March 2020
During the first month of the lockdown in England, I built at least 4 freakbikes in the first three weeks.
With no college, in-person commitments or distractions, I was left to my own imagination once again.
I woke up on the first day off college and thought, "Fuck it, let's make something crazy today". Rummaging through my bike sheds, I found an old jump bike frame, and parts of an old trampoline, along with plenty of spare scraps and bike parts.
I immediately knew I wanted to attempt a Lowrider - I had seen so many awesome-looking ones online, but never built one myself. After 5 tallbikes, why not try something opposite?
I took the forks and halved them, welding them back together at a 90 degree angle.
Then, realising that the cranks were now hitting the ground, and that my riding position would be quite uncomfortable, I welded an extra bottom bracket between the top tube and down tube, and added in a crankset, making sure the chain would still make it to the rear wheel without any issues.
But now the riding position was even more impossible, as the seat was too far forward. I tried creating a bent seatpost, but it kept snapping (ouch!). Finally, I ended up making a secondary seatpost out of some old handlebars, before welding them back to the original seatpost for structural support. I left in the smaller seat mostly for the looks.
Even with all this the riding position was still horrible - you had to lean down to reach the bars, and even using medium ape-hanger bars it was still uncomfortable. I tried making my own ape-hangers from parts of a wheelchair, but the welds kept snapping under pressure.
I eventually turned to the trampoline poles, and worked out that I could re-enforce the bars by connecting them to the forks too, minimizing the amount of flex. The only downside is that I knew the headset was practically unserviceable without cutting it apart XD.
Either way, once finished it was fun to ride and turned quite a few heads. The 90 degree fork angle should have been 80 or 100 degrees, as the right angle actually made for more difficult handling at high speeds. But once I got the hang of it, I had fewer issues.
With no college, in-person commitments or distractions, I was left to my own imagination once again.
I woke up on the first day off college and thought, "Fuck it, let's make something crazy today". Rummaging through my bike sheds, I found an old jump bike frame, and parts of an old trampoline, along with plenty of spare scraps and bike parts.
I immediately knew I wanted to attempt a Lowrider - I had seen so many awesome-looking ones online, but never built one myself. After 5 tallbikes, why not try something opposite?
I took the forks and halved them, welding them back together at a 90 degree angle.
Then, realising that the cranks were now hitting the ground, and that my riding position would be quite uncomfortable, I welded an extra bottom bracket between the top tube and down tube, and added in a crankset, making sure the chain would still make it to the rear wheel without any issues.
But now the riding position was even more impossible, as the seat was too far forward. I tried creating a bent seatpost, but it kept snapping (ouch!). Finally, I ended up making a secondary seatpost out of some old handlebars, before welding them back to the original seatpost for structural support. I left in the smaller seat mostly for the looks.
Even with all this the riding position was still horrible - you had to lean down to reach the bars, and even using medium ape-hanger bars it was still uncomfortable. I tried making my own ape-hangers from parts of a wheelchair, but the welds kept snapping under pressure.
I eventually turned to the trampoline poles, and worked out that I could re-enforce the bars by connecting them to the forks too, minimizing the amount of flex. The only downside is that I knew the headset was practically unserviceable without cutting it apart XD.
Either way, once finished it was fun to ride and turned quite a few heads. The 90 degree fork angle should have been 80 or 100 degrees, as the right angle actually made for more difficult handling at high speeds. But once I got the hang of it, I had fewer issues.
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