Ride again

Got the chain fixed saturday and adjusted some on my derailuers. Didn't ride saturday or sunday but finally got to ride tonight. I felt great to ride and my riding buddy was with me. We are definately going to have to do something about lights on both our bikes. I don't think even with another 24W bulb it will help enough. I think I'm going to try building a light that I found that uses a MR11 or MR16 Halogen bulb. It's design was better than the first one I found. The first one the bulb was glued in. This one uses a rubber groment to hold the bulb in. We'll see how it goes this week. Here's some pictures of the light setup.

Update

Haven't posted in a while. Rode last Friday and then Sunday morning. The new axle fix is great. Was coming up the hill in front of the house and down shifted then heard a pop and the bike swung to the left. At first I thought the chain had jumped but then I heard something behind me. I quickly realized the sound behind me was the chain. I snapped a link right off. I believe the problem is in the warped rear derailuer. I wasn't able to work on it yesterday due to a power steering leak on my truck. I'm going to try and get up there and correct the problem tomorrow night.

Axle repair

Made repairs to the main axle. PIcked up a cobalt drill bit to drill through the case hardened bottom bracket. My first attempt I only drilled into the tip. I hand to clean the old axle adapter (cutoff crank piece) then put back together. Did not get the two pieces to join together correctly so I pulled the two together then drilled hole for tension pin. Reconnected everything and looks good. Will try to get some pictures in the next couple of days. Had the Thanksgiving turkey in the shop smoking so wasn't able to work in there. I'm still looking for some led replacement lights for the front. The light is good but doesn't provide enough narrow beam but has wide path visibility. Have found a better version of the MR11 halogen setup. If led's don't work I'll look into that.

Drivetrain problems

Got my second front light in this week and after the downpour we had on thursday I finally got the light mounted and wiring ran. I had a problem with my axle slipping on Wed. and thought I had it back together. Unfortunately yesterday on my ride I learned that wasn't the case. When I got to the elementary school I noticed that the axle was about to pull out. The carrier bearing and sprocket on the other side of the bike kept it from sliding out but this still presents a problem. I going to try and correct this by repositioning the axle and drill a whole through the collar (former crank mount hole) and the bottom bracket piece. This will be fun due to the nature of the material making up the bottom bracket, case hardend steel.

With that aside the new light is tremendously brighter and will help a great deal but I still might have to change the bulbs in the old light and possibly both to an led setup. I 've also looked at Luxeon bulbs as a possible solution. We'll see. Today I hope to get the axle problem resolved and get another ride in. I didn't realize how much I really enjoyed riding until I didn't do it for a few days.

Remounted seat

The seat is mount back on the bike. The base was a little farther forward than I expected but it looks good. There is room for adjustment on the rear post so it can be tilted back. The extrended left handle bar is painted and looks good. I went ahead and pulled the right side off and clean it up and painted it. I finally received my strobe light for the rear. Fed-Ex thoughtfully delivered in across the street at my granddad's sitting on the front step. The light is bright and will provide the visual alert I'm looking for. I made the mount for the strobe and battery. I ran some of the wire and tried to test but may have a blown bulb in my front light. My time was eaten up some today due to work. I rotate being on-call for work and had some drawn out calls today. It's kind of fun sometimes being on the phone talking with one of our customers and having my welding hood on welding. I'll get the wires run tomorrow and hopefully go for a ride. Today's weather was nasty so it was ok. I'll try to get pictures tomorrow of the mounted strobe.

Completed seat mount

The new seat mount is complete. The new mount and the increased area beneath the seat for possible storage. Still haven't received any of my lights yet. I expected my strobe to come in today but nothing. I painted the seat mount areas. The pictures don't show it but I also painted the lower seat mount and some of the struts. I just wanted to get something on some of this to keep the rust down. I know at some point I will need to paint the rest of the bare metal but that's for another day.

Seat mount change

Made the move to move the seat mount forward. Cut out the old mount and fabbed up the new mount. Have everything but the vertical support tied in. Still have to mount the rear supports for the seat but its marked off and ready. The seat will be slightly higher and show allow more clearance when leaning forward. Also I spread the front runners apart allowing more area under the seat. If I have to add a second battery for the lights I'll have the room. If not I should be about to use the unused area for storage (ie., tools & etc.). Will try to have pictures tomorrow.

