bikenh

Here's a pic of my vertical dropout converter that I built and have been using for a week or so now. It cost around $15 and is far cheaper than trying to find a horizontal/track end frame to use.

It would have taken a lot less time to build if I would have been using something other than a hacksaw...definitely not the tool for the job.

I made it out of 1.25" galvy angle iron and use two 3/8" bolts to mount it right into the vertical dropout. I made sure to include two backups to avoid having the whole thing want to tilt forward on me when I pedal. So far it has worked flawlessly even after hitting some decent holes in the pavement that about wanted to send me crashing as a result of not continuing to pedal like I should have. Something about hitting bumps/holes always makes me want to stop pedaling. I got to break that bad habit and pedal on through. Granted in the same area right now I'm just trying my best to take the whole lane and avoid the obstacles since I ride through that area everyday/sometimes multiple times a day.

Scrodzilla

Good job, that doesn't look janky at all.

T13

Dude. Please don't ride that thing, like in real life. I mean unless you are my worst enemy....

jhess74

..

jlafitte 

IAmSam

I realize many of us like to express our creativity and work on do-it-yourself projects - but sometimes a little reserch can save a lot of time and expense

Yeah, its far from perfect - but it is a lot less goofy than your...uhhh...device, and available on fleabay for as low as $10

bikenh

Using galvanized steel, like I have should hold up just as long as anything else, including the device IAmSam shows. It's probably made of aluminum which is a weaker metal.

If your mounting behind the original dropout you couldn't have the wheel going past the seat tube unless it did that on the original bike to begin with...think about it. The wheel mounts behind where the original dropout is located.

One of the benefits that I also gain from the converter is expanded wheelbase. I went out a couple of weeks ago to try and make up a homemade studded tire to play with as I actually had conditions where it would have been possible to use them and experiment around with them. The trouble was I didn't have frame clearance as the dropouts are just too darn forward on this bike. With the converter I now have the wheel sitting further back which makes that a possible option for the future.

Another side benefit is with this being a regular road bike, racing style, not touring style, the bike doesn't come with any braze-ons. With this I have several possible screws I can mount to right on the dropout to hook up a much more beefier rack than I what I current have on the bike, heck I could probably even be able to switch over to panniers instead of the backpack I've used on the bike trip each of the past three years now...not sure if I would even want to though.

Looking at photo that IAmSam posted it looks like it has two problems with it. One being the fact it doesn't have the brake in place to keep the whole things from being able to rotate forward on you and then as I said above I would still be stuck without any braze-ons on the bike.

In the initial, ridden, build out of plywood(pushed for time and had to get something rideable) I had forgotten to put the screws in to keep the whole thing from rotating on me and I only made it about two pedal strokes before it rotated on me and left me walking back in the house to put the screws in like I knew to do from the beginning. Hence why I have the piece that goes up the chain stay...to act as the brake in case the screw between the chain/seat stay fails.

I doubt there is much difference between what I've built and the product IAmSam shows other than the look of it. My device pretty much keeps the same BB/dropout height difference which can effect how the bike handles. The picture IAmSam shows would change the BB/dropout height difference and would change the overall handling of the bike...at least from what I heard on an interview I was listening to recently.

Plus at the time in question when I made this I had one simple problem. The chain tensioner had crapped out on me, totally gone. I had to do something and no bike shop was going to be open for a couple of days and as I was riding home, 13 miles without the chain tensioner(yeah, riding singlespeed at the time) I came up with the idea for this. I knew I had to find a way somehow to control the fore/aft of the wheel to keep the tension on the chain and this idea popped out quite quickly at me. With limited internet access and at the time limited bike shop availability I had to do things on my own. Sometimes you have to learn to be creative whether you like it or not.

bikenh

Sorry, I just looked at the pic I posted again and I see what you are saying now. The wheel is mounted to the rear bolt not anything in front of there. I can see the confusion now. The front screw is there front a 'brake' to keep the device from being able to rotate around the vertical dropout. The lower part of the angle iron keeps it from being able to rotate up if you were to ride backward but not very often is a person riding backwards. Instead you need something to keep the device from rotating around the vertical dropout while riding forwards. I initially just used a screw mounts tight up against the seat stay between the seat/chain stays. I added the seat stay piece of angle iron in for added security for the same reason.

The middle bolt is where the unit mounts to the vertical dropout on the bike and then the rear bolt is where you mount the axle.

I only have Gopro camera so I have to live with the fisheye lense or do a lot of extra work with any photos/videos I take...not many of them typically.

neamatoad

just because you can doesn't mean you should

and "but it works" is no excuse

bikenh

I agree. Just because you can ride a bike on the road doesn't mean you should...you might get hit by a car or might have deer run into the side of you(someone I know had that happen to him last fall), etc. Everybody has there own risk tolerance level. Actually mine is probably bigger than most. I have actually been looking for the part two years at building my own bike frame. No company builds what I'm looking for, so I have no other option than to build it myself. Yes, it would be a track end frame made out of wood. Could I ride it...yeah, should I...of course not it doesn't help support corporate America so of course I shouldn't ride it. It would be highly experimental. Totally adjustable frame, everything can be adjusted, in most cases you could adjust it while riding down the road...that way you can change the way bike handles to make it handle the way you want it to handle at the time in question. Should I ride something like that...no. If I just have to figure out how to accomplish everything I want to accomplish and yea I would build it and ride it. I ride all the time with a homemade rear rack and coroplast front fenders. Sure they could hang up on me and cause me trouble, and they have. Does it stop me from riding with them, no.

