HandsomeRyan

I began work on this monstrosity... It is now being refered to as "The Danger Cart" as it will be incredibly unsafe and I'm a huge A.T.H.F. fan.

I obtained an old Murray rigid framed woman's mountain bike that was made of steel. I stripped the front end of all the shifters/brakes leaving naked handlebars and a fork. I cut the frame but unlike the picture in my first post I did not just cut a "wedge". I'll try to get a picture to illustrate more clearly what I did but I shaved the top off the "front" of the old top tube and added a new "mens bike" top tube welded at the top of the seat post and to the old top tube. I ligned up the front end and I'm in the process of welding it back on. I am still working on making sure everything is braced well enought to support my clydesdale behind.

I got some rusty 3/4" square tubing for a song at the local scrap yard so I built the front platform out of that. 4 crossmembers make up the decking with 3 supports underneath. a piece of 1/2" steel rod acts as an axle for the 16" tires I got from Northern Tool.

Today on my lunch break I built a wooden jig to hold the front cargo deck in place so I can begin designing the supports that will keep the forks from buckling under the weight of me riding. I think I'm going to weld the forks to the platform then run some additional support bracing from the front corners of the platform to the edges of the handlebars. I know this probably is not the prefered way of bracing things but it will help pread the load from the forks to the handlebars/stem.

Once the fabrication is complete I'll need to test ride it and see if it is drivable. assuming it can be ridden I need a new rear tire as the one on there is so dry rotted I am afraid to put air in the tube.

Braking is a major concern. With the only brake being whatever Murray put on the back wheel their bicycles 15 years ago I have serious doubts about stopping power even on flat land much less going down hills with a load on the cargo area. Maybe if the brake is the only "real" problem that make the bike unridable I'll spring for a nicer one. (or weld on a suicide brake that just lowers an arm with a piece of old tire to create friction; hardcore)

<sarcasm> And to think that some people waste years in engineering school and doing welding apprenticeships... nothing a semi-intelegent person can't teach themselves to do in the garage over a long weekend I say. </sarcasm>