Info on building Chopper style bike

Hello,

I'm wondering if anyone can direct me on finding information on building a
Chopper Style Bicycle?

I just spent about 4 hours searching on the Net and found lots of places for
parts, and one pictoral view of a Regular bike turned into a Chopper Style
bike. But did not find anything more detailed.

Can anyone direct me to an Online place with specs on Converting a Regular
bike into a Chopper Style bike , (long front forks, long handle bars).

Thanks in advance,
Rich

On Tue, 31 Aug 2004 22:21:01 -0500, "Richard"
wrote:

Hello,

I'm wondering if anyone can direct me on finding information on building a
Chopper Style Bicycle?

I just spent about 4 hours searching on the Net and found lots of places for
parts, and one pictoral view of a Regular bike turned into a Chopper Style
bike. But did not find anything more detailed.

Can anyone direct me to an Online place with specs on Converting a Regular
bike into a Chopper Style bike , (long front forks, long handle bars).

Just lengthening the forks and bars won't do the job properly. The
lengths and angles of the top and down tubes will still be wrong, the
seat tube angle and/or length will be wrong, and the angle of the head
tube will be wrong. If you merely put an extended fork on a
conventional frame, it must either lift the bottom bracket and rotate
the seat position over the rear wheel to a level that's going to make
the bike uncomfortable (and possibly unsafe) to ride, or it will
extend the front wheel's position to a point well forward of the
steering axis, producing an inadvisable fork geometry. To build a
chopper-style bike successfully, you really need a frame that's
specifically designed to accomodate the complementary fork. Modifying
an existing frame is possible for certain frame types, but it would
most likely be far cheaper to just buy a bike that's built in that
style to begin with unless you have the requisite metalworking
equipment and skills to bring to the project. (And if you have those
skills and equipment, the task needs little explanation.)


--
Typoes are a feature, not a bug.
Some gardening required to reply via email.
Words processed in a facility that contains nuts.

On Tue, 31 Aug 2004 22:21:01 -0500, "Richard"
wrote:

Hello,

I'm wondering if anyone can direct me on finding information on building a
Chopper Style Bicycle?

I just spent about 4 hours searching on the Net and found lots of places for
parts, and one pictoral view of a Regular bike turned into a Chopper Style
bike. But did not find anything more detailed.

Can anyone direct me to an Online place with specs on Converting a Regular
bike into a Chopper Style bike , (long front forks, long handle bars).

Just lengthening the forks and bars won't do the job properly. The
lengths and angles of the top and down tubes will still be wrong, the
seat tube angle and/or length will be wrong, and the angle of the head
tube will be wrong. If you merely put an extended fork on a
conventional frame, it must either lift the bottom bracket and rotate
the seat position over the rear wheel to a level that's going to make
the bike uncomfortable (and possibly unsafe) to ride, or it will
extend the front wheel's position to a point well forward of the
steering axis, producing an inadvisable fork geometry. To build a
chopper-style bike successfully, you really need a frame that's
specifically designed to accomodate the complementary fork. Modifying
an existing frame is possible for certain frame types, but it would
most likely be far cheaper to just buy a bike that's built in that
style to begin with unless you have the requisite metalworking
equipment and skills to bring to the project. (And if you have those
skills and equipment, the task needs little explanation.)


--
Typoes are a feature, not a bug.
Some gardening required to reply via email.
Words processed in a facility that contains nuts.

Werehatrack wrote in message . ..
[...]
steering axis, producing an inadvisable fork geometry. To build a
chopper-style bike successfully, you really need a frame that's
specifically designed to accomodate the complementary fork. Modifying
an existing frame is possible for certain frame types, but it would
most likely be far cheaper to just buy a bike that's built in that
style to begin with unless you have the requisite metalworking
equipment and skills to bring to the project. (And if you have those
skills and equipment, the task needs little explanation.)

I have mig, tig and gas welders, as well as a tubing notcher, chop saw
and grinders. Plus I have access to a lathe and milling machine. And
I know how to use them. But I have no idea how to lay out the
geometry of a bike frame.

I have thought about building a chopper to bring to the local chopper
rally.
http://www.floridacycling.com/Galler...pper041404.htm

Where could I find out more about designing a chopper-style bike?

thanks,
Dave
www.davewilson.cc

Werehatrack wrote in message . ..
[...]
steering axis, producing an inadvisable fork geometry. To build a
chopper-style bike successfully, you really need a frame that's
specifically designed to accomodate the complementary fork. Modifying
an existing frame is possible for certain frame types, but it would
most likely be far cheaper to just buy a bike that's built in that
style to begin with unless you have the requisite metalworking
equipment and skills to bring to the project. (And if you have those
skills and equipment, the task needs little explanation.)

I have mig, tig and gas welders, as well as a tubing notcher, chop saw
and grinders. Plus I have access to a lathe and milling machine. And
I know how to use them. But I have no idea how to lay out the
geometry of a bike frame.

I have thought about building a chopper to bring to the local chopper
rally.
http://www.floridacycling.com/Galler...pper041404.htm

Where could I find out more about designing a chopper-style bike?

thanks,
Dave
www.davewilson.cc

I'm wondering if anyone can direct me on finding information on building a
Chopper Style Bicycle?

Can anyone direct me to an Online place with specs on Converting a Regular
bike into a Chopper Style bike , (long front forks, long handle bars).

Thanks in advance,
Rich

Try these guys: CHUNK 666
http://www.dclxvi.org/chunk/index.html


They actually have a Chopper workshop if you are in the Portland, OR area:
http://www.dclxvi.org/chunk/operatio...hop/index.html

Good luck!!!

I'm wondering if anyone can direct me on finding information on building a
Chopper Style Bicycle?

Can anyone direct me to an Online place with specs on Converting a Regular
bike into a Chopper Style bike , (long front forks, long handle bars).

Thanks in advance,
Rich

Try these guys: CHUNK 666
http://www.dclxvi.org/chunk/index.html


They actually have a Chopper workshop if you are in the Portland, OR area:
http://www.dclxvi.org/chunk/operatio...hop/index.html

Good luck!!!

On 1 Sep 2004 06:34:07 -0700, (Dave Wilson) wrote:


I have mig, tig and gas welders, as well as a tubing notcher, chop saw
and grinders. Plus I have access to a lathe and milling machine. And
I know how to use them. But I have no idea how to lay out the
geometry of a bike frame.

I have thought about building a chopper to bring to the local chopper
rally.
http://www.floridacycling.com/Galler...pper041404.htm

Where could I find out more about designing a chopper-style bike?

Try the motorcycle info sites. The same basic principles apply,
though you'll have to adjust for the presence of the BB instead of a
motor. The main point is to get the steer axis to intersect the
ground ahead of the center point of the front tire's contact patch,
but not so far ahead that you have to expend a lot of effort to keep
the bike's fork from falling over sideways at low speeds.

If you're going to try for the low-rider style at the same time, then
the classic layout of the two-triangle frame with the BB at the base
of the seat tube won't work well at all. The BB will need to move
forward, similar to a 'bent. In fact, it would probably be easier to
adapt the common DIY-bent frame mods to produce a low-rider chopper
than to do it any other way.

I suspect that one of the frequent posters here has probably built at
least one or two such projects at some point, but given the amount of
work it takes to document what's done in such a task, I'd be very
surprised if he had time or inclination to do a full write-up. Much
of the success of such a construction task is due to the knowledge
gained in building the units that came before it; you never know when
something you discovered while building something else will turn out
to be applicable to the current beast.

If you decide to take the plunge, you're probably going to be breaking
ground on some part of your project. Be prepared to discover that
something doesn't work.

One final observation; there are a lot of reasons why chopper styling
is a temporary fad when it comes around. It is pretty much guaranteed
to produce a bike that's designed to look at, rather than to work
well. That's most of the reason why I, personally, have no plans to
build one.
--
Typoes are a feature, not a bug.
Some gardening required to reply via email.
Words processed in a facility that contains nuts.

On 1 Sep 2004 06:34:07 -0700, (Dave Wilson) wrote:


I have mig, tig and gas welders, as well as a tubing notcher, chop saw
and grinders. Plus I have access to a lathe and milling machine. And
I know how to use them. But I have no idea how to lay out the
geometry of a bike frame.

I have thought about building a chopper to bring to the local chopper
rally.
http://www.floridacycling.com/Galler...pper041404.htm

Where could I find out more about designing a chopper-style bike?

Try the motorcycle info sites. The same basic principles apply,
though you'll have to adjust for the presence of the BB instead of a
motor. The main point is to get the steer axis to intersect the
ground ahead of the center point of the front tire's contact patch,
but not so far ahead that you have to expend a lot of effort to keep
the bike's fork from falling over sideways at low speeds.

If you're going to try for the low-rider style at the same time, then
the classic layout of the two-triangle frame with the BB at the base
of the seat tube won't work well at all. The BB will need to move
forward, similar to a 'bent. In fact, it would probably be easier to
adapt the common DIY-bent frame mods to produce a low-rider chopper
than to do it any other way.

I suspect that one of the frequent posters here has probably built at
least one or two such projects at some point, but given the amount of
work it takes to document what's done in such a task, I'd be very
surprised if he had time or inclination to do a full write-up. Much
of the success of such a construction task is due to the knowledge
gained in building the units that came before it; you never know when
something you discovered while building something else will turn out
to be applicable to the current beast.

If you decide to take the plunge, you're probably going to be breaking
ground on some part of your project. Be prepared to discover that
something doesn't work.

One final observation; there are a lot of reasons why chopper styling
is a temporary fad when it comes around. It is pretty much guaranteed
to produce a bike that's designed to look at, rather than to work
well. That's most of the reason why I, personally, have no plans to
build one.
--
Typoes are a feature, not a bug.
Some gardening required to reply via email.
Words processed in a facility that contains nuts.

On Wed, 01 Sep 2004 13:46:35 GMT, Bob
wrote:

On Wed, 01 Sep 2004 05:33:55 GMT, Werehatrack
wrote:

Just lengthening the forks and bars won't do the job properly. [kersnippety]

Or the approach we took as kids: Take a banana bike. Remove ft wheel
from planned chopper. Cut the forks off any donor junk bike right at
the top of the tube. Bang them onto your new chopper with a hammer.
Align dropouts carefully using the ball peen eye alignment method.
Reinstall wheel. If wheel is not centered, realign.
[more kersnip]

(Not approved by the CPSC or considered safe by anyone beyond
the age of 14)

This approach is still seen once in a while, but seldom for longer
than it takes for the rider to do a face plant. I saw a victim of
such malengineering carrying the wreckage and bearing the road rash
from such an in-flight failure several weeks ago; I think that kid
probably learned a valuable lesson about the limitations of the
technique.
--
Typoes are a feature, not a bug.
Some gardening required to reply via email.
Words processed in a facility that contains nuts.