sniperak47

hello everybody i'm new here , and need your help guys , i'm thinking about building a chopper bike and i need design to show me what to do i.' the angle measurement and the materials to be used . thank you everybody

unterhausen

welcome to the forum. I moved your thread to Alt Bikes from framebuilding, and hopefully some of the alt bikers can help you out

Philphine

you're going to try and weld/build it up yourself? from scratch or mod something?

with a motor? because I've never done that and don't know about extra stresses.

truthfully I'm nobody's expert on it. I do the cut up freakbike thing. the easiest would probably be to mod/cut up a Schwinn occ chopper. I don't like how they steer though, no matter what you do with them (maybe lessen the rake, but I didn't try that). I don't have a completed rideable Schwinn chopper. I just couldn't get what I wanted out of them.

the better base bike to me, is the huffy jesse james wcc chopper. probably just as easy to mod, but maybe a little harder to find. I also think they're a little easier to ride unmodded as an adult (I'm 5'11"), but still pretty cramped.





here is one of two that I stretched of these with a stock wcc to compare. the other has the stock wheels on it. this one has a 26 front 24x3 rear tire. adding the rear took some extra cutting I don't think I'd deal with again. had a lot of chain interference too, so now it's a single speed again. you can see the stretch (the primered tubes). cut it in half and separate the front and back about 8.5". the tubes kind of all fall into place

style-wise, probably the easiest thing is to combine the two. start with a wcc and stretch it, then add the back section of an occ to get the 20x4 tire, and add the bottom bracket from the occ to space out the pedals/sprocket to match. if I ever do another that's what I plan to do (I think I'm building my last chopper right now though).

this is what I'm working on now



but like I said, I'm no expert. I've been fooling with it off and on for years and building as the idea comes to me. I also have no motor plans so I don't know how much more stress beyond pedaling it would take.

sniperak47

good evening my friend , first of all i want to thank you for your help, the problem is that in my country you can't find this type of bicycle so if i want to have a chopper bike i must build it from scratch this why i want to know the measurement to have a clear idea about the size of the bike

CliffordK

I would think that each bike is "unique".

Schwinn made a number of "chopper" bikes that are available around here, some are dirt cheap.

However, you can browse the internet for direct side views of bikes you like. Then import them into your favorite graphics program. The compare dimensions to known sizes such as wheels.

If you're going to be the intended rider, then you can use your arm reach and leg reach as some of the intended dimensions. Head tube angles can vary significantly.

Chromoly (4130) is a common frame building material, but you can also build with a cheaper high tensile steel.

Perhaps there would be two design approaches.

Bottom Up:Top Down:In reality, you'll probably do a bit of both. Figure out what is available as a target for your design. Otherwise you'll spend a fortune on new and custom parts.

Here in the USA, there are a few cheap fat tire bikes.Perhaps a few others too.

Front tires on choppers can be big or small, your choice for your design approach.

There are quite a few unique bike builds on Rat Rod Bikes

wreckembent

eh... back in my day... we just sawed whatever spare forks we had off at the crown and hammered them on to our bike forks. we didn't know nuthin' 'bout fancy geometries, weldin', safety, color co-ordinatin' or nuthin'.

7up

Yup I had a chopper with forks that were from a scaffold hammered right over the original fork tubes.

greg1983

Cool project, gas or electric?

Cguev

Very cool project.

Roger2

There's about a free bike a week on Craigslist here. I was thinking of getting one and chopping that up to get the geometry for a chopper.

Hickory n steel

My dad did this when I was a kid with parts he found at the local dried up " Creek "/ unofficial dumping area.
If I remember right he actually put screws in it, but he sold it to a neighbor friend a long time ago.
It worked for sure but wasn't how I would choose to do it today.
If I was to do this I'd go with some kind of ratrod theme and make it appear as though it's supposed to look cobbled together from junk.

Broke Joke

Yep, The old trick LOL!, we used two sets of sawed off forks !! I wish I had pictures to post

Cruiser2112

wreckembent

weld? what's that?

sounds fancy.

willoughby1

I choppered a Murray Monterey one time, looked cool but the long rake gave it the turning radius of a battleship, also the coaster brake was not enough going down Seattle hills. If you make the rake too steep the front wheel will just kind of flop rather than turn...

Rickm1013

I remember those days.....vaguely, my best friend had his weld break on a very extended front and ended up eating a little asphalt...

GrantFlower

Oo LALA that's awesome man! Plz tell me where i can get this??

Jax Rhapsody

I'm thinking about making one, but it has to be a digger, can't stand that occ/jese james crap.

Trevtassie

That thing when you pull a wheelie and the front wheel and fork extensions roll off. Best thing was to jump off the back and start running.
We used to whack a set of 27" forks on a 20" frame. Did the trick and a bit safer.

icecarver

Yup did this as a kid. There was a junkyard-ish place up the road and they always had chunks of galvinized pipe so we would cut off the dropouts from an old BMX fork, slide the tubes on, drill them for the axle and let gravity keep them on. Used to use a 12" scooter wheel for the front. Sketchy as heck but tons of fun.

Brocephus

Go big or go home !!!

rickpaulos

If you want your chopper to be rideable, read up on rake, head angle and trail before you start cutting.

one of the mascots at the local bike coop.

wreckembent

well seeing i'm STILL subscribed to this thread... it's time to share a chopper that'll blow your minds...



that's BILL GATES!!!

is your mind blown now?

wreckembent

while i'm here

back in the day, we used to call muscle bikes choppers.

as much as i hated my stepfather, he DID get me a used ross barracuda just like this red one, but awesome purple



Ross Barracuda

i LOVED that bike until a sad 1 speed, no fenders having orange krate hater had his other krate riding buddy distract me while he put a thumb tack under my front tire when i was about to drag race him to shut him up after he kept going on about how my totally pimped out ride was worse than his puke orange dime a dozen ride



schwinn orange krate

no way that's cooler than a decked out purple barracuda! no way! hater knew it

Brocephus

Looking at these vintage chopper pics , I'm thinking there's a Country song in here somewhere........something like, "I was pimpin' before pimpin' was cool!"