Bikeforums.net is a forum about nothing but bikes. Our community can help you find information about hard-to-find and localized information like bicycle tours, specialties like where in your area to have your recumbent bike serviced, or what are the best bicycle tires and seats for the activities you use your bike for.steveknight
10-01-05, 02:22 AM
Well here is the start of my first wooden bent. I was going to use a torsion box made from Russian birch ply. But it is far more work and more planning so I thought the first one out of solid wood will be easier.
This will be a 26/26 or 26/20 SWB along the lines of my burley limbo that I broke the frame on. I bought a cheap mountain bike frame for the parts and used bass wood for the body. 5/8” Russian ply for the chain stays or whatever you call them on a bent. The Russian ply is a ply with no voids and a lot of ply’s very strong and easy to work with.
So the body is 1 ¾”x4” I tested the strength of the wood I put it on a couple of blocks and jumped a little on the flat side an there was only a little bounce none I could feel on the edge. It had less bounce on the side then a 1.5”x7” piece of fir and it is lighter too.
It weighs a bit less then 4.5” pounds.
I used the rear seat stay from the bike so I would have the dropouts and the brake bosses in the right plane. I made a shelf to hold it. I used this really good epoxy that seems to make a stronger then wood bond between metal and wood. One of the few epoxies I found that the wood would not come off without breaking.
I debate on needing to fasten the chainstays to the body with hardware too. They are glued to the body with gorilla glue. But there is pressure creating the curve it has.
I also think the glue holding the seatstay needs some extra help maybe some fiberglass tape around the bottom since this is where the pressure is to lift it from the shelf I made for it.
I also need some drawings of the curve I need for the seat. Any one had them?
The only frames I could find had 1” head tubes. I really want to stick with 1 1/8” since I have forks and bars to fit that size.
This will be a 26/26 or 26/20 SWB along the lines of my burley limbo that I broke the frame on. I bought a cheap mountain bike frame for the parts and used bass wood for the body. 5/8” Russian ply for the chain stays or whatever you call them on a bent. The Russian ply is a ply with no voids and a lot of ply’s very strong and easy to work with.
So the body is 1 ¾”x4” I tested the strength of the wood I put it on a couple of blocks and jumped a little on the flat side an there was only a little bounce none I could feel on the edge. It had less bounce on the side then a 1.5”x7” piece of fir and it is lighter too.
It weighs a bit less then 4.5” pounds.
I used the rear seat stay from the bike so I would have the dropouts and the brake bosses in the right plane. I made a shelf to hold it. I used this really good epoxy that seems to make a stronger then wood bond between metal and wood. One of the few epoxies I found that the wood would not come off without breaking.
I debate on needing to fasten the chainstays to the body with hardware too. They are glued to the body with gorilla glue. But there is pressure creating the curve it has.
I also think the glue holding the seatstay needs some extra help maybe some fiberglass tape around the bottom since this is where the pressure is to lift it from the shelf I made for it.
I also need some drawings of the curve I need for the seat. Any one had them?
The only frames I could find had 1” head tubes. I really want to stick with 1 1/8” since I have forks and bars to fit that size.