Jonny69's chopped bikes extravaganza

Jonny69 · 14-07-2008, 11:19

Bike 1

Back in early 2006 I got the urge to do my first bike. I was hacked off with fixing rusty stuff on my car so I thought about something for the summer and something I might mount one of my pulsejets on. I wanted whitewalls, I wanted mudguards, I wanted a rack on the back for mounting stuff on and I wanted practicality so a 1970s folding shopper it should be. Cue eBay and this little beaut turned up:

Perfect I thought and set about some simple plans in the garage to stretch it out a bit to accomodate me, a bottle of propane and something scary behind me. This is what I came up with on Photoshop:

Lugged it back across London on the back of my moped. Couple of hours later in the garage and this is what I came up with, lengthened, lowered, raked and the handlebars pulled right out:

And that's how it stayed for about a year. It went to Lemans with me where it was stolen by bloody pikeys and I thought that was the last I would see of it. Turned out it was a bit harder to ride than it looked and they ditched it and I found it a day or so later which was a bit of luck.

Roll forwards 6 months and I'd scored a really pretty tank off a Kawasaki sommat or other for a 125cc bobber project I had in my head which never surfaced so I decided to put the tank on the bike instead, since it fitted:

And that's pretty much how it is today. I've still got it, it's racked up some serious miles and it's been all over the place with me. Chelsea cruise, Lemans, hotrod events and all round here. I even punched that guy over his bonnet when he tried to knock me off it with his car. Top bike.

Here's a couple of minute videos of me riding it without the tank. They are 3gp files so I think you need Quicktime to play them:

movie 1
movie 2

Jonny69 · 14-07-2008, 11:21

Bike 2

This one came to me under slightly bizarre circumstances. I had a mate round and we walked round to the supermarket and there was a rusty old bike laying in the middle of the high street. Everyone was stepping over it and were generally like wtf. Looked like it had been dumped because it was in a bit of a state, flat tyres, no oil etc. On the way back it was still there so I asked in all the shops and nobody knew anything about it, so hoiked it up and wheeled it home.

Anyway, it was just what I was looking for. Giant spindly rusty wheels with crusty old tyres, tatty leatherette spring seat, Sturmey Archer 3 speed hub, mudguards and ramhorn handlebars. In the garage I chopped the frame up and lengthened it about 8", dropped it about 4" and sunk the seat in the frame to try and get that 1920's look.

Annoyingly I didn't take any pictures as it was because it was a really heavy short upright iron frame and you rode it like a Victorian. This is how you ride it now

Movie 1
Movie 2

Sold it on eBay some time back because I was out of space. It was a hard decision to make but the shopper was marginally easier to ride. New owner seemed to like it

Zirax · 14-07-2008, 16:30

Lol, the dangers of an angle grinder and a welder. Has to be said though that they both look like they would be a laugh to ride.

Hmmm, how about flipping the front handle bars on the shopper which would then mean you could make it longer and go for a kind of harley look

Jonny69 · 15-07-2008, 10:04

Hello, what's this on my car?

It's a bike!

Jonny69 · 15-07-2008, 10:04

Bike 3

I scored this on the local Freecycle group late last week. A cycle off Freecycle, how apt! I've been wanting a racer to chop up for a while now, in fact I've got a thing for racers because I like things that are stripped down and fast.

The guy was quite nervous on the phone like if the bike wasn't in perfect condition I'd be round there to kill him. Hearing it wasn't in perfect condition but basically rideable made me think this was exactly what I was looking for and I tried to contain my excitement and kept my mouth shut about my plans. He had some special pedals he wanted to keep so I figured for the price of a set of pedals I couldn't go wrong. Back at work I got busy sketching up some plans for the new frame:

It had to be low and sleek with skinny tube but ultimately still rideable. The mistake I've made with the other bikes I've built is I haven't moved the pedals forwards so they can be quite hard work on hills. This one will have the pedals shoved right up front so it's a bit easier going. The question is just how long do I go

Oh, and it has to fit on the roofrack on the car...

Jonny69 · 15-07-2008, 10:05

I wasn't prepared to pick up what would turn out to be a really nice bike...

