Rowds' Greazefest chopper build

[sjdonne]

I've always wanted to build myself a chopper bicycle, I can remember hastily using an eraser to remove a plan of one I had drawn out of pencil on a rental property's wall when I realised the Real Estate agent was coming around for an inspection back in the early 90's. Since then I have tried numerous times to build one but it has only been the last year I have started taking it more serious and documenting my builds. I think I have finally come up with a chopper (its more a "bobber" style than chopper) that I am happy with. She is as yet un named, rides beautifully and is very comfortable. I was suprised to find out how comfortable a pan seat was, the one on this bike is handmade and is more comfortable than the seat on my expensive Trek mtb.I am thinking about changing the homemade forks to a set of triple clamp forks I have on another chopper (Volcanic 148), but this means more grinding and welding which I don't feel like doing, I am also planning to put a suicide shifter up in behind the stem and run the cables inside the frame, apart from that, after a bead blast, a paint job and working out a name she will be ready to enter in the Geazefest bicycle competition section in August
Here is my first serious chopper build, this is Volcanic 148, she is rather comfortable to ride but very heavy in the front end and I feel she is a bit wierd looking
Here is an image off my second build, her name is Tank 153. The numbers at the end of my bicycle names is the wheelbase distance in centremetres, just like Landrovers-110's, 90,s. Tank is a bit more comfortable than Volcanic bit I still wasn't happy with the final shape
So far all of my build are made from dumped bikes and scrap steel, I particulary like 50mm Dia steel tube childrens beds, nice curves. I normally have to buy cosmetic items like grips, tyres, cables and housings, pedals. Even the chains are made from older ones joined together. I will post updates on the show bike.

[cray-]

Nice work, bed tubes eh? Whould've thunk it. I think you got the shape right with the yet to be painted yellow one, I really like those proportions. Have you been over to Retro-Rollers & Rat Rod Bikes, plenty of inspiration and I'm sure they'd be keen to see your handy work.

[Wild Turkey]

Well done mate.

Have you seen http://www.boneshakers.com.au/

We like the way you think.

Retro Rollers http://www.retro-rollers.com/

[sjdonne]

Thanks wild turkey, I havent yet seen boneshakers but deffinately will on the weekend and also thanks cray, I always wondered what a rat rod was and after having a quik look at retro rollers I think my building will be taking a different road, I couldn't stop thinking about the images of those rat rods I saw- all day. Thats how I started, I found an old malverstar singlspeed gentlemans bike at the dump, there was nothing wrong with it except for age(surface rust, tyres, tubes etc), I bought it home with all good intensions of getting it back onto the road and regretably(in hindsite) I took it back to the dump,

[Hodaddy]

I like your fresh design ideas.
Keep on working with your designs, that is what makes this bike culture evolve.

Hodad

[sjdonne]

Thanks for that "Hodad", the bike now has a name, it is "Nefarious" look it up in a dictionary. She is sadly in pieces so I can finish grinding, polishing etc to get her ready for the bead and paint job. cant wait to see here finished, I have come up with a very cool (I think)colour scheme which is a secret until "Neffa" is put back together.Rowd

[sjdonne]

Man I gotta get meself a Mig welder, sick of sitting around for hours trying fo fill pin holes filled with rod flux. "Neffy" will be bead blasted on Friday and dropped at Hillier Bros Auto in Tenterfield for her secret paint job

[Lark2004]

looks like you're a man after my own heart... welding in a T-shirt and thongs The only thing I hate (I suppose I should wear more protective gear really) is when you get a bit of spatter inbetween your foot and your thong, and it sears its way into your foot.... then you gotta stop what your doing, find some tweezers or small pointy nose pliers and dig the little bugger out....

[sjdonne]

Ay Lark, lucky there is no OH&S in my shed, when I have a fair bit of welding to do I normally take a bit more care. In the image I actually snuck out to the shed to do some wire brushing when I noticed there was some welds I could add a bit to, so instead of going back to the house to get a pair of boots and risk getting trapped by the missus or kids I plugged on unfazed by the splatter. One consolation is that I didnt have me good clothes on ie Polo shirt , jeans and shoes to get burn holes in, which has happened before.
Rowd

[sjdonne]

Kinda got a bit sidetracked while waiting for my paint job, I was given this diy painted bike with an unusual but cool frame, Ive been keeping it for something special for a while. I came up with this and I love it, she has one speed, one brake, doesn't have to be treated with cotton gloves, can be left out side and not worried about scratching the duco. I rode her to work this morning and it was so refreshing getting back to the basics of riding a bike, although I was late for work because having one gear, you can only pedal downhills so far until your speed takes over your cadence and of course going up hills you can only do what you can do. NEFARIOUS is back and being assembled but the shed gets very cold at night so I cant spend many hours out there in winter. I am happy with the paint job but dissapointed with my choice of colour. I asked the spraypainter for British racing green and he informed me that there was many "shades" of that colour, so I on the spot chose a green out of the thousands he had in a paint chart. I was questioning myself a couple of days later but when I rang the frame had been painted, hope to have a photo by next week. Rowd

[cray-]

Love the army bike, do the ammo boxes weigh much? Very creative way to do panniers.

You could always switch the rear fixed cog for a freewheel so that you can coast down hills, might make the bike a bit more manageable. Alternatively a 3 speed hub would help you going up the hills as well.

[sjdonne]

yeah cray they must be a bit heavy becauase I really struggled to get the rear end of the bike onto the back of the ute yesterday but you dont notice it when riding, maybe a little at take off but fine after you get going, very similar handling characteristics to a child seat I have though the child would be heavier Rowd