Made a first effort this weekend to start my SWB fat tyred two wheeler. The donor was secondhand but can't have covered more than a few hundred yards. All the flashing is still on the tyres and at least these tyres are not knobblies. I don't ride off road and hate using off road tyres - it's like riding over a cattle grate. I got the rear done. The wheel needed a multispeed freewheel as it came with just the one and this involved a longer axle. I'll cut it down later. The swing arm needed slicing in half, a bit of bending and some cut and shut to sort it. It came off a 26" wheel hence it's longer than needed for this 20" wheel but that was always the plan anyway as I like the longer look and it adds some wheelbase back into the twitchy nature of a SWB design. Can anyone spot the failure at the factory? Some kid was probably lucky they didn't ride this much!
The frame became easier than expected as the top tube of the donor is exactly the right length and angle so I kept it and added a brace. It didn't have the room for any triangulation so I made a parallel one. Next job joining the two.
The frame became easier than expected as the top tube of the donor is exactly the right length and angle so I kept it and added a brace. It didn't have the room for any triangulation so I made a parallel one. Next job joining the two.