The garage frame building journey
- Thread starter sikocycles
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Thanks @iRider
I finished the ebike. I’m surprised I pulled this off and very happy with the results.
I think I’ll make myself a short travel enduro jibber next. Or a new DH bike for my wife. Her’s has sketchy welds from a year ago. No cracks but I should get her on a new one sometime before April.
I worked on my jig a little and added a reach adjustment separate from head angle like I had before. The angle iron plate makes for a much more solid and secure fixturing of the headtube with a lot more access to the backside. Looks like it should work.
I finished the ebike. I’m surprised I pulled this off and very happy with the results.
I think I’ll make myself a short travel enduro jibber next. Or a new DH bike for my wife. Her’s has sketchy welds from a year ago. No cracks but I should get her on a new one sometime before April.
I worked on my jig a little and added a reach adjustment separate from head angle like I had before. The angle iron plate makes for a much more solid and secure fixturing of the headtube with a lot more access to the backside. Looks like it should work.
That motor looks pretty exposed. Did you include mounts for a skid plate or at least some sort of guard to catch stones?
Yeah, I didn’t include anything for the motor. It gets hot so I prioritized heat management and lower weight but I did think about doing something. The chainring usually hits stuff more than the motor so I should put a bash guard on there I guess.
Hell yeah Ben, when I grow up I want to be like you!!!!
Thanks Slim!
I’m definitely not grown up though. I’m just playing here… like a curious 44 year old child.
Handle bars are trickier than I thought but I hope I can figure it out. It will be lots of trial and error with notes and some tooling. The spring back and clocking for back sweep will take some time to figure out.
Second try with too short some scrap turned out pretty good.
This thing is a pleasure to use.
Second try with too short some scrap turned out pretty good.
This thing is a pleasure to use.
Will you make your own stem then or just invest in an hydropress?
Maybe but what’s a hyrdopress?
A stem would be easier than bars but I don’t trust my welding enough to have 2 more of my welds up front. I already have my head tube to count on and believe in. It’s almost like a religion or a Nigerian prince. Just gotta believe.
Obviously the stem will be welded to the bars.
Equipment that allow to do tube hydroforming. Like Napoléon said "a good picture is better than a long speech". That's how it goes:
Hydroformed 4130CS on my Dartmoor Ghetto
Excited to see Ben's DIY hydropress in the coming weeks.
Excited to see Ben's DIY hydropress in the coming weeks.
That’s the nicest 4130 chain stay ever made! I think I just need some hot oil and high pressure, right?
I’d rather have a sketchy homedroformed chain stay than a sketchy handle bar.
A 3D bender would be a natural next step after an hydroforming rig 
Nice process review in the video. I would have liked to see more of the steps where the different diameters take shape tho
your killing it man.
does that thing feel front heavy?
Thanks! I’m still hoping you’ll show us some of the stuff you make. Or at least some shop pics?
It is front end heavy but I wanted more weight up front. The motor has 3750 watts and will wheelie out on any climb so I wanted more weight up front with longer chain stays (460mm) and a higher bb. It’s much better than the last one I did and a lot more fun on the climbs. I can still manual it but it takes a lot of effort to get it up.
Its always a fkn mess
Grob NS 24 24" wheel bandsaw I rescued from a tweaker, setup with a vfd, looks like shite but works great i wanted a wide throat for cutting up megaphones. I use a 24tpi 0.030" blade on it for cutting thin wall tubing. The piece on it is a sample of 2 part eurethane flotation foam inside a piece of tube to check its suitability for use inside handlebars.
Saw is mainly to cut tubing for exhausts.
I made everything thete except rolling the megaphone and the v band clamps
you can see the Bridgeport and 8" max turn on the right.
Grob NS 24 24" wheel bandsaw I rescued from a tweaker, setup with a vfd, looks like shite but works great i wanted a wide throat for cutting up megaphones. I use a 24tpi 0.030" blade on it for cutting thin wall tubing. The piece on it is a sample of 2 part eurethane flotation foam inside a piece of tube to check its suitability for use inside handlebars.
Saw is mainly to cut tubing for exhausts.
I made everything thete except rolling the megaphone and the v band clamps
you can see the Bridgeport and 8" max turn on the right.
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Half my images are too large 
i9
All that crams in this bike...
Major pita to build. Made everhthing ecept rolling the cone, and didnt make the muffler on this one.
All that crams in this bike...
Major pita to build. Made everhthing ecept rolling the cone, and didnt make the muffler on this one.
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No frames built in the making of these posts....
Buckow asked twice for these and I'm having a really slow morning at work.
Will try to dig up my hydrofromed stuff later.
Back to frames.
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Found a rust-preventing transparent lacquer from Rust-Oleum, applied 3 layers, then the decals, then 4 more layers of transparent lacquer.
Tomorrow I'll polish it and assemble the bike, and maybe I'll work on a custom head badge.
Congrats!
I need to try some of that clear coat. The boiled linseed oil is not working out.
Indeed! We found a homemade formula for Penetrol, as we couldn't find that here and it was the most recommend way to protect raw steel (¾ double boiled linseed oil, ⅛ mineral spirits, ⅛ thinner) but it never dried. And we're hitting 40° Celsius!!!!
Most of the stuff commercially available in the US doesn't exist here. Then I found this was sold by just a couple of paint shops down here:
And a guy who knows a guy who works in the local importer for the brand told us to spray 3-4 thin coats of the product to prevent rust, and then 3-4 more coats of the traditional Rust-Oleum 2x cover transparent paint/lacquer for impact protection.
We'll see how it does in a few weeks of use.
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Hammertone all of the things!
Wonder if hard shellac would work on steel?
Wonder if hard shellac would work on steel?
I'm calling this a wrap-up! Finally took her to a DJ spot. I'm a bit rusty, but first impressions were pretty good.
EDIT: Taking some extra time with those Scotch-Brite sanding pads really paid off. The pictures don't make justice to the brushed metal finishing under the clearcoat.
Now I'll order some bits from BikeFabSupply and proceed to make a full cromoly version, with smaller dropouts.
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Thanks! I'll have to recruit a friend for that, I'm not yet skilled enough to take selfies while jumping...
That’s farkin sweet @slimshady !
Here’s where I am with my latest build.
This one has a 38mm tube at the lower pivot for more burl. It was harder to miter and some questionable work was done but oh well. I’m learning here.
Here’s where I am with my latest build.
This one has a 38mm tube at the lower pivot for more burl. It was harder to miter and some questionable work was done but oh well. I’m learning here.
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Rather than have a standard bolt on the lower shock mount I welded on a threaded cone. I made the threaded side of the lower shock mount out of a hole saw arbor that I cut shorter and turned on the lathe. Here’s a pic of the hole saw arbor cut off bits and the finished product. I only welded it on the bottom side to avoid spinning when tightening.
Thanks Slim! I’m not going to sell them so i don’t have a name.
Sometimes I put a head badge on them with “neb” stamped on there.