AtomicZombie - DIY Recumbent Bike, Trike, and Chopper Plans

Welcome to our world of custom bike building. Check out our specials and tutorials.

Check out our most popular plans


Warrior Recumbent Tadpole Racing Trike is an amazing tadpole trike that can be built using only basic components. Includes under seat steering, disc brakes, adjustable cranks.	Spirit Short Wheelbase Racing Bike is an easy- to-build sporty short wheelbase recumbent bike with over seat steering and an adjustable bottom bracket.	The Aurora Delta Racing Trike merges maximum speed with comfort. This unique DIY delta trike breaks new ground with rear suspension and dual disc brakes.	DeltaWolf Recumbent Racing Trike takes delta performance to a new level in the corners and on the flats. This fully adjustable trike includes responsive linked steering.

Our latest tutorials

If you are new to the world of human powered vehicle design, then have a look at our bike building tutorials and mini webisodes. We will be updating these on a regular basis with new tips, tricks, and general DIY bike building information so that you can learn the skills needed to dive into this great hobby.

Building a VeloMobile

An ongoing build log detailing the design creation of The AtomicZombie Practical VeloMobile. Updated on March 31, 2013.

Wheel Lacing

This wheel lacing tutorial will show you how to take apart a 36 spoke 3-cross wheel and then put it back together again.

Kids Electric Trike

An easy to build DIY electric trike that your young pilot can enjoy indoors or outdoors. Uses parts from a small electric scooter.

Simple SWB Recumbent

An easy to build weekend project that converts a 20 inch kid's bike into a fun to ride short wheelbase recumbent bike.

<<< The latest news from Atomic Zombie >>>

April 25 - NASA's Great Moonbuggy Race this weekend

By guthrie

For those who are close to a computer and want to see some very creative tandems race across craters, sandpits, gravel, and even wreck/break in the process go to http://www.nasa.gov/multimedia/nasatv/ustream_ed.html to watch the NASA Great Moonbuggy race. There are 105 high school and college teams from all over the world competing.

The racing starts on Friday, April 26 around 7:30am CST and will run all day and then again on Saturday. If you get NASA TV on your satellite or cable it may be on that channel as well. It was broadcast last year on both TV and the internet.

You will see every imaginable tandem buggy as well as see which ones hold up better than others. The Puerto Rican teams are generally very good.

For a highlight of what you might see, search NASA Moonbuggy Racve on Youtube. Our team is #33 and we are using a modified StreetFox inspired frontend as well as a modified Streetquad inspired rear end.

More>>

Good luck to all contestants. AtomicZombie.com is a proud sponsor of team East Central High School from Hurley, Mississippi.

April 19 - Thanks, we're OK

Thanks for all the emails and Facebook messages from so many of you concerned about us. Yes, we are OK. Had a scare early this morning when a power surge hammered our breaker panel and we were without power for awhile. We worried that there was damage to our breaker (every one of them was tripped) and there was some sizzling. Hydro crews were already down the road working on something and power was restored within a couple of hours. Then the furnace wouldn't blow warm air and our outdoor portable shelter was covered in snow and we had to push it all off by hand around 1 am. The wind was unbelievable.

Our cell phone service went out, then the power was on and off again for part of the day which made our Intenet connection non-existent for awhile, and I got stuck up to my waist in snow, while being pounded relentlessly by the wind.

Thank goodness we have a wood stove or it would have been pretty chilly in here. The furnace still isn't working properly. It's been an interesting 36 hours for sure.

The snow has finally stopped for now and the sun peaked out around 6 pm, but there's more snow and freezing rain in the forecast and the wind hasn't let up.

So, we won't be sending out any parts orders until late next week, but that will depend on the weather and road conditions. Highways are too treacherous. Thanks for understanding.

April 19 - Excerpt from "Awww...you're making us blush"

Graucho, AtomicZombie builders forum: "I frequent other bicycle sites and I am happy to say I call this home at the end of the day. There is a crazy amount of trash talk fighting and humongous egos floating out there in cyber space.

I can truly come here and relax, take in the visual scenery and (as much as possible) help support those who crave the desire to create something on their own. Simple, thanks to Kat and Brad's hard work keeping the riff-raff at bay. They're both insanely talented in what they do. I'm proud to call them my cyber friends."

More in the April 16 newsletter under News.

April 16 - Bike builders news for April 16

In this issue:

Feature article by RadicalBrad of AtomicZombie.com: Building the HighLander Chopper - Part 1
The AtomicZombie velomobile project is on hold until we spring actually arrives!

***

Head tubes and bottom brackets for your bike projects - pre-order for May 1 delivery

***

Bike builders community chat - hot topics of conversation
Bike builders gallery - new additions: recumbents, trikes, choppers, cargo bikes & more
Builders feedback - we love to hear from you.

