General Cycling Discussion - Micro bike!

check out what i made today!
i welded it with my Hobart 135 MIG welder. it took me about 3 hours. its made from some old spokes, ballbearing races and is totaly welded.
i made it for our "bikes" class as part of an art assignment... not bad for a 17 year old aint it? :D

-Jonathan

second pic

last one

That is awesome! You could easily sell those for ~$40+. See http://www.bicycle-gifts.com/ for more info...

Good job controlling the weld heat on the small/thin materials used. Most people would burn through the stuff you used. You must do a bit of welding as a hobby/profession.

I think I would have had to resort to the TIG process to get a clean looking job as you have done here.

Great looking work! :D

Thanks!
but im sort of a Newbie weldor, i bought my welder about a year ago and have only used to weld my 74 Volkswagen beetles floor pans in. I wish i had a TIG to use but i cant aford them.
My mom said that same thing about selling them to, she said i could easily get 40 bones for one :D

I'd certainly love one. Great job.

BTW i have not finnished it, im going to make a rider and maybe make a chain for it ;)

I'd take one as is.

Originally posted by Mad Dog JR
BTW i have not finnished it, im going to make a rider and maybe make a chain for it ;)

I take it you'll post more pics once it's finished?

Great job! Nice welds. I do some welding too and have been thinking about doing some bike related stuff. You've got me wanting to try it. Really nice Jonathan. Did you use .030 wire?

Thats realy neat, great work :thumbup:

DirtGrinder, he said he used old spokes.

Nice job dude.

Brendon
:beer:

Originally posted by NZLcyclist
DirtGrinder, he said he used old spokes.

Nice job dude.

Brendon
:beer:

I think dirtgrinder was asking what type of wire did the kid use in the welder. Correct dirtgrinder?

Hey nice job on the bicycle art dude, that is REALLY nice. I love it. :-)

Very impressive! Thanks for sharing it with us!

Mad Dog JR: Very cool! I want a rode bike version :)

LOL i never expected to get this much of a reply... WOW
Dirtgrinder, i used .23 soild wire with a 25/75 Argon/Co2 mix gas.

Im not sure if im going to sell these but if some one is dieing to have one i guess i could make a few :D this was my first one like i said, so quiality on this one is kinda low right now. but ill get better at it if i do more of them ;)

Thanks for all the nice words!
-Jonathan

oh, and yes i will post more pics once i have compleated the little rider figure for it (STICK FIGURE.... YEAH!!!!!!!) maybe ill make him doing some sort of trick, or just make him look like hes bombing in the air we will see :D

that is really great work!!! I would definitely grab one, but if you're going to start taking requests I think I'd go for a roadie version, as well. you know, I seriously think you're sitting on something potentially lucrative here!

excellent, excellent work.

enviously,

alex.

Great work!

Definitely keep us posted. I think you have many potential sales right here on the forum. Like others have mentioned, I'd be interested in a roadie version.

Great work!!!!! I am really impressed with the quality of it. I would suggest you make a few and sell them, being 17 I know you are not rich so this could help you raise money for your cycling hobby! :)

As Strongbad would say if he saw, "I've seen crap sell for more than that and that is definitely not crap." :D
You could definitely make some money selling cool little crafts like that if you wanted to and you found places (like this) where people like you wares.
I think I'd have trouble even doing that with a MIG, I'd have probably resorted to brazing with the torch. Nice job.

Another "me too" post :D Like everyone else says, that looks fantastic. I'd love to have one of those on top of my monitor here at work :) Keep up the excellent work, you should seriously think of selling art like that.

Ya i have been savin up for a new XC bike to race with so maybe i will start to take some requests in order to help me reach my goal sooner... i first need to figure out what i could make road wheels out of, ballbearings look to off roadish so thats out of the question, any thoughts?
Also some one before mentioned $ 40 bucks? would this be a fair price?

