RECYCLED RECUMBENTS!!!!!!!
You can build this! It's easy! This bike is a great ride!
HOW TO BUILD YOUR OWN BEAUTIFUL BIKE - A COMPLETE PLAN SET!
The bike! (Yellowbike2, my current ride)
The plan!
(Site index is below the introduction!)
INTRODUCTION -
This site leads you through my experience for creating a really comfortable LWB
(long wheel base) recumbent bike. I
use ‘donor’ bikes, usually old and unloved 10-speeds, and strip them down,
cut, weld, combine, and augment these frames into a really great style of
recumbent bike. It also
tickles me that I am 'recycling' older and unloved bikes into something you or I
might ride with passion, comfort, and greater frequency.
The methods described here are a sort of hobby or ‘sweat equity’
means of acquiring the best of pedal powered transportation and recreation.
This site is one of several I know of that relay the experience of
building your own recumbent bike.
I am glad you stopped in – my purpose is to persuade you to try this
project. You may already be a
convert to the idea of riding a recumbent – for anyone who wants to ride a
long time, the torture of sitting on a diamond bike saddle is the
challenge. Recumbents for me
remove that pain, and enhance my joy as a rider.
In
your local bike shop, you may also you may be dismayed by the commercial cost of
recumbent bikes. It doesn't have to be like that.
The Recycled Recumbent takes some time, ingenuity, and modest resources
to build. It doesn't
take a lot of cash. It does cost you
your time and thought - your first bike may take 2-3 weeks to build.
The materials are easy – I find donor bikes at rummages and police
auctions – the tools take a little doing.
This is a brazed or welded assembly, and you need access to that
equipment and those skills. I have suggested to some folks -
"Buy a $100 class in gas brazing at the local Community College - you get
some great skills and access to all the equipment you need to make your own
frame this way!"
The objective of a Recycled
Recumbent is a great bike at a modest cost in materials, built with accessible
tools and simple technology. It
is ALWAYS possible to make a better bike.
You can use better tubing. Build
completely from scratch. Use
better and more expensive components.
Employ sophisticated machine tools for jigging and alignment.
This frame is possible to build well without micrometers and specialty
jigs. I make choices for the
EZ Clone and Mach 2 that trade costly hardware for home made fabrications.
The choices are deliberate, to keep both the costs down and the process
accessible.
This modest bike is
‘upgradeable’. Set it up
as a 10-speed using components from your donor bikes.
If you like what you are riding, buy 'presents' for it.
After you ride it 500 miles, get it a crank with a granny gear - reward
yourself and your bike. Get a
really nice rear wheel and tire, maybe with a 7 or 8 speed cassette.
Perhaps a fairing, the second season out.
Your riding experience will teach you what your priorities for upgrades
are. If you look at my
yellowbikes in the pictures, you will see lots of presents...
and there have been lots of miles to teach me what I wanted, as well.
“(I wish you) Miles of
smiles", say some friends of mine.
Recumbent riders smile more, because it hurts less.
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INDEX OF PAGES
General Notes - General Notes
EZ Clone Instructions - Instructions EZ
EZ Clone drawings - Sheets 1-10
Frame pictures - Page 1 Page 2 Page 3 Page 4
Mach 2 Instructions - Instructions Mach 2
Mach 2 drawings - Sheets 11-17
Rear Triangle Bending - rear triangle
Some of my bikes - AD's bikes
Detail finishes - Bits and pieces
SEAT FRAME Instructions - new November 2009 - Frame
Seat covering - Seat Cover
The printable PDF files - prints
Help? Parts? - the bits I sell - Parts and Bikes FOR SALE Feb. 3, 2010 - 2 NEW bikes here, finished today! 3 finished frames to choose from.
Bikes built by other folks - let's put your bike here! - BIKES!
Octoberfest - a pictoral message board 'walk' through building several frames at once in my shop. Octoberfest
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BIKES
BY OTHERS!!!! NEW AGAIN - Pictures
last edited on December 17, 2009!!!!!!!
Here are pictures folks have sent in
hand of their bikes (I will updated/add again this Spring sometime - I'd love to
see your bike!!!!!).
ALTERNATIVES -
If your objective is a really
great bike, and you don’t want the journey of frame building, you should shop
at your local bike store – the one that features a variety of recumbent styles
to try and to experiment with. A
good bike can be had for $500 to $900.
If price is not an obstacle, the really great bikes – vastly superior
in finish and components than what is described here – can be had at roughly
$1,700 – and up, of course – spend as much as you can.
Shopping and looking and trying different recumbent bikes is recommended
in any case. A recumbent IS
different - you may or may not experience your '
I think that the Recycled
Recumbent, well built by you, rivals the ride and performance of the $2,500 LWB
bikes it pays homage to – for the exchange of your time instead of your cash.
I had a fella in some time back – Tom was buying one of my bikes - he
said he wished his Ti-Rush handled as well as the Mach 2 he was buying at the
time. I
wish *I* had that testament recorded for You Tube.
On
the list of 'it must be said's' - I am
sharing an experience - not recommending one to you.
This process has worked for me and as built by me - I can't control and
do not warrant your skills or your resulting bike and frame, the materials you
put into it, nor your riding experience and skills.
In addition to what is
here, I am interested in going on the framebuilding adventure with you!
Need help and advice? Get in touch! Have a better idea,
or find something better than what I write here? Let me know.
Finish a bike? Proud of it? Send me a picture, and I'll
show it here on the site BIKES
BY OTHERS!!!!.
Need, last ditch, some
help of substance - want a frame that YOU can build up and finish? I
don't make a lot, but I am happy to share what I have. A last page
here, titled HELP!
PARTS? shows you the basics of what I can provide and