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T H E R E T U R N O F |
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Talk about fantastic...Not only is Mike Watson BR&K's most prolific Contributing Editor, he's also got to be the world's most prolific wildbike builder. When does this guy sleep? Here's his latest crop of creations, for your delectation. |
Purple Chopper: the donor fork was inhabited by a colony of ants. I discovered that when I cut the fork blades in two with an angle grinder and had to pound out ants and ant larvae from the the stubs. I call the chopper Ant Farm. The donor forks had a straight gauge 7/8 inch inner diameter steerer that allowed a 7/8 inch steel rod, angle cut, drilled, and tapped, acting as a stem wedge and steerer |
tube reinforcement to be slid in and be MIG welded.The forks are extended 5 feet with 1 X 0.065 inch garbage-picked steel tubes, which also brace the 1 1/2" X 0.125 inch riser frame tube and extend the head tube reinforcement down to the front brake. The fork also had two short sections of tube that were used to |
brace the fork crown. The fork had a little too much bounce at the crown so I built a bolt-on brace that can be seen in the picture of the bike with me in the tux shirt sitting on it. The seat post is also solid 7/8 inch steel, bent in a hydraulic bender. All welding by Mark Jones of Alcon Welding, Small Engines & CNC Machining. The characteristics are best described as light and nimble because of the 11 1/2 inch chain stays and a very lightly loaded front wheel, as matter of fact 6 inches of the seat is behind the back axle! 16 inch wheels also contribute to the light feel of the 55-pound bike. The gearing is 40 X 16 with 5 1/2-inch cranks, which is about right for cruising around and wheelies. |
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Right: The Longchopper, has 10 speeds, Suntour alloy derailleurs and shifters, a Diacompe center pull front brake, SR crank and bottom bracket, recurved road bike brake levers. The back tire is a surprisingly fresh 25+ |
year-old Polish musclebike tire. Speaking of Polish, so is the frame. It's a Schwinn-style BMX wannabee; it was extended by using the front section of a women's frame. The fork brace running to the stem pinch bolt was constructed from a bottom-bracket/chainstay frame section. The seat post is extended and strengthened using 7/8-inch steel rod. Handling is "a bit different" with the sub-45-degree head angle, but easy to adapt to, because of a generous amount of fork offset and the small front wheel that keeps things quick. |
Left: Scott's Bike Constructed for BR&K's next recipient of our Bike Hero Award. A radical but cute 16-inch-wheel chopper that's an ideal pit bike for the drag races. |
Left: Phat 'n Tall This summer I holidayed down east. I gave Liam Hayes a call, of "The Chopper Club" fame. We corresponded via e-mail in the months before. I found it interesting actually meeting the guy. Liam's a distributor for Phat Cycles, and has a trick yellow 747 Phat Cycles Chopper with a triple-tree fork, drum brakes front and back, with a 7-speed hub. Liam lent me the 747 on our ride around Halifax during the Tall Ship festival. Liam rode a CCM home-built chopper. Liam can climb the hills of Halifax like a goat, in spite of being seated very low on a banana seat, of all things. I had a little trouble keeping up, being a semi-fat boy, even though I had 7-speeds. I found the 747 an interesting bike, I didn't need any adjustment period to get used to the handling: a good |
thing since we rolled off the sidewalk at Liam's house and were screaming down the 15% grade to the waterfront. I really was screaming to vent a little panic! That was the only time I touched a bike on the two week holiday, it primed the creative process. I got inspired to do a tallbike version of a Phat-style chopper. I settled on the dropped extended frame with two head tubes with a 7/8 inch rod connecting the two steerer tubes. The frame has 24-inch chainstays, as the crow flies. The bike has 18 speeds, a 14-34 tooth Suntour cluster and a 48-40-28-tooth triple. the chopper rides like a Cadillac. It took some time to get the different muscles in condition to ride in the laidback position; now I cruise about as fast as a stock mountain bike. |
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