Show your bicycles, sans engines!

[Ulu]

I got sick Thursday night and my work went on hold, but I did get back on the bicycle yesterday.

 

These are the handlebars from the Huffy Sea Star 12” French princess bicycle (found in someone’s junk pile.)

 

It’s Grinder Time.

 

 

Tubing cutter keeps it square.

These should “handle” the sissy bar.

 

But more gussetry is needed before welding!

 

A bit of metal from a broken wood lathe and a cardboard pattern.

 

 

It’s gonna look very laid-back. I don’t know how it will ride yet.

 

Edited September 3, 2022 by Ulu

[Ulu]

More tacking up. Squaring up the sissy bar.

 

Prelim assembly after tacking up the sissy bar sockets. Everything clears. 

 

Setting up to finish weld.

 

There was a bit of porosity but everything’s welded from both sides, and I think it’s going to be plenty strong.

 

 

 

[Ulu]

It’s 6 AM on the West Coast. I had a good nights sleep but I am still sore from yesterday. It took me eight hours to grind and sand and sculpt the new welding. I spent four hours just with the Dremel Moto tool sculpting the welds.

 

To make it go faster I did a lot of hogging with the 5 1/2 inch grinder and that is a white knuckle experience: Trying to shave hundredths of an inch away in tight locations.

Today I’m going to get this thing painted and I will assemble it tomorrow morning before 10 AM, and take photographs for the contest, as that is the deadline.

 

 

 

 

There are still a lot of scratches but I buffed it down with the flapper just after I took this photo. It’s almost ready to paint. I need to do a little hand sanding and mask off.

 

[cheesy]

The best laid plans...

 

Working on this DeSoto trike has been an edumaction. Some of it is because the trike is kind of a bottom feeder in quality and design, some of it is because it seemed like a good idea at the time, and a lot of brain farting was involved.

 

I replaced the less than adequate Bendix rear coaster brake hub with an NOS Maillard drum brake freewheel hub. I also replaced the 20 for $1 flange bearings with 8 for $15 bearings.

 

Before that could happen, I needed to make a new axle. The axle that was in place was a replacement Euro/Asian 14.8mm axle. American built trikes take a 5/8" axle. The 'engineer' that installed the wrong axle proceeded to weld all the 5/8" parts to the 14.8mm axle.(prick) The above is the finished set up. There is a 3 speed freewheel on the hub with the 22t cog on the FW connected to an 18t cog fixed cog on the axle. Brain fart #1 is that the fixed cog should have been a freewheel. Brain fart #2 was thinking I could use the other two cogs on the freewheel with a derailleur as a 2 speed. I probably could if the 22t cog was a 24t or larger so the chain on the middle cog would clear the chain on the larger cog, but I'd rather slam my hand in a car door several times than change freewheel cogs.

 

A friend in Savannah gifted me a BMX bottom bracket adapter with an RPM BB spindle(good stuff)so I could use a square taper crank. That knocked about five pounds off the trike right there.

 

I opted to use French 170mm Soligar cranks with Shimano 105 pedals. Very nice and very light weight. However, brain fart #3 showed up. I did not take into account the bottom bracket height, or lack of it.

Lousy pic pic but that height will result in bruised and bloody heels. Solution? Go with 26" wheels.

 

I already have lightweight rims on hand. I was planning on tossing the rusty 20" rims anyway and using alloy rims. Now I just need to find 26" fork with a 7" steer tube. That is turning out to be tougher than I thought but I shall persevere.

[Ulu]

IT LIVES!

 

 

 

 

But I painted it without any filler over the welds, and it needs it.

 

 

 

 

 

I’ve been putting in ridiculous hours working on this bike and it has been well over 100° every day. Fortunately I’m used to living in the desert after all of these years. Not that it’s enjoyable, Working in such heat, but for me it is possible.

 

 

I am 100% glad that the contest is over and I’m not worried about the deadline. I never wanna have another job with a deadline and my entire life. LOL

 

Anyhow I went for a ride and did some wheelies and bopped over some curbs and this bike rides pretty well with little danger of pedal strikes because I didn’t lower it too much. Steering stability improved because it has 3° more rake, and some actual positive trail!

 

 

Edited January 13, 2023 by Ulu

[Ulu]

The voting is almost over, and it looks like I only took 8th place. I feel I would have done better if I had time for an elaborate paint job.

 

 Personally, I like this more than any bike I have ever ridden.

 

I improved the shifter spring, removing the extra clamp on the handlebar. Also I raised the headlights one inch, and mounted the Tokyo bell. Except for a tail light, I think it’s finished for now.

 

 

 

[Ulu]

I’ve been working on this tail light for the bike.

 

It’s built from a automotive vacuum test pump that could not hold vacuum.

 

 

Most of the shaping was done with hand files & sandpaper. The rough form was done on the bench grinder.

 

 

 

 

That little clamp at the top came from a Shimano twist grip shifter.

There’s no wiring yet. Also I haven’t buffed it or clearcoated.

[Ulu]

Well my shifter spring was a bust. I finally created this new double leaf, and it works much better. It also doesn’t put any side load on the spindle.

This one was putting a lot of sideload on and causing a lot of friction.

This is the new double spring. It took me about four hours to develop this little booger.

[Ulu]

I changed the week steering neck for one that was shorter and much stouter. I had to do a little trimming to make it fit, but it was worth the effort.

I did have to trim off my stem with a pipe cutter.

I decided to polish those black rings since they were aluminum.

 

 

 

[Ulu]

I needed to tighten u the shifter spring a little more, so I made this cover plate that sucks the spring together tighter. It started life as an ordinary flat washer.

 

 

 

It needs to be a little longer to cover that spring completely, just for looks. I may make another one that is more attractive.

