Cocoa Brown" gloss. The frame and forks will be brown and all the other parts will be black. In the pictures below, the leaf spring has not yet been trimmed and the seat was mounted just for mock-up reasons, its going on Pee Wee's bike. I've still got to make a bracket for the coaster brake to the frame and a few gussets. Please mind the mess I've got to do some cleaning soon before I set up my temporary paint booth next weekend. I'm hoping to paint both bikes this coming weekend and take them to Austin for the Tour De Fat on October 17th.
Later Travis
Later Travis
It looks alot better without the sheetmetal on it. Good choice. :wink:
Looking real nice, I like it better without the sheetmetal too.
Is PeeWee getting two bikes from you?
Is PeeWee getting two bikes from you?
No, this bike was sort of a rebuild from a bike I put together last year when I was living in Orange County CA. I had bought a Choppers US fat tire frame, a set of 24" wide wheels and tires, and used a big burly Zyzxx 8" travel DH fork. After riding it one time at the Chopaderos End of Summer ride I knew I had to cut up this frame and build something different. The cranks BB was so high off the ground it was hard to pedal. Honestly I'm 6'2" and this frame was made more for someone like 5'6" even though it was almost 8ft long. The seat to handlebar to pedal triangle was way off. So instead of letting $1000 in parts go to waste I just designed my own frame around the rear triangle of the Chops US frame.
This is what it had looked like in its first life:
I used Pee Wee seat just for mock up to see where I needed to cut my leaf spring and how much the spring rate I was getting out of it. I've already gotten a confirmation that this bike will be featured in a future issue of Kickstand Magazine. A few of my closest friends started the Mag last year. No this bike will actually be for sale when its all finished. I need to buy a new TIG welder. If anyone is interested PM me and we'll haggle! LOL.
Later Travis
This is what it had looked like in its first life:
I used Pee Wee seat just for mock up to see where I needed to cut my leaf spring and how much the spring rate I was getting out of it. I've already gotten a confirmation that this bike will be featured in a future issue of Kickstand Magazine. A few of my closest friends started the Mag last year. No this bike will actually be for sale when its all finished. I need to buy a new TIG welder. If anyone is interested PM me and we'll haggle! LOL.
Later Travis
