| Author | Message | ||
     Ourdee |
I'll try and post some pics of a few toys I've made. It's been my hobby since High School.  What do you make if you have friend giving you parts every time a dragster crashes. note: No chicken strips on the slick. | ||
| Lemonchili_x1 |
LOL! That's awesome. Could it turn at all? | ||
| Ourdee |
It could turn as in you could change lanes or turn at an intersection. Didn't like roads with a crown. More art than cruiser. | ||
| Etennuly |
That is freekin cool! I hope you have a lot of garage space.  | ||
| Sifo |
Cool art. I wouldn't want to pedal that long enough to need that water bottle though.  | ||
| Ourdee |
I tried making a couple of prones. The first was the "experimental". Followed years later with the "purple people eater". (Message edited by ourdee on December 29, 2012) | ||
| Ourdee |
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| Ft_bstrd |
What's the advantage? Wind resistance? | ||
| Ourdee |
Graham, Hold on to your horse. Another friend raced a Margay Kart on short dirt tracks. After he cracked the frame, I bought the kart. First the kart was narrowed and shortened to a 26" wheel base both ways. I then put a "Little Tykes" red jeep body on it. Looked good but not comfortable to ride. Next was the "Radio Flyer" tub. Like an XB12, it put some heat between your legs. Briggs & Straton motor dyno: 7.2 hp at 10,000 rpm. The clutch had light springs and would slide the rear end on decel. Three bearing live axle with a wildwood or brembo hydraulic disc brake. Pushed 50+ mph. Wheelie bars were needed. Could do 360s on an icy two lane road at 40 mph. This was a grin maker. OK, pics:     | ||
| Gregtonn |
"What's the advantage? Wind resistance?" Nope. It's the bibs. No plumbers butt!! G  | ||
| Gregtonn |
...between your legs. Briggs & Straton motor... at 10,000 rpm. Are you nuts?!! Or do you have no respect for them??!! Not between my legs!!! G  | ||
| Ourdee |
The whole thing was an exercise in insanity. Shut the throttle at 50 and rear end danced, full throttle at 30 and it pointed at the sky. Later in it's life I detuned it, put a torque converter on it, and pulled 10 wagons behind it with 20 kids riding at a time. On pavement with 21 souls on board I could roll smoke off the rear tires above half throttle on take off. It would still do 30+. I ran it at a church campground fund raiser. 8 hours of 5 minute rides @ 5 - 10 mph, with up to 20 passengers, no break downs, no breaks. Capacity was over 1900 and we averaged over 50% for right around 1,000 rides. Noticed about 25% tire wear and one stretched drive chain at the end of the day. Quite a few parents also rode, but, I didn't track those numbers. I sold it to an amusement company in Michigan. | ||
| Ourdee |
I welded a hinge into the frame on this one. (fun toy)  Then built a chopper that bordered on being a recumbent. (1975)  OK, in 81 a dual steer, 4 speed, capable of u-turning on the sidewalk, crab walking, and stoppies. For a time it had twin 28cc 2 cycle leaf blower motors running on nitro-methanol with propanol and castor oil. The fans replaced with Zinger 24-10 pusher props. Sounded like a twin engine plane. After one engine lost it's life running over 15% nitro, I cut back to 10% and one engine. It would run 25 mph on one motor. Those are early downhill racing slicks mounted on the mags picked up in Las Vegas. Named: "Reaper" it had a 20" wheel base.  | ||
| Ourdee |
After adding a mid drive to this one, I hit 41.9 mph in a sprint racing some buff guy on the monon trail in Indianapolis. He didn't notice I was shifting down while taunting him. I told him I'd race him for a cheese burger, if he wasn't scared of getting beat by a fat guy. It smoked him, SPDs clicked in and shifting at a 115 cadence. The front felt like it jumped sideways during each of the 5 shifts. I was sitting by the bike loaded in the back of my van sipping tea when he caught up 2 miles later. I was still out of breath but did everything I could to not let him see it. Most legal fun I've ever had.  | ||
| Ourdee |
I finally had to get an OK prior to building a bike. The "Alley Cat" used $1200.00 in components and raw materials. Chromoly tube, roller brakes, 7 ounce carbon fiber seat. That is a 60 tooth engagement ring on the mid-drive. I laced the wheels to the hubs using a 3 forward - 3 reverse pattern, to not loose any energy by having a spoke touching another spoke. Wheel discs are made out of window film. Every bearing went under the micrometer, Hundreds did not make the cut. It was raced with all the seals removed. The geometry was near perfect. Steering was remote and not 1 to 1. It took the twitchy handling out of it and allowed control at next to no speed. A Fuji frame gave up the ghost under the hacksaw supplying tasty bits.  | ||