 

 

[Ulu]

The shifter really works well now.

 

I buffed out the ugly black chain tensioner.

 

 

 

I Reforged my kickstand and straightened it all out. Now it is the right length for the lowered bike.

 

[Ulu]

@cheesy

” A friend in Savannah…”

 

Are you aware of the ratrod bike forum guys local to Savannah? Kingfish, Tankenstein, Jakesensi?

 

This bike by Kingfish took a prize in our latest contest.

 

[Ulu]

More late night polishing here, as I cleaned up the brake caliper With sandpaper and buffed it out.

 

 

 

Also I’ve been feeling the bike was a little too tall in the saddle, so I drilled out the pop rivets and cut my sissy bar off 1.5”

 

I had to use the right angle drill.

There you can see the cut offs, which are not exactly the same length, due to irregularities of the sissy bar I never considered when I first cut it.

 

I’ll take pictures of the whole bike when the sun comes up, and I go out to ride it. It was too late when I finished last night.

[Ulu]

I don’t know if you can tell from the photograph that I lowered the seat. It rode much better and I actually did 20 miles on the bike in this configuration.

But then I went home and decided the seat needed to go back a little more, so I redrilled my seat bracket. That allowed me to push the seat back another 3/4 of an inch which should be just perfect. We will find out today.

[cheesy]

On 9/27/2022 at 8:17 AM, Ulu said:

@cheesy

” A friend in Savannah…”

 

Are you aware of the ratrod bike forum guys local to Savannah? Kingfish, Tankenstein, Jakesensi?

 

This bike by Kingfish took a prize in our latest contest.

 

I afraid I do not. I got the bb from a I guy I know on chinariders.net by the handle of Falkon45. I may get together with him next time I have to go to Beaufort, SC. Also known to the Sales and Service Staff as Corporate Hell.

[Ulu]

Well that stuff is all on the opposite coast for me.

 

I picked up this English bicycle last week, and it’s about 60 years old. In this photograph I have already changed the wheels and tires and the seat.

Some of it was a challenge to get apart without messing it up. Particularly the crank cotters and the crank bearing cups.

 

I had to press the cottters out, and I used this English ball joint press, which has authentic whitworth threads.

 

 

 

 

I made this special tool to get the cups to unscrew.

 

 

 

That chunk of steel came from a 64 Mustang trailer hitch my dad cut up in the 70s.

Edited October 7, 2022 by Ulu

[Ulu]

Here is the crankshaft, bearing cup, cotters, one arm and some balls.

 

Edited October 7, 2022 by Ulu

[Ulu]

I decided this bike should stay a coaster brake bike, and I want chrome hubs on it. I took the spokes out of both of those alloy wheels and laced them up to chrome hubs.

The front one came from an inexpensive wheel I bought brand new from the local bicycle shop.

The rear when was the original coaster brake from this bicycle and I just gave her a complete overhaul. She works great.

I gave a good cleaning an overhaul to the crank assembly and that works great too.

Spins like a top.

 

The crankshaft was originally blue steel, so I re-blued it.

I also got rid of the fat gravel tires and put on some skinny racing tires.

 

 

Edited October 15, 2022 by Ulu

[Ulu]

I haven’t repainted it, or even cleaned up the frame well, but we now have a complete and operational bike.

 

Handlebars, gooseneck, pedals, chain, front hub, tires and tubes are all new.

 

Wheel hoops, spokes & grips are from the fake Schwinn bike. Seat is from the Mongoose.

 

I don’t have a chrome stem yet. ;(

 

Those wheels are ISO 559mmx25mm. That's a Chinese mountain bike size that is called 26” but really closer to 25” overall.

 

I don’t really think that the bars and the seat suit this bike very well, but they are the best new ones I have right now.

 

Edited October 16, 2022 by Ulu

[Ulu]

I have edited that last post four times, and it always posts the final picture twice for some reason?

 

Amazingly I found out that the neck bearings in this old English bike are the same as the little Chinese princess bike I picked up out of the junk. This is a good thing, since several of the original balls were missing.

 

[Ulu]

I went back to work on a little fake Schwinn stingray because I needed to get it out of my welding shed.

I never liked the heavily raked triple trees, and I made this set of unraked trees by using two bottom trees, cutting one up, and drilling it out.

 

 

 

The bike is not wobbly now but it steers very fast, where before the steering was slow and self-centered way too heavily.

 

[Merle Coggins]

It looks like there is no, or very little, trail on the front wheel. You still have a fair amount of rake in the fork, but the fork is mounted so far behind the axle that it nearly eliminates the trail, which is what you need for stable steering and tracking. 

[Ulu]

Here’s a straighter shot ,and you can see that the trail is almost zero.

You should see it with a 16 inch wheel on the front. Scary!

 

With the 20” front it just barely has trail on flat ground, & when I go downhill I notice the change as it goes past zero into negative trail.

 

The fork tubes are quite a ways from the stem as well, and that cuts into the trail. I can run it with the fork tubes reversed but that gives it too much trail. So much caster effect that it caused the front of the bike to bob up and down as I turn the forks.

 

But I have ridden much worse bicycles.

[Ulu]

I swapped the seat, and moved both seat and bars forward 2”. I also fitted the 24” front wheel. Handling is much improved, but not perfect.

 

I had enough leftover bits to build this one too.

She handles well, but the crank arms are too long. I need to shorten them.

 

Edited November 3, 2022 by Ulu

[Ulu]

Cleaning up a used aluminum BMX frame with scotchbrite.

 

I wish I could weld this well…

 

Some new bits from the bike shop to adapt a European sealed cartridge bottom end to the standard American style frame.

also a new bell and some chain ring hardware.

Edited November 10, 2022 by Ulu