It's a fairly old Raleigh frame with some ultra skinny wheels, 12 gears and some of the coolest tyres I've seen:

It weighs next to nothing and has Reynolds 531 stickers all over it like this one:

Figuring this might be a "feature" I looked it up on Wikipedia.

Quote:

Reynolds 531 is a brand name, registered to Reynolds Cycle Technology of Birmingham in the United Kingdom, for a manganese-molybdenum medium carbon steel bicycle tubing.

Introduced in 1935, and for many years at the forefront of alloy steel tubing technology, it has been replaced and superseded by ever more complex alloy mixtures and heat-treatment/cold work cycles as Reynolds has continued to compete with other manufacturers of steel for the bicycle industry.

The approximate alloying composition for 531 is 1.5% Mn, 0.25% Mo, 0.35% C, and is similar to the old British BS970 En 16/18 steel. Its mechanical properties and response to heat-treatment are broadly similar to the AISI 4130 standard alloy steel, also used for bicycle frames, amongst other applications. This material was used to form the front subframes on the famous Jaguar E-Type of the 1960s.

Reynolds 531 is now only available to special order. But in the past was use by "Raleigh Bicycle Company" of Nottingham, England for their racing cycles, with other Reynolds tube used for the professional models.

So cool, I've scored what is basically a pro framed bike for free! I put some pedals on it and re-wrapped the handlebars with black gel tape. The rubbers on the brake levers are a bit skanky but they cleaned up with some thinners and the way I've done the handlebar tape covers a lot of it. Over at the bike shop the guy recommended I put 100psi in the tyres

or they get pinched and burst.

It rides really, really nicely and the lightest touch of the pedals shoots you up to pretty decent speeds. I'm reluctant to chop this one up so I think I'm going to keep it as my daily rider instead. Plus he funny steel in the frame would be a bitch to weld...

Ok crap excuses but plans are now rub the frame down, clean it up and give it a bit of satin black and leave it basically as it is. Would be cool to stick a smaller wheel on the front for that nose down attitude and fettle the headstock angle to compensate, but it's good as it is. I'll keep an eye out for another one to chop up. Watch this space

LeperousDust · 15-07-2008, 10:39

Buy some new decent brakes for it and it (chain reaction cycles) sounds like you have yourself a decent daily commuter that you can leave without fear of being nicked.

Jonny69 · 15-07-2008, 11:27

Can't justify new brakes, the ones on there work fine and this is total budget cycling

Jonny69 · 16-07-2008, 18:43

Et voila

Justsomebloke · 16-07-2008, 19:04

That bike is from my era & a pretty decent one at that. Personally I had a Hugh Porter Bantel that I did my road work on as I was limited to my still at school skanking budget but it was about the same.
I'd get a lock for it mate as anybody that knows owt about bikes will rob it for a winter road trainer.
Nice find & well recycled (see what i did there

)

14-07-2008, 11:19	#1
Jonny69 Noob Join Date: Oct 2006 Location: Socialist Republik of Kent Posts: 5,032	Jonny69's chopped bikes extravaganza Bike 1 Back in early 2006 I got the urge to do my first bike. I was hacked off with fixing rusty stuff on my car so I thought about something for the summer and something I might mount one of my pulsejets on. I wanted whitewalls, I wanted mudguards, I wanted a rack on the back for mounting stuff on and I wanted practicality so a 1970s folding shopper it should be. Cue eBay and this little beaut turned up: Perfect I thought and set about some simple plans in the garage to stretch it out a bit to accomodate me, a bottle of propane and something scary behind me. This is what I came up with on Photoshop: Lugged it back across London on the back of my moped. Couple of hours later in the garage and this is what I came up with, lengthened, lowered, raked and the handlebars pulled right out: And that's how it stayed for about a year. It went to Lemans with me where it was stolen by bloody pikeys and I thought that was the last I would see of it. Turned out it was a bit harder to ride than it looked and they ditched it and I found it a day or so later which was a bit of luck. Roll forwards 6 months and I'd scored a really pretty tank off a Kawasaki sommat or other for a 125cc bobber project I had in my head which never surfaced so I decided to put the tank on the bike instead, since it fitted: And that's pretty much how it is today. I've still got it, it's racked up some serious miles and it's been all over the place with me. Chelsea cruise, Lemans, hotrod events and all round here. I even punched that guy over his bonnet when he tried to knock me off it with his car. Top bike. Here's a couple of minute videos of me riding it without the tank. They are 3gp files so I think you need Quicktime to play them: movie 1 movie 2 __________________