| Ourdee |
51" wheel. Copy of 1879 Excelsior Duplex Open Head. Quite a learning experience. My twist was using a quick release skewer on the rear wheel and a piece of aero tubing for the step. I did not want to pass it off as an original.  | ||
| Gregtonn |
Ourdee, I grew up on a farm with seven brothers and sisters. Good thing there weren't any pictures. It was pretty flat where I grew up (Iowa) but I made up for it with barn tops, ramps, tall trees and 40 foot windmills. I wasn't the oldest but I was the instigator. My father threatened to kill me if I ever got hold of a small engine. Everybody lived and amazingly none of the eight of us ever broke a bone. Damn we had fun. G | ||
| Ourdee |
I made a kite when younger. I was in the air before understanding why it shouldn't have 36 square feet of area. I have one now that only has 30 square feet. Its only picked me up a couple of times. It's broke the 250 lb. test line 4 times. I want a parachute and flat top. How did any of us survive? | ||
| Gregtonn |
Don't get me started on kites and "land sailing". I might go back to Iowa in March and try again. G | ||
| Ourdee |
Land sailing? That's what you call it? I ran off a sand dune with a hang glider. Down on the desert floor I'm landing when the tail wind catches me. lol | ||
| Just_ziptab |
Boneshakers were the rage in the first part of the 1900's. An area club had 9 riders back then. Originals are worth a small fortune. Mine came from a builder in Cali. Not cheap either. Takes a bit of nerve to jump up on it and ride away.  | ||
| Ourdee |
Looks like one of the bikes Greg makes. I had 2 of them that his dad made. A man and his wife rode them during college. They gave them to me to restore. Every one is your friend while your riding a wheel. | ||
| Ourdee |
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| Just_ziptab |
Yep,one of Greg's. It's turned more heads than anything I've ever had on the street.Everybody thinks they can ride it....but after I let them put a foot on the step and tell them to just push off like a scooter and NOT jump up on the seat and just coast with it.......they give it back and say NO WAY.....  Everybody gives you a wide birth,unlike motorcycles where they don't care at all about your presence....  | ||
| Etennuly |
Ourdee, you build some really cool stuff. That is some inventive engineering. You must be suffering from some special type of brain damage that allows you to think that way, not unlike the folks I grew up with. We all got our start before bicycle helmets for the general population were even thought of. | ||
| Ourdee |
Vern, I spent some of my younger days in East Tenn. hittin' my head. Lived in the "hills" my 6th grade year. Got accused of sounding like that man on the TeeVee. Learned you don't have to be mad to fight, and that there is a difference between ignorant and stupid. That just cause a boy chawed some of his dad's AppleJack didn't mean he was bad. Lot of good people there back then. | ||
| Fb1 |
Lot of good people there back then. There still are. Thank you for this thread.  | ||
| Ourdee |
You are welcome. The advantage for a prone bike was wind resistance. The first one was better at it than the one on 700c tires. At one point there was an aluminum fairing on the experimental. It was not very ergonomic. The short wheel base low-racer 417 "HolyRoller" was one of the most efficient machines I made. The steering was very twitchy. I know how to fix that now. The bike that holds the 200 meter world record, Varna Diablo III streamliner, has near the same ergos. The Varna did 82.819 MPH at Battle Mountain, Nevada piloted by Sam Whittingham. | ||
| Ourdee |
Side note: I got pulled over in 1981 on the experimental for 35 in a 30 and passing on a double yellow.  Officer wanted to ticket me for my lights being to low to the ground. That's when I called his supervisor, just happened to be a good friend of mine. Officer never bothered me again after I explained the passing on a double yellow was to avoid hitting the cop that pulled out in front of me, and the 5 over was to keep from getting ran over by the same. As for the low lights, he can see the lines on the road can't he. I think he got mad at me for wagging my rear end in front of him. lol | ||
| Etennuly |
Ray, I spent my early days at what we called our own Vo-Tech school in NW Pa. We were a group of about five kids who did not think inside the "box". We were poor enough that we had no way of knowing there was one! It looks like you had a similar home front.  The questions raised for our projects was never so much "why", but rather "why not?". |
