I started my second custom bike build a few weeks ago. If you remember my first try at custom bike building, it was the lime green chopper looking bike. It was a fun bike to ride, but I kept getting the nagging feeling that something wasn't quite just right. I think it always felt more like a lowrider bike than a real chopper.
So that's why I'm trying again. This time I'm going to bring up the head tube and move it closer to the rider. This will lessen the rake a bit giving me better control. It'll probably end up making it more of a bobber-style than chopper, but I like the look a lot more.
I've got another 72 spoke coaster rim ordered and I'm planning on getting a 3-speed shimano hub and one of those slick new adapters from Chopperdome to lace the two together, though someone over on Freak Bikes pointed out that those hubs are fairly wide and might not fit between the "forks" of my rear end (boy does that sound painful! :mrgreen: ) I'll paint the rims red and the frame will be satin black. Do you think a 24x3" Fattie-O would fit in there?
I started with an old 26" Wal-Mart Roadmaster bike and a couple of discarded forks. As you can tell from the photos below, I still need to figure out what I'm going to do with the down tube. I don't like the look of the bottom bracket just hanging out in space, but my initial thought was not to cut the down tube off the head tube since it was already pretty strong. If I could just get one piece of 1" tube rolled into a nice radius and connect the two, it'd be perfect.
What do you guys think?
And here's what the finished bike will (hopefully) look like when I'm done:
So that's why I'm trying again. This time I'm going to bring up the head tube and move it closer to the rider. This will lessen the rake a bit giving me better control. It'll probably end up making it more of a bobber-style than chopper, but I like the look a lot more.
I've got another 72 spoke coaster rim ordered and I'm planning on getting a 3-speed shimano hub and one of those slick new adapters from Chopperdome to lace the two together, though someone over on Freak Bikes pointed out that those hubs are fairly wide and might not fit between the "forks" of my rear end (boy does that sound painful! :mrgreen: ) I'll paint the rims red and the frame will be satin black. Do you think a 24x3" Fattie-O would fit in there?
I started with an old 26" Wal-Mart Roadmaster bike and a couple of discarded forks. As you can tell from the photos below, I still need to figure out what I'm going to do with the down tube. I don't like the look of the bottom bracket just hanging out in space, but my initial thought was not to cut the down tube off the head tube since it was already pretty strong. If I could just get one piece of 1" tube rolled into a nice radius and connect the two, it'd be perfect.
What do you guys think?
And here's what the finished bike will (hopefully) look like when I'm done: