Adventures with Recumbent Bicycles.
My first trip to the dark side.
This is my first ever attempt at recumbent building.
It weighed a ton and had rubbish components but you know what… Riding it was about the most fun you can have with your pants on.
It was kinda cool in that I made the front chainwheel set up a quad.
I built the bike from information found online, including making one of the cogs, it took some fine tuning and adjusting but overall it worked OK.
The seat is made using tubing from an old dining chair and some recycled webbing from seatbelts out of wrecked cars.
The under seat steering handlebar was taken from a disused exercise bike and the bar end shifters were fashioned from some old suicide shifters from a ten speed bike and a chunk of aluminium cut from a crank arm and shaped to fit into the handle bar and hold the lever.
All in all it worked pretty well, was easy to ride and very comfortable, the only mishap I had involved some ice that I never saw, I got dumped on my ass in the road outside a local hotel.
Detail of Quad Chainring set up.
After you print the design simply drill the holes, cut out the centre and then a bit of file work and you’re good to go.
The “kinda” P38 clone
This is an experimental SWB kinda inspired by the legendary P38.
The frames used are from old ladies tenspeed bikes, the type with thin double top tubes.
To get the frame the right shape I cut the chainstays and bent them up, cut the bottom tube at the seat post, cut a wedge from the bottom tube at the head tube and bent it up to meet with the chainstays.
Sounds kind of involved but it only took a few minutes, I mitred the bottom tube before it was bent up.
A quick bit of welding and there you have it
This shot shows how the seat stays were bent up to use as a seat brace, a second set of the thin top tubes was welded to the top tubes and the seat stays, this loosely forms a triangle that the seat rests on… I’m totally surprised how stiff and light this method turned out to be.The seat (my first try at a hard shell seat) is made from some old washing machine lids from my Brother-In-Law’s junk yard, I used holesaws to lighten it a bit.
The closed cell foam I got for $1 from the local junk shop it is one of the protective pads from a trampoline.
Detail showing the twin top tubes, this worked very well and produced a good stiff frame.This bike was built as a beater for round town messages etc, but it really does seem to be quite fast.
Recently a friend rode it while I rode my LWB and I couldn’t keep up with him… He totally ate my lunch so the next time he rides it I’m going to adjust the brake so it drags so I have a chance.It has a quick agile feel but I think I will add a touch more trail as the steering is very quick, I don’t mind that but others find it a little bit tricky.
NOTE: This bike has been stripped and converted to a 20×20 format, this along with some other enhancements that are currently being built will be shown soon.