Lights and modification

Got the first light mounted and temporarily ran some wiring. Mounted one switch and placed a battery for a test fit. I'm planning on moving the seat forward slightly and will modify the frame struts. I'm going to make a new seat mount and cut out the current seat struts from the back and make longer ones. I plan to move the seat forward by 2-3 inches. This will give me more area under the seat to mount the battery or possibly (I hope not) a second battery.

Another workday

Didn't get to ride today. Got the wood stove in the shop working properly. Had to make an adjustment on the reinstalled blower. Paint still wasn't quite ready to allow me to reinstall the left side bar. Polished up my front light and made mounting brackets for both. Have ordered the other light. These lights came on pre 67 bugs and karman ghia's. I welded the brackets onto the front of the fork assembly but this time it will be isolated from the jarring action of the fork moving up and down. The previous design suffered from my mounting it to the secondary brake mount. I've made a switch plate that I welded to the bottom of the seat-back mount facing outwards. I've got two toggle switches that will controll the new strobe and the front lights. We started making the frame for the battery to sit in that will be mounted below the seat. If everything goes well tomorrow after my ride I should be able to get the cradle completed and maybe even wired up. I'll try to remember to take some pictures tomorrow.

Handle Bars

Well I finally got around to taking pictures of the handle bars. I thought I had a problem last night with the drivetrain. Something was slipping when pedaling. I couldn't find anything so the only thing I could figure was I was on uneven ground and was slipping on one wheel due to the fact the other chain had jumped off the front axle sprocket. But enough about that. When I originally did the current bar design I cut one slightly shorter than the other on the mount tube. I made an extension to weld onto the shorter piece then ground it down and painted. The pictures are of the right-side bar still mounted and of the modified left-side painted. I will eventually paint the other as well as the other bare metal areas.

I also found a light to use for the front since the "head" lights are not working as planned. The light is a backup light from an old VW. It provides a wide beam and should work well. I did find some online so if I decide to get another and mount in the same area as the current lights. I have found a small motorcycle battery that will mount perfectly under the seat. With the strobe light that I ordered and this front light I think this will be cool. I'm planning on mounting 2 switches. One for the strobe and one for the front light. If need be I have the room to run another battery in paralell. I need to find a good trickle charger to run this so it will charge overnight but not overcharge. The last picture is just to give some perspective on the size of the battery.

I didn't ride today due to alot of running around but I did do a fair amount of walking. Nothing to get the heart rate up for any extended time but it was exercise. Hopefully I'll have the handle bars back on tomorrow and we'll see how hte balanced bar setup works.

Another day another great ride

Took a ride Halloween morning and passed a few people walking. The first was group of ladies walking and commented on my bike and how different and interesting. The second was 2 young boys on their way to school. They stepped off the sidewalk to let me pass and one asked "is that a bike?" After replying yes he turned to his friend and said "it is a bike!" The more people see me riding the more interesting looks I get.

I'm still having problems with the main chain jumping off. I'm going to have to mount a tensioner from a derailluer to provide tension. My rear light is not working to well and took steps tonight to improve that. I ordered a small strobe light for the rear as part of my birthday present. I have a small 12V battery and will mount perfectly underneath my seat. With this change I plan on changing the front lights to provide better visibility. My initial concern was that I needed cars to be able to see me. This works well but the problem is these lights were designed to be used at distances of 3 to 4 feet. This doesn't work riding down the sidewalk in the evening. I'll have to mount a switch to run everything and a quick disconnect to charge by.

Morning ride

Did my first morning ride before work today. Tried a slightly different route this morning and I felt it. The cool morning air made it enjoyable. I passed a couple of young boys walking to school when one asked me "is that a bike?" When I said yes he looked to his friend and said "it is a bike!" I also passed 3 women walking and i moved off the sidewalk to go around them without incident. They all commented on my bike. This was all great after my ride last night. As I came up the hill in front of the house I downshifted and thought I had trashed my right-rear derailuer. I managed to repair most of the damage last night but still isn't right. I see a little of what is wrong so I might try to repair rather than replace but not sure yet.

