Working on a Name for this one

Dig the seat Spike! Wicked cool. Super creative!

 

Not a lot of things are happing with it right now - but don't worry it'll be ready till the end of the Build-Off. The biggest problem is money for parts - not much more parts, are left to buy (steering bar, battery, LED's & spokes for the front wheel), but 3 weeks ago I couldn't sleep the whole night from tooth pain, and sadly - had to leave 1/3 of my sallary at the dentist

Also I'm helping a friend of mine - she needs a bike to ride to work or a grocery store, doesn't have much money, and also is 6ft high. She's used to riding on a girls frame, so that left me with looking for a girls frame that would be at least of a 20" seat tube size. I found a frame, a nice one even:

The girl who sold it to me made a lot of measurments and from what I figured it has a seat tube of a size 21.5", and was designed for 28" wheels. When it came the problem became clear - it's not made for 28" wheels, but for 26" from a very old & not used today size of ETRTO 590 (slightly larger than 27.5" that have an ETRTO of 584). So after a lot of swearing, and looking trough the internet I found a set of mag wheels made by Sachs with my favourite Dreigang in the rear, and a drum brake in the front.

And again - more problems, the wheels are in bad need of truing, and I don't even have an idea how to do it...

But back to the build. I managed to cut the foam for the seat:

Found a nice piece of leather to go with it:

Only need to buy more glue to make it work together. Also found a nice place to mount the shifter, so that I would not need to pull a cable on the frame:

 

Those mags are spectacular!

 

Didn't you hear him? Those mags are warped...

I trued one of my Mongoose mags with careful wacks with a rubber mallet. But I'm sure that's not the correct way. Truing does seem to be an issue with mags.

Carl.

 

Except the fact that they need truing, they have an issue with they're size. While very popular in the seventies in Dutch bicycles, 590mm size is not used right now. They were replaced with the more popular sized 26" - the 559mm, and later the 27.5" 584mm.

I called a friend of mine who has a car wheel repair shop & tire workshop, where he works with his father. I can say that they're one of the best guys when it comes to wheels in Warsaw. They're still using hand tools for truing wheels, and a lot of very old machinery.

Like this pre-WWII hydraulic press pump.

Or this transverse planner made just after WWII.

And some of the things they did are really cool!

Original steel wheels from FSO Warszawa 223 (GAZ M20 "Победа" (Victory) produced locally under licence).

Alloy wheels from Reanult 5 Turbo. These were made in 1966!

Wheels from an armored Cadillac that belonged to Marshal Józef Piłsudski.

But this thing... This is a set of wheels from a WWII cannon chassis that was converted to a regular trailer. Both bent beyond any hope... or so the owner thought.

I really have a lot of hope that they will help me with those mags, since when I called him he had a talk with his father and replied "Bring the bike, we will see what we can do."

 

Don't care, still pretty