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-   -   This is a recumbent bike that I built. (https://www.bikeforums.net/recumbent/488949-recumbent-bike-i-built.html)

Crash2Much 11-23-08 06:29 PM

This is a recumbent bike that I built.
 
700c back wheel, 25mm tire, 120 psi, 20" x 1.25 front tire 100 psi, 8 speed cassette, 3 speed 175 mm crank set. Aluminum seat with foam pad. Wheels covers. Bike is fast, real fast. I love riding it. Chain has duel roller bearing idles. Boom is 1 1/2" steel bent in a hydraulic bender. The boom is stiff and strong no flex at all. With ZERO chain friction there is no power lost from the crank to the back wheel. On a flat level street I can pedel it up to 28 mph and hold it for about 1/4 mile. After I do a 5 mile warm up ride I can cruise along at 22 to 24 mph on a flat level road that is pushing it a bit hard for 20 miles. I can do an easy cruise at 20 mph. It doesn't take much down hill for gravity to speed me up a lot. A small down grade in the street and I can get up to 34 mph real quick. The bike weighs 28 lbs. This low racer is a lot faster than my other 2 recumbent bikes.

Too much web page traffic had to remove the bike picture Earthlink wants to charge me $65 extra for the extra web page traffic or they will shut down my web page.

downtube42 11-23-08 06:34 PM

Do you feel like you lose much power with all the chain management?

Corsarider 11-23-08 06:48 PM

Probably looses more power with boom flex than chain management

tinkermann 11-27-08 01:34 PM

That's hauling with those pedals. Sweet job.

tinkermann 11-27-08 01:38 PM

(Posted too quickly...sorry about that.) How much does it weigh and how did you fabricate those wheel discs?

MarkMe 11-27-08 02:29 PM

Nice work! Any pix of you on the bent?
Mark

fatherofmany 11-27-08 09:27 PM

Nice Ride... I've just gotta build me a bent.

gavtatu 11-28-08 03:25 PM

really nice!
yeah, tell us about the wheel discs

Crash2Much 12-01-08 07:54 AM

My web service has shut down my web page the notice says web page traffic has gone over the limit. Web page will be restored Dec 1. Today is Dec 1 still no pictures. ?

I will try to answer all the questions. I bought a sheet of .020" thick sign plastic from a sign company. A 4ft x 8ft sheet is about $9.00 and it will make 4 700c discs and about 6 smaller 20" discs. If you make all large disc you can probably make 7 discs for 700c wheels or 8 discs for 26" wheels.

I measured the inside diameter of each wheel. I made a home made compus to draw circles on the sign plastic. I drew the circles 1/8" larger than the measurement to allow extra lengh for the dish shape. I cut a hole for the hub. I cut the plastic from center out to 1 edge. Lay the plastic on the wheel and let the cut over lap at the cut. Draw a line at the over lap with a pencil then cut along the line with a razor knife. The edge has to be flush with the brake surface of the wheel so the disc may need to be trimmed a tiny amount with sizzers along the edge. The disc can not stick up above the brake pad surface of the wheel. Next I cut a piece of plastic 1/2" wide so it could be used as a bandaid over top of the butt joint where the cut section needs to be joined together. With the disc laying on the wheel I put tape on the outside to hold it together. Remove the disc and turn it over and lay it on a flat surface. Lay the 1/2" strip of plastic over the cut so it is centered and while holding it in place use a tiny artist paint brush to brush about 1 drop of acetone along the edge of the 1/2" strip. The acetone will wick in under the plastic and melt the 2 pieces of plastic together. Be very careful not to use more than 1 drop of acetone at a time you can spread 1 drop of liquid about 5 or 6 inches read easy. Give it about 60 seconds to soak in and dry. Brush another 1 drop of acetone along another 6 inch section of the 1/2" strip. I brushed acetone in 3 different places and it glued the over lap section perfect. After the acetone is used to glue the joint section together give it about an hour to dry before you pull the tape off the other side. Lay the disc on the bike wheel. Be sure to do the disc on the cassette side of the wheel first. With the cassette removed put some silicone around the hum right on top of the spokes. Put 1 drop of silicone on the rim at each spoke. Lay the disc on the wheel and give it 24 hours to dry. Turn the wheel over and use silicone to glue the disc on the other side. Do not put silicone on the outside of the wheel about 8 inches on each side of the valve stim. Lay the disc on the wheel and give it 24 hours to dry. When you need to air up the tire you can bend the disc back so you can get air in the valve stim. The outside of the wheel has a lot of dish so the disc will stay down with no glue at all near the valve stim. Do the same thing on the front wheel glue the disc at the hub and at each spoke on one side but don't put any glue near the valve stim on one side so you can bent the disc back to get air in the tire.

I have built several of these low racer bikes. I am making PLANS so people can build their own. You can build this bike with a bender or without a bender. I am drawing up 2 sets of plans so the builder will have a choice. If you have no bender you can still build a bike all you need is a welder, hand drill, hacksaw, and some hand tools like plyers, screw drivers, wrenchs. This bike cost me about $150.00 to build that includes buying a new back wheel, new back and front tire and tube, every thing else came from yard sale bicycles that I bought dirt cheap.