On a different note. On Sunday I email a very nice woman who runs a site called http://www.supersizecycles.com. She specializes in bikes for large people. I emailed her and told her about my decision to build my bike. I sent her the link to the blog and she emailed me back withing a couple of hours. She thanked me for my email and told me if I get my design worked out she might like to buy some bikes from me. This was a big thrill. I don't know I will ever get to that point but it would be nice to know that I might could sell my bike design.

Two-a-day

Today I rode twice. Wasn't able to ride for two days because of family activity and weather. Rode this morning with Tyler and then this evening by myself. Didn't want to stretch out and do another two miler like the other night but maybe in a couple of days. Time change tomorrow will see how the riding changes. Most of my rides have been in the evenings after work. We'll see how that goes next week. I've been trying to get up and ride in the mornings but just hasn't worked out.

Will definitely have to change the front lights. The "head" lights were not designed to shine at a distance so visibility isn't great. Since the redesign (that I haven't posted) of the handle bars I need to see if a standard bike light like i've seen at Walmart will work with a little modifying.

I also played around with a paint design on one of the frames. Took a tribal flame pattern and printed it on a window sticker then cut it out and painted over it. Temperature wasn't right so it didn't work the best but it definitely has potential. Will try and post pictures soon.

Still riding!

I've been trying to average riding at least six days a week. My ride is very short because, and I will admit it, I'm out of shape. Being a big guy I'm hauling around a lot more. It's going to take time but I'm enjoying it and that's the thing. I'm getting more of a work out riding my bike on the same path I had walked before. I've already been able to tell a difference in how I feel. I've made strides in my ability to cover more ground and make it up grades. For example, I've extended my ride to the local school so that I go to the back side of the school parking lot. I am also now able tomake it up the hill in front of my house to my driveway before stopping. Sometimes I don't have to but before I stopped 2 or 3 times. My son is riding with me and now that he has a new bike (present from his paw paw on his birthday) he has been joining me on our evening rides. I'm planning to start stretching our rides out in the next week or so but that presents a problem with the upcoming time change. I'll have to see how that works out. I'm also planning to try and start doing two-a-days on my rides. I'd like to try doing an early morning ride by myself and then one in the evening with my son. We'll see where the road takes me.

I've recently modified my handle bars for a better feel and added steering dampners. I'll post some pictures in the next couple of days. I finally figured out my shifting problem on the left side as being the cable itself. I almost wasn't able to pull the cable out of the housing. This was my discount bike from Walmart. Lucky for me I went by the local bike shop and they were close but I remembered Walmart having cables. For less than $5 I was able to get the cables I needed and now I don't have to get off the bike to down-shift. I going to start painting the bare metal areas starting next week. We'll see how that goes.

Riding

Got off schedule on the riding but started back this week. Rode Mon-Fri. Firs couple of days were a little tough since I hadn't rode in more than a week As the week progressed the riding got better. Still have the top-end problem of not having enough as well as the bottom-end of the same. Also still having the shifting problem. I need to get another derailer for the left rear and possibly consolidate the to shifters to one. For now I'm just going to ride. I am working on another design for the handle bars. What first appeared to work great is now not as comfortable as first tested. I fabricate the new design today hopefully if I ever get off the work phone. My plan is to move the handle bars into a more normal bike handle bar position but above where they normally mount. We'll see how things go.

We have lights!

With dad's help as always we came up with a light source for the front of the bike. We found some head lights at Home Depot, pulled the straps off and made brackets to mount to the secondary front brake mounts. The lights will follow the sterring providing light to see by as well as signaling anyone coming in the opposite direction. I'm also going to add a
reflector to the front of the boom so that if the steering is turned .
The light on the back was a side marker light we picked up at Northern. I bought a couple of LED flashlights from a local flea market for $2 a piece. After pushing the LED board out I hot glued it to the back of the side marker light. I made a bracket to mount this at the right angle to be seen from behind. I didn't throw away the guts of the lights I butchered. I used a pvc t-coupler 3/4x3/4x1/2. I used pvc caps to hold the battery packs from the flashlights in. The flashlights have a switch in the end cap that comes off to
change the batteries. I opened the 1/2" portion of the 'T'
and put the switch in position. At some point I'm going to paint the 'T' black but for now its fine. Moving forward I will
do some tweaking and some cleaning up of welds and stuff.
For now I will paint the the bare metal areas black and just roll with it. The pics of the lights in the dark are so cool.