***

Hub flanges and axle adapters for your bike projects - shipping worldwide

Free DIY tutorials - now available in PDF format

AZTV webisode - There and Back Again: A Zombie's Tale

This and archived newsletters are under News.

***

Thanks for your feedback, and keep those suggestions coming.

See you in the Builders Forum.

April 1 - Build an electric assist velomobile - Part 9

In this issue:

Feature article by RadicalBrad of AtomicZombie.com: Building a Velomobile - Part 9
Determining velo width.

***

Head tubes and bottom brackets for your bike projects - coming soon

***

The Combuster - a V8 Powered Bicycle!

***

Bike builders community chat - hot topics of conversation
Bike builders gallery - new additions: recumbents, trikes, choppers, cargo bikes & more
Builders feedback - we love to hear from you.

***

Hub flanges and axle adapters for your bike projects - shipping worldwide

Free DIY tutorials - now available in PDF format

AZTV webisode - There and Back Again: A Zombie's Tale

This and archived newsletters are under News.

***

Thanks for your feedback, and keep those suggestions coming.

See you in the Builders Forum.

March 26 - Head tubes and bottom brackets for your bike projects

Great news! We are working with a machine shop to have head tubes and bottom brackets manufactured to help save you time with your bike projects.

Details and ordering information will be announced in the next newsletter this week. We expect to begin taking orders in late April on the AZ store.

Stay tuned for further announcements.

March 19 - A Maineiac & the Bent Zombie Tribrid Tadpole Trike

"Long overdue. I felt I should introduce myself to thank the community for the assistance I found here to show what can happen when someone gets a hold on the plans offered. Please forgive the abomineering & motorization. I know this is primarily a HPV site, but I thought there are some aspects that would crossover well in any case.

I had planned on using Atomic Zombie's Warrior Racing Trike for the initial build, the 178-page "blueprints" providing more than enough info on the chassis construction with a ton of helpful hints, not least of which scavenging as many bits from other bikes as possible which suited me quite well. While there ended up being many a deviation from the basic plans, in fact, little remaining save inspiration. I must thank Atomic Zombie for that inspiration. Although I eventually ended up taking a different path, the tips & tricks therein gave me a confidence to proceed and so I named the creation 'The Bent Zombie Tribrid Tadpole Trike' in thanks."

More>> http://forum.atomiczombie.com/showthread.php/7532-A-Maineiac-amp-The-Bent-Zombie-Tribrid-Tadpole-Trike

Projects from around the world

Our bike building community spans the entire globe and includes builders from all walks of life and age group. We are an ever expanding group of human powered vehicle enthusiasts that share one common desire - to build it ourselves! Here is just a small sample of the thousands of creative rides in our Gallery built by others from around the world.


Romania	Sweden	France	USA


Puerto Rico	Brazil	UK	Germany

Anyone can build a custom bike!

Building custom bicycles is a great hobby that can be learned by anyone with a desire to create. The skills needed to dismantle, alter and repair bicycle components can be easily learned, and the parts and tools you will need are quite inexpensive. Discarded or worn out bicycles offer many good parts and can often be found at local scrap yards, city dumps, or yard sales for a few dollars.

Even if you plan to build a custom creation using all new parts, this hobby will seem inexpensive compared to many, as you can normally purchase a brand new bicycle at a store for less than a hundred dollars. The great thing about hacking and welding bicycles is that you will be working with all steel components, which are much stronger, more common, and much less expensive than high grade aluminum or carbon fiber bicycle parts.

You can build your own recumbent bike, tadpole trike, chopper, velomobile, electric scooter, delta trike, quadcycle or tandem trike from our easy-to-follow plans. All of our plans can be modified to suit your own needs. Combine the ideas presented in several plans into a unique home built recumbent bike, or create your own racing trike based on one of our DIY plans. The possibilities are endless!

Even if you have never taken a bicycle apart or handled an angle grinder, you can learn all of the skills needed to create your own recumbent bike or chopper in a few weekends using inexpensive tools and standard bicycle components. Our plans include many styles of human powered and electric vehicles, and most projects can be built for a fraction of the cost of a new comparable vehicle.

Build a low and fast recumbent tadpole trike, or a sturdy load carrying trike from our plans. You can race local traffic by building a lowracer from our recumbent lowracer plans, or look cool cruising on your own radical phat tire chopper bicycles based on Atomic Zombie chopper plans!

None of our bike or trike plans require expensive or hard-to-find parts. You can easily make changes to suit your needs or work with the materials you have on hand. Any standard store welder and a few handheld tools are needed to create your own choppers, custom trikes and recumbent bicycles from our plans, so dive right in and let the sparks fly! Our DIY bike plans require welding and the use of basic tools.

We also have an international bike builders community if you need help, and a builders gallery where you can show off your own handmade bike. The Atomic Zombie bike building family is around the world, so please join us.

Our current special