I have another low racer bike that is for sale. I am about to change my mind and not sell it I might make a stream liner out of it.

Sorry no pics of me riding it. I have not figured out how to take a pic of my self. It has been raining here for 4 weeks, if it ever stops raining I am going to do a video of me riding the bike along the bike path. I think I can hold the camera in one hand and ride with the other hand. I'm not sure that will show much maybe a view of the pedals going around and riding along the bike path.

LWB_guy 12-07-08 10:43 AM

What a cool bike! That looks like a fun bike. Thanks for taking time to share the pic. Thank you for taking time to explain how you made the wheels fairings.

What is the frame made of? What is the seat made of?

Crash2Much 12-07-08 06:46 PM

The frame is 1 1/2" diameter muffle tubing $15 per 7ft long piece. It is alumized steel, it won't rust, welds easy, bends with a hydraulic bender. I have built more than 1 bike you do not need a hydraulic bender. You cut several straight pieces and weld them together. The steering tube is 20 deg angle. Weld a piece of 1 1/2" tubing to the steering tube at a 20 deg angle. Weld the boom at about 20 down from that. Weld the frame 70 deg down 7" from the ground. Weld a piece of tubing from there back to the back wheel. 4 pieces of straight tubing welded together will make a nice frame. The seat is a 1/16" thick sheet of aluminum bolted to the frame with a 2" thich foam. I bought some bike seat foam wow it really makes a difference and it weights only a few ounces.

tinkermann 12-08-08 01:07 PM

Thanks for describing your DIY discs project. If and when you have a chance to post a pic, I'd like to see your bar and controls. Super job. What does she weigh?

accordionfolder 12-09-08 06:30 PM

Are you in the Nashville area? I've seen very similiar home builts f/s on craigslist.

nomo4me 12-09-08 10:13 PM

He's in Murfreesborough (sp?)

Banned from BROL. And no one believes that his noodle boom doesn't flex.

Crash2Much 12-10-08 01:12 PM


Originally Posted by nomo4me (Post 7995316)
He's in Murfreesborough (sp?)

Banned from BROL. And no one believes that his noodle boom doesn't flex.

Come to my house and take the bike for a test ride and see for your self the boom does not flex.

There is an old saying, don't comfuse with facts my mind is made up.

There is another saying, there are none so blind as those who will not see.

This is an official invitation to ride the bike and see for yourself. What is your answer, YES or NO?

Trsnrtr 12-10-08 04:05 PM

At least you quit calling it a NoCom.

nomo4me 12-10-08 04:20 PM

Is his tour ez still a Tour EZ?

Look for porn pics landing in your PM box forthwith

Crash2Much 12-10-08 08:48 PM


Originally Posted by nomo4me (Post 7999527)
Is his tour ez still a Tour EZ?

Look for porn pics landing in your PM box forthwith


There is another cool saying, "He who yells the loudest usually has the least to say."

While I was doing a bike tour called, (Bike Virginia) someone started a Thread on BROL that turned into a big argument about my home built bikes. You may have been one of the 4 guys that started the argument. About 25 other guys took the other side of the argument and as one of them said, QUOTE, "You guys are just jealous because you can not build your own bike and save money."

You paid big money for your over priced name brand bike and I have a bike just as good as yours and it only cost me $150.

After I returned from (Bike Virginia) I discovered 2 guys sent me some PM hate mail on BROL and I replied to it. Then those 2 whinny babies went crying to Brian. End of story.

I have PLANS for sale for all 6 of my recumbent bikes on Ebay $9.99 each. I have sold approximately 230 sets of plans in 3 years. I believe my Ebay feedback rating speaks for its self, everybody that bought plans was happy. I even have some pics of the bikes some of the buyers built. COOL. I am glad there are people that can build their own bike and save money.

By the way I am not getting rich selling plans for $9.99. Minus the ebay listing fee, minus the ebay selling fee, minus the paypal fees, minus printing costs, minus the cost of envelopes, minus postage, it is hardly worth my time. I am retired and it gives me something to do when I am not building another bike. I love talking to the guys building their own bikes and seeing pics of their finished recumbent bike.

You stired up a bunch of trouble on BROL, now your here stiring up more trouble.

nomo4me 12-11-08 01:13 AM

Gary if you are making a buck selling plans for peeps to make bikes god bless ya. Let's see a link to a thread where I and 4 others nutted you.

BlazingPedals 12-11-08 09:24 AM

I believe his boom doesn't flex. For him, at least. Looking through his gallery of projects, I'm impressed with his work. I'm just not impressed with that lowracer's design.

Trsnrtr 12-11-08 03:04 PM

Yeah, I seem to remember seeing a P38 clone that was pretty sweet.

BlazingPedals 12-11-08 03:24 PM

From Gary's gallery:

P-38 clone:
http://home.earthlink.net/~gary350/P-38-018.jpg

USS LWB, although I would hesitate to call it a TourEasy clone:
[IMG]http://home.earthlink.net/~gary350/bike01.jpg[/IMG]

IMHO, trying to duplicate the NoCom's dimensions and angles in a tube-built bike just didn't work. The others fairly nice, although I wouldn't want an ashtabula crank on any of *my* bikes.


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