 Adrian's solution to the child-sitting problem... (11/2003) |
 Fork/Dropout Detail |
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Adrian's solution to the child-sitting problem... (11/2003) |
Fork/Dropout Detail |
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Note the interesting method of attaching the steering tube on this bike. Cool, eh? Also, unlike 'Woody' and 'Treebike', The steering arrangement eliminates the tiller effect (lateral swinging of handlebars). Nice job, overall on this bike! ss
Adrian wrote:
"I contemplated this bike for about a month and built it in about a week
and a half. The frame is laminated poplar. I chose laminated wood
because of the problem you had with warping. The other parts were
scavenged from two mountain bikes, a ten speed, a child's bike and a scooter.
I only have about $150.00 invested, and that's with new road tires and new
chains. The bike weighs about 58 pounds, but I did build it for exercise.
I will eventually paint and varnish it but I can't live with out it long enough
to do it. I regularly ride it on a 26 mile trip form my house to my
mom's place on Sunday morning."
I asked about the little gizmo on the front of the bike, and
gearing...
"To answer your first question, that is an LED light. I think it is called a
bill-lite (see picture below). It was made to fit
on the brim of your hat. It works pretty well, but the batteries are expensive. I have considered retro-fitting AAs, or a wind
powered generator. Second answer, Ten. The middle sprocket was a three
sprocket set, the front chain is on the small sprocket and the rear chain can shift
between the two larger sprockets. The clearance is tight but it works. the rear sprocket shifts normally through 5 sprockets.
The main issues that I have had with this bike were with the front chain and the length of the brake cables. The front chain was so long that
it would swing back an forth on the bottom and come off. To stop this I made a
tensioner from an old derailleur as shown in the old picture. This tensioner was mounted solid and did move with the chain. After 20 or
thirty miles it would work its way loose and the chain would come off. I later
came up with the idea to add an external spring to the derailleur, which would cause the tensioner to follow and keep pressure on the
chain (see
photo). This configuration has worked flawlessly for months now. The brake
cable issue mostly applies to the rear break The length of this cable is somewhere between 7 and 9 feet with a splice in it. I just recycled
cables from the old bikes I was using. This causes allot stretch so that not
much force gets to the wheel. I replaced the front caliper with one of a better
design (see photo) to compensate. This works well, plus if all else fails there is always the Flintstone Braking System not available on regular bikes."
LED Bill-Lite
You can reach Adrian at: adrianh@pamlico.net