Nothing in life is safe. You could flip your car upside down and kill yourself as you drive home from work/shopping. Cars/SUVs aren't safe. Do people still drive. Nothing has ever been accomplished without someone taking a risk. You would be living in Richmond, IN if Columbus had sailed the ocean blue. you would still be overseas somewhere.

Off the smartassness. I do realize changing anything is a risk that it might break but I'm willing to take that risk. I know I don't have the money or the space to buy a new bike, nowhere to put it. I also realize that any new bike doesn't meet my requirements so why spend the money on something that doesn't give me what I want. Instead I just try to get closer and closer to what I want with what I have right now by manipulating it in a way that I feel comfortable with the risk involved in how I'm doing the manipulating. The reason I haven't built the bike above is I haven't figured out a way of doing it that I feel comfortable with the idea of riding it. I haven't stumbled into certain things out there that jumps out at me and screams...this is the way to do it. Everything probably exists but I just don't know about it yet/don't have easy access to it without spending a ton of money that I don't have to start with. As a result the idea of the bike is still on paper only and not on the road.

Dan515

I don't think that it's the notion of not "support[ing] corporate America" that makes your adjustable wood-framed fixed gear bike sketchy. I believe it's called "engineering."

A homemade rack and fenders is far less sketchy than something that your fixed gear drivetrain is relying entirely on.

prooftheory

It's beautiful. I'm going to use this to convert my new visp machete.

Scrodzilla

You are my new favorite.

bikenh

Here's the question then...what is the difference between a 1/8" angle iron that has side to side support and greater thickness holding up the drivetrain and the flimsy derailleur hangers they put on multispeed bikes? On my old bike I had the derailleur hanger brake on me twice because it was so darn flimsy. The top of it was solid metal but where you hooked on the derailleur hanger it split in two and the first time it broke on me the entire thing broke at once. The second time I had a bit of a heads up as one side of it broke and the other kept in tact. I had to wait and continue riding the bike for over a month while waiting for the new hanger to arrive as everybody including Wheels Manufacturing(the distributor) were out of stock. I've sit with a wheel that didn't want to stay attached to the bike a couple of times now. The first time was on a descent when it occurred. Boy was that a shock. I had never heard of a hanger breaking before. Made for a nice walk home.

Leukybear 

That's actually pretty novel.
How does the drive side look like?

bikenh

It's setup the same way as the non drive side. I wouldn't have even thought about trying something like this without having both sides set up to hold the wheel in place. Actually I doubt you could even ride a bike without both sides in place.

The only real possible breakage with this would be from hitting a real nasty hole and having the top of the converter bending up on you which would allow the wheel to slip out. Otherwise I don't see too many other problems occurring. Yeah, I realize making it out of angle iron, even though it is galvy, I know to watch for any rust that would weaken the angle iron over time. Sure I have had a little trouble with the wheel slippage inside the dropout. I think I just need to watch and be more careful and tightening the wheel down better. Otherwise I hit a nice hole the other day and it held up fine. I almost lost it because of stopping pedaling and that naturally wanted to throw me all over the place, but that was my fault not the converters fault.

Leukybear 

You can use large wrap around hose clamps as reinforcement and as a fail safe.

bikenh

That was an idea I hadn't thought about. Thanks. Actually it was last Saturday when a guy in the LBS mentioned the idea of the seat stay pieces to help keep it from being able to rotate on me and throw the wheel off center. That wasn't my own idea. I had thought about it but couldn't see a secure enough way of achieving what I knew the do thanks to the rounded nature of the back side of the dropout on the bike itself. I hadn't thought about extending the 'brake' up above the vertical dropout. Dumb me.

Scrodzilla

Really? Any bike mechanic in the world will tell you that derailleur hangers breaking is fairly common.

neamatoad

must have some pretty impressive bike handling skills to be able to ride with such an enormous chip on your shoulder

but hey, you built what you wanted to build and it works right? go out and have fun

SGMongoose

Well the difference would be the derailleur hanger isn't supporting the weight of you and your bike.

I like the ingenuity tho. Definitely something i could have seen myself doing when i was younger. Have you thought about shortening your chain? the strength in angle iron is, well, the angle... and since you split one side of it to create the 'dropout', the top half of it will fatigue pretty quickly and fail, especially with how long you have it now.

seau grateau

hairnet

Neat. Do you have a way to get the two pieces welded together instead of being bolted together?

Scrodzilla

The funniest thing is that if someone had posted a pic of the OP's wacky contraption in the jackass thread, it would be right at home there.

Leukybear 

Darn, he got to us first!

For you guys with ideas, don't do it.... either of them.