If ya got any Qestions or requests feal free to E-mail me at super_nitro_child@msn.com or PM me:)

Thanks alot guys(or gals)!
Jonathan

oh, i also got done with the"rider" but its kinda late and i need sleep so ill post pics of them tomorrow sometime ;)

I'll take one!!!

as far as pricing your work, here's one possibility out of several: take the price of your materials consumed plus half that and divide by (pick one according to what you think the market will bear) .2, .25 or .3, etc. that's one pricing strategy, which takes into account materials plus the value of your time, and which yields what you'd call a 20 or 25 or 30 percent cost, etc. there's another pricing strategy which looks a lot like this but kinda goes from a different direction (i.e. tacking on a percentage afterwards) but I don't use that one; just a preference. like I said, there's lots of ways to do this.

anyhow, so if your raw materials cost you, say, five dollars, you'd charge somewhere between 25 to 38-ish odd dollars. this is the sort of thing that makes you examine what you think your time is worth.

fyi, when my brother began selling his artwork, the prevailing wisdom was that you had to avoid charging too little, because then people would assume your work wasn't worth that much. of course, that's in some gallery somewhere where you're not selling to friends, but to suckers with too much money. here, of course, you don't have that problem. :-) we all appreciate your work from the getgo. the thing is, you want to be fair, but you're still weighing your interests against the fact that you're not *really* in the marketplace yet, you're just starting to learn your craft, you're essentially considering selling your practice pieces, you need to consider the responsibility of accepting someone's hard-earned money for your work product, etc. all of which is kindofa downer, in a way, but just sort of goes with the territory of putting yourself out there in the world. believe me, I've experienced the good and bad side of being in a "creative" business, but I think I'm getting ahead of myself now. chalk this up to still being up at 5:44 in the morning.

so what do you plan on doing with yourself, by the way? something artistic like this? something else? haven't decided yet? I'm telling you though, man, it looks like you have a talent that could take you places.

cheers,

alex.

Mad Dog, that is too cool for words,

It looks finished to me,

Do another if you want to add more, cause as Myles Davis said of his paintings, " I think they looked their best, just before they were done."

So hey, heres the rider pic. I made it so hes just sitting on the bike, not welded on at all.

As far as pricing goes for those who are interested, you can E-mail me at super_nitro_child@msn.com . reson i say this is beucase road bike would be less to make than MTB's, and i can make different frames forks and bar designs to. so if you have a prefered bike just give me a pic of how it looks.

Thanks a lot !
Jonathan

you guys think chrome cogs would look better ?

Now that you mention it, yes it would. :)

;)

Only problem I see is, how's the weld going to take to the chrome plating? I've never tried welding to chrome before but I wouldn't think it would work too well.

well the point where i weld onto the cassette i would have to grind down to bare metal. same with anything with any kind of coating, ya gotta take it off first.

Do we get a $5 discount if we send you a used cassette and old spokes for your next project? ;)

HEY HEY, thats not a bad idea! I would do that.

Originally posted by Mad Dog JR
Thanks!
but im sort of a Newbie weldor, i bought my welder about a year ago and have only used to weld my 74 Volkswagen beetles floor pans in. I wish i had a TIG to use but i cant aford them.
My mom said that same thing about selling them to, she said i could easily get 40 bones for one :D

I'd buy one...60cdn...not a problem :)

I'll buy one, maybe two or three.

shoot me an E-mail to tell me what you would like;)
super_nitro_child@msn.com

I think you are a bit obsessed with this cycling stuff.

;)

All kidding aside, this looks like great stuff. I've been thinking about doing some jewelry with some of the old discarded bike gear around the shop. I've been inspired to look into this!

Koff

ME? obsessed?... Nawww never :D maybe them other guys!

chains make great bracelets! :D

I'm sure I could scrounge up $40 for some cool bike art and to help out a fellow BF member.

I kinda like it without the rider. Can you do an Intense Uzzi? (Kinda like a Specialized FSR XC!)

L8R

like this? http://gallery.consumerreview.com/mtbr/gallery/files/DSCN0212.asp

ya i could do that, the frame would be more round due to the fact im using spokes, but i can get the shape and design down.

Or this? http://store1.yimg.com/I/lonestarbikes_1739_596467

Yep, more like the second one though. The first one is their M1, their downhill bike!

If you've got good eyes, you can look at my Avatar!

L8R

ya i can do that!

BTW... im going to be gone till late tusesday, im camping with my class(for school) so i wont reply for a day to so ;)

A budding custom frame builder in training! That is a neat little project.

thanks, i only wish i could be building frames! :D

I made another one last night, its a K2 Animal look alike.
I need to find my digi cam and snap some pic of it.
This one also has more spokes and the wheels spin :D

BTW, I might sell a few for $35 bucks shipped if any one is interested. I can make them anyway you would like.

-Jonathan

So, MDJR, when is your e-bay store open for business?