Recumbent - Best Plans to Start with

Hello everyone,

It has been a while since I posted, but now I feel ready to get into recumbents in my own way. I am interested in building my own from old bikes, and I would prefer to do no welding. I do know someone who could give me access to the equipment, but as this is my first attempt at building a recumbent or any type of bike for that matter, I wanted to keep things as easy as possible. That said, I was wondering if anyone knew of the best plans out there. I have looked at http://www.geocities.com/atombikes and those plans look very good. Any suggestions would be welcome.

Also, would it be worth it to attempt to fair such a bike? It will probably not be very low like a lowracer, so it would not be a streamliner, but I would still like to try to fair it for winter. Perhaps I can use Coroplast or something? Again, I would keep everything as low-cost as I can.

Thank you for your help.

Since I weld I may not be the right one for an answer...If you can weld at all t'would be worth it,,in my humble opinion, to do the weld idea... course I have never tried the non welding option. I am not sure the non-weld build would be easier than welding because you have to put things together some way.......................................just my 2 cents.

I just want to be sure i can complete it succesfully and easily. The atom bikes one is just a bolt-together involving one or two frame cuts of two girl's bikes. It produces a highracer like 'bent. see http://www.geocities.com/atombikes/bolt.html

It appears that I should be able to craft a Coroplast fairing fairly cheaply. I may go with that over
zotefoam.

IMHO, the fairing design becomes very complicated if it is long enough to contain the drive train and it turns. maybe you could come up with a design that only covers the area directly in front of the bottom bracket or is fixed to the main frame and does not move when you turn ... raises other issues

Ah yes, it appears you are right. I overlooked the fact that the atomBOLT is a FWD, which does present issues. Nonetheless, some type of fairing could be designed. After the succesful construction of the bike, of course.

maybe it could be a two-part fairing with front and back pieces?

rabbitt,

I built a recumbent from wood from plans available here:
http://mysite.verizon.net/res88kr1/
I am not related to the designer.
Like you, I did not have access to welding equipment, nor any desire to weld.
So I decided to make the bike from old bike parts and wood. I am glad that I did. The only thing I'd do different, if I were to make another bike, is that I would specifically exclude knotty lumber when making the bike frame.

If you go with a FWD design like the ATOM Bolt or the Cruzbike, then the fairing design most likely to work would be a body sock, like they use on LWB bents. Otherwise, I think it'd work just fine with a fairing; the biggest concern with a racer-type bent is usually that your head is higher than your knees so you can see over the fairing (that has to clear your knees.)

Have you tried to ride a FWD bent? You might want to before you invest time & money. Some people like 'em, some don't. Just to throw this out, but you could cut up and jig the parts and have a professional do the welding. It's not that expensive. Getting everything clamped into a jig so it's ready to go is the hard part.

If you decide to make an LWB recumbent, this link that BlazingPedals led me to might be useful:
http://www.recycledrecumbent.com/

If you decide to make an LWB recumbent, this link that BlazingPedals led me to might be useful:
http://www.recycledrecumbent.com/

Yes, I can recommend that site.
I've built five of those now and they have all been great bikes. I had to teach myself to weld to do them.
The first was brazed using a large borrowed air blown propane plumbers torch.

Another interesting site is atomiczombie.com

Go for it. Whatever you build you will learn from the experience and the next one (Yes there'll be a next one) will be even better

Same question. I have no welding knowledge and am interested in building a rebumbent from donor bikes. I do not want to do the cruzbike method with a front wheel drive. Ideally I would like to build something close to a highracer.

I have two ideas right now. One is to use the girls mountain bike and use an fork and seatube/bottom bracket from another bike and bolt it onto the frame of the first bike as the boom. Most DIYs i have seen using this method end up with the boo being faily horizontal. I'd like to put it on an incline to achieve the feet over BB over a highracer.

My other idea was to try the same thing using a bmx frame as the donor. However, I doubt this will work, as I want to use 2 26 inch wheels.

Any advice would be much appreciated.


Or, would it be just easier to purchase some exhaust pipe, bolt on the rear triangle of a donor, and pay a welder to do the headtube/ BB welds?

http://www.magnabike.com/models.php?model=gdivideThis is the bike I am thinking of using as the main platform. http://www.magnabike.com/models.php?model=gdivide



I would upgrade the wheels and then bolt a fork onto the toptube/downtube at an elevated angle and attach the steerer colum to a seattube and bottom bracket from a men's upright. For the seat, I was planning on using a $40 webbed office chair back and bottom from target. I don't know how to get the reclined angle I want however. Another (probably dumb) idea I had was to cut off the top tube altogether and most of the seat tube and mount a seat about where the water bottle is, using the stub from the seat tube and the seat stays as bracing. However, te top tube is probably there for a reason and I think i would likely compromise the structual integrity of the frame.

