Let's Talk Tall Bikes...

[Rolling Blackouts]

http://squattheplanet.com/attachments/421421_3292785079757_1271670406_3298644_567399198_n-jpg.10313/

Built this contraption with much help from an awesome friend earlier this winter.
It's a bad idea with wheels, but it's a blast to mob around the hood, albeit sketchy.

This was my first attempt, and I certainly learned a lot in the process, and am attempting to secure a cheap MIG welder so I can build more freaky bike stuff (i.e. tall bike side car or swing choppers)

I've run into a seemingly endless list of challenges with it. Here's a run-down.

1. Coming out of a bar at last call, the steer tube disengaged, resulting in me breaking several ribs on the roof of a parked car.The bike immediately earned it's title "The Epic Fail"
2. Repaired it - but now the steer tube is too short and I can't attach a complete headset.
3.The bottom frame is an old janky steel US huffy cruiser with a narrow rear triangle, and a 1-piece bottom bracket, thus, preventing me from running dual chain lines and adding a derailleur.
4. The drive side crank arm is stripped, so I can't change the gear ratio.
5. The geometry of the base frame is significantly reclined when paired with a matching wheelset, thereby putting the riders center of mass too far back over the rear hub, thus, forcing me to compensate by swapping the front 26" for a 20". However, the mismatched wheels make sharp cornering awkward.
6. Coaster Hub Brakes are technologically inferior, and I wouldn't recommend them.

I'm planning to throw a 26" internal 3-speed hub on the rear, and adding mtn brakes on the front.
I don't think the bottom frame will allow for rear brakes, so this may jeopardize stopping power.


Anybody have recommendations or wrenched through similar problems?

 

[scatwomb]

Be careful! I knew someone who fell off one of these while riding on a bridge - she fell over the railings, hit the water far below and died.

 

[TheLoneRat]

Yep, I've built a couple. You can still use a one piece crank and dont need dual chains to have gears, just make the chain resemble a triangle, topcrank to bottom crank to sprockets, to topcrank.... This'll also give the chain Lotsa contact with the rear sprockets, which is whatchu want. As for breaking, weld a flat bar closer to the front wheel, and drill a hole in it. If the tops a three piece crank, you can stop change it, remove the chainring bolts and then remove the gear.

 

[TheLoneRat]

Ps. Sweet looking bike.
Where ya from blackout?

 

[Rolling Blackouts]

I'm from a rad little pocket of the Bay Area - won't say where specifically.

I do my best to ride carefully: late night back roads without stop lights. And I'm sorry about your friend - that's a dance with the devil. I've heard a lot of horror stories of cracked skulls, facial reconstruction and worse, but I've always been addicted to bad ideas. It'll catch up with me one of these days.

The top frame is an obscure brand (Le Gran - French?), with 3 piece cranks (I think). The outside chain ring is attached to the drive side crank arms, but I can't pull the crank arm due to it being heavily stripped out. Tried running it on the inner chainring, changed the chain tension, but even then the chain rides loose and rubs against the frame...sketchy. I'm wondering if there's another way to remove the entire crank complex by forcing out the bottom bracket? Or am I pretty much fucked?
I've got a flat bar welded on the front forks, but haven't gotten around to installing front brakes yet.

All in all, I love this project, but it's fairly apparent that it's not entirely worth the effort.
I'm hellbent on building another, faster, lighter, and more utilitarian version in the near future. I'd like something with front and rear racks to allow panniers or small audio system. L-wire wraps would be equally awesome.

What's the best way to extend the rear triangle for a base frame - to increase the wheelbase? I initially went with a cruiser because it would bypass this step, but now realize that it would be worth the effort.

 

[Rolling Blackouts]

Here's a flick of this freak tandem my friend and I also put together.
It wasn't exactly a masterpiece. We just kinda figured it out as we went along.
Initially, it was a swing tandem with three wheels - this failed almost immediately.
It rides okay, but requires an odd distribution of weight. The rear frame rides fairly tall, and cornering is precarious at best.
It's also got a trailer hitch for a huge bike stage (on pedicab wheels).

 

[TheLoneRat]

Add another frame to the back really just need to do something to the dropouts...and reinforce it.

 

[Wild Ty Laserbeam]

I've been freak-biking for many years. Maybe I can help with some of your problems if you haven't figured 'em out already.

1. Don't feel bad. This happened to me on my first tallbike too. My girlfriend was riding it. no one was hurt though.
2. By how much.? An incomplete headset is a really bad idea. By your picture, it looks like you might have enough room on the bottom of the bottom headset to cut an inch off. As long as you cut it evenly it should be pretty easy to reset the bearing cup. Set it in place, put a 2x4 over it and whack it a few times with a hammer.
3. As mentoined before, try setting up the chain in a triangle shape (aka chain ring to chainring to rear sprocket). Include a deraileur regarless UNLESS you keep the coaster brake. Deraileur + coaster brake = broken deraileur (same goes for fixed gear). A deraileur help keep a chain in place and away from the frame. There is no one way to set up the chain on a tallbike because of the small differences between all bike frame due to size and style.
One work around is to cut off the part that is being rubbed against and weld in new supports. Another is to weld on a chunk of deraileur to hold the chain out of the way.
As for gearing, it's already janky. Just bend out the rear triangle a bit. Just try to keep it even.
4. Hammer.
5. You could always try to meet in the middle with a 24" wheel. I've also seen 'em done with the back-end of a third bike welded on the back. Simple enough.
6. I personally love coaster brakes for thier simplicity and reliability. The drawback is a limited ability to have gearing.

It's a good-looking bike all the same. Using broken bike to make bikes that shouldn't even exist is an art. It can be tricky and tedious, but it's tons of fun. Here's my blog that I haven't updated in a long while. It's got pictures of lots of my early builds and failures as well those of my friends and bikes I saw while traveling. http://www.bikething.blogspot.com Might be good for some inspiration.