The Seat!!

Well we finally got the seat covered. This was a new experience for me. I've put seat covers on automotive seats before but this was different. After cutting dow a piece of foam I aquired for the back I covered the back of the seat so as to not show the plywood. I covered the back first and learned alot by the time I finished. This made covering the seat base a little easier. We had to compress the seat foam down so the material would be pull tight across the seat. With both covered it definitely makes riding a lot more enjoyable. We are working on a light mount for the front and back and should have worked out in a couple of days.

Back to Work

Took a break from posting for a while. Other things have taken priority but now I'm back working. I now have a seat back and will be attempting to cover the seats tomorrow (will post pictures). I have removed all intermediate asemblies and gone with a 44T sprocket on the axel with a three ring front Shimano crank. Ihave taken it out for my first street test by pedaling up to the elementary school down the block. Not a far run but I'm out of shape and I'm starting off with small steps. I used a cheap skateboard wheel and a spring front a failed washing machine repair and made a tension arm. This seems to work quite well based on the fact that it hasn't slung the chain. I still have to come up with a way to use my tension setup to use the smaller rings on the crank. Chain is too long on smaller gears so I'll have to work that out. Dad came up with a great way to combine both rear brakes onto one handle. I know there are dual cable brake levers out there but I have heard any reviews of them. Unfortuantely this didn't pan out so I went back to a lever for each rear wheel. If everything goes well with the seat covering I'm going to start trying to ride more. I have to say that since I put the seat back on it has made for a much more comfortable ride and also allows me to put more force on the pedals.

Redesign time

Well we know we have to change the way the intermediate is setup. I took apart the doner freehub I had and started by welding 3/4" collars inside so that it could be mounted on the axle. I may have to find another freehub due to problems in welding. We'll see what happens in the next few days.

Problems

Have removed intermediate assembly. We could not keep the short chain on. Was going to pickup a new 3-ring front sprocket on Friday but due to an unfortunate incident with my wife's truck breaking down and a unexpected costly repair I'll be delayed a few days. The smaller front sprocket will give me the low end torque I need. I'm considering taking apart the freehub that was the intermediate and mounting it directly to the axle then figure out a way to get the derailer mounted. I've already mounted a smaller sprocket on the left-hand side going to the rear wheel. This helped alot with the low end. Hopefully this week I'll get things worked out.

The other problem is my steering is binding for some reason. I will need to put a bell crank to get some ackerman worked into the steering. One of the problems is the disc's are flexing. We'll have to make another setup to replace the disc's. Probably a 'L' shaped piece that will have more strength.

Steering and TEST DRIVE!

We finished up the steering setup after replacing the bolts on the tierod ends. The discs are not permenant but worked very well to help with alignment. We took two shorter pieces of 1/2" square tubing and clamped them together to tie the two sides together then eventually tacked them together.

We cut the handle portion off of one set of the handle bars long enough to have the shifter and brake assembly. We took an old set of handle bars and cut then slit the end to fit over the new, shorter handle bar. This was done to allow the handle bar clamp to hold the new bar.

After this I took my first test ride on the machine. The first thing I noticed was that it pedaled like it was in high gear. The next thing I noticed was how smooth this thing moved. I eased out of the shop and down into the yard. The steering was cool but may need some tweaking. Don't get me wrong it handled great but could be adjusted. The problem came when I started putting the pressure to the pedals I started getting a popping. This came from what I learned later was the chain that tied the intermediate assembly to the axle. I did some adjusting to the axle to line the sprockets up and adjusted the intermediate. The next test produced the same results. This isn't the big problem. I can work through that. The problem is right now I have everything set in low gear and I'm still having problems pedaling. I believe my problem may be with the small gear coming off the intermediate to the large gear on the original bike setup. I think we're going to have to remove the large sprockets down to ones the size of the sprocket on the middle of the axle. I'll have to find another doner bike to pull the sprocket from. Looks like its back to the thrift store.