. The easiest would just be to try and mount the seat on the frame as is, without any cutting--but I don't know if i can get the incline I want.

Does any of this sound remotely possible?

http://www.magnabike.com/models.php?model=gdivideThis is the bike I am thinking of using as the main platform. http://www.magnabike.com/models.php?model=gdivide

...

Does any of this sound remotely possible?

The donor bike would work well, IF it is steel and IF you are willing to to some welding. I'd ditch the suspension fork, too. That wishbone seat stay arrangement would make it easy to detach at the seat tube and pull it down to meet the sloping top tube. Then, you'd just need to add a boom. Here's what I did. The pic is the plan, just make sure you weld the boom on straight.

http://s38.photobucket.com/albums/e135/blazingpedals/bike%20pics/?action=view&current=jrex2.jpg

http://www.recumbents.com/wisil/junkbike/forrestbike.htm

The donor bike would work well, IF it is steel and IF you are willing to to some welding. I'd ditch the suspension fork, too. That wishbone seat stay arrangement would make it easy to detach at the seat tube and pull it down to meet the sloping top tube. Then, you'd just need to add a boom. Here's what I did. The pic is the plan, just make sure you weld the boom on straight.

http://s38.photobucket.com/albums/e135/blazingpedals/bike%20pics/?action=view&current=jrex2.jpg

Thanks. I can't weld. I was planning on drilling and bolting another fork to use as a "sleeve" for a seatpost and BB from another bike.

rabbitt,

I built a recumbent from wood from plans available here:
http://mysite.verizon.net/res88kr1/
I am not related to the designer.
Like you, I did not have access to welding equipment, nor any desire to weld.
So I decided to make the bike from old bike parts and wood. I am glad that I did. The only thing I'd do different, if I were to make another bike, is that I would specifically exclude knotty lumber when making the bike frame.

Very interesting. I might consider using 3/4 in plywood which might allow the whole thing to be 2 laminated pieces. Does anyone have info or pictures on how the BB and handlebar stem are installed?
Mark

I just used normal Douglas fir 2x4's. 3/4 inch plywood would be really heavy. The same size piece of plywood would weigh about ten times as much as a Douglas fir2x4 the same size. However, plywood can carry more shear stress. The LWB uses pieces of quarter inch plywood laminated overtop the 2x4's in critical wood-wood intersections on the bike where you wouldn't want pieces coming apart or damaging the softwood-- for example, where the hole for the crank is drilled through the main beam.

I think there is just a hole drilled straight through the main beam for the headseat cups. On some designs I have seen the builder use a small metal plate between the wood and cups. I am assuming something similar for the BB. Drill out a whole for the axle, install BB and use a plate on either side to hold the cups.


I would ideally like to use as many bike parts and as little wood as possible. For instance, I would like to just use the downtube and BB from a donor bike for the end of the beam. Also, I would like to use either the rear triangle or a spare set of forks in the back. I wonder if you used a single 4x4 if you could just bore out a hole in the back insert and old fork and steerer tube and then drill holes to bolt it on? Maybe do the same in the front for the boom.

Or..i could just be nuts

I just used normal Douglas fir 2x4's. 3/4 inch plywood would be really heavy. The same size piece of plywood would weigh about ten times as much as a Douglas fir2x4 the same size. However, plywood can carry more shear stress. The LWB uses pieces of quarter inch plywood laminated overtop the 2x4's in critical wood-wood intersections on the bike where you wouldn't want pieces coming apart or damaging the softwood-- for example, where the hole for the crank is drilled through the main beam.

A 4.8 in x 60 in x 3/4 in piece of plywood would weigh about 5.25 lb so 10.5 lb. Kind of heavy. Maybe use 3/8 in w/ a spacer to form a box, about 6 lb, but still heavy. Darn! 1/4 in sides w/ 3/8 in spacers down to 4 lb.
Mark

You could try this. It's carbon fiber, no welding. ;)

http://www.rqriley.com/imagespln/xr22.jpg

http://www.rqriley.com/xr2.htm

It doesn't sound quite like what you were asking about, but it looks so fine that I couldn't help suggesting it.