14-07-2008, 11:21	#2
Jonny69 Noob Join Date: Oct 2006 Location: Socialist Republik of Kent Posts: 5,032	Bike 2 This one came to me under slightly bizarre circumstances. I had a mate round and we walked round to the supermarket and there was a rusty old bike laying in the middle of the high street. Everyone was stepping over it and were generally like wtf. Looked like it had been dumped because it was in a bit of a state, flat tyres, no oil etc. On the way back it was still there so I asked in all the shops and nobody knew anything about it, so hoiked it up and wheeled it home. Anyway, it was just what I was looking for. Giant spindly rusty wheels with crusty old tyres, tatty leatherette spring seat, Sturmey Archer 3 speed hub, mudguards and ramhorn handlebars. In the garage I chopped the frame up and lengthened it about 8", dropped it about 4" and sunk the seat in the frame to try and get that 1920's look. Annoyingly I didn't take any pictures as it was because it was a really heavy short upright iron frame and you rode it like a Victorian. This is how you ride it now Movie 1 Movie 2 Sold it on eBay some time back because I was out of space. It was a hard decision to make but the shopper was marginally easier to ride. New owner seemed to like it __________________

15-07-2008, 10:04	#4
Jonny69 Noob Join Date: Oct 2006 Location: Socialist Republik of Kent Posts: 5,032	Hello, what's this on my car? It's a bike! __________________

15-07-2008, 10:04	#5
Jonny69 Noob Join Date: Oct 2006 Location: Socialist Republik of Kent Posts: 5,032	Bike 3 I scored this on the local Freecycle group late last week. A cycle off Freecycle, how apt! I've been wanting a racer to chop up for a while now, in fact I've got a thing for racers because I like things that are stripped down and fast. The guy was quite nervous on the phone like if the bike wasn't in perfect condition I'd be round there to kill him. Hearing it wasn't in perfect condition but basically rideable made me think this was exactly what I was looking for and I tried to contain my excitement and kept my mouth shut about my plans. He had some special pedals he wanted to keep so I figured for the price of a set of pedals I couldn't go wrong. Back at work I got busy sketching up some plans for the new frame: It had to be low and sleek with skinny tube but ultimately still rideable. The mistake I've made with the other bikes I've built is I haven't moved the pedals forwards so they can be quite hard work on hills. This one will have the pedals shoved right up front so it's a bit easier going. The question is just how long do I go Oh, and it has to fit on the roofrack on the car... __________________

15-07-2008, 10:39	#7
LeperousDust Bananaman Join Date: Jul 2006 Location: Liverpool/Edinburgh Posts: 4,817	Buy some new decent brakes for it and it (chain reaction cycles) sounds like you have yourself a decent daily commuter that you can leave without fear of being nicked. __________________

14-07-2008, 16:30	#3
Zirax Goes up to 11! Join Date: Jul 2006 Posts: 4,577	Lol, the dangers of an angle grinder and a welder. Has to be said though that they both look like they would be a laugh to ride. Hmmm, how about flipping the front handle bars on the shopper which would then mean you could make it longer and go for a kind of harley look

15-07-2008, 11:27	#8
Jonny69 Noob Join Date: Oct 2006 Location: Socialist Republik of Kent Posts: 5,032	Can't justify new brakes, the ones on there work fine and this is total budget cycling __________________

16-07-2008, 18:43	#9
Jonny69 Noob Join Date: Oct 2006 Location: Socialist Republik of Kent Posts: 5,032	Et voila __________________

16-07-2008, 19:04	#10
Justsomebloke The Night Worker Join Date: Jul 2006 Posts: 5,228	That bike is from my era & a pretty decent one at that. Personally I had a Hugh Porter Bantel that I did my road work on as I was limited to my still at school skanking budget but it was about the same. I'd get a lock for it mate as anybody that knows owt about bikes will rob it for a winter road trainer. Nice find & well recycled (see what i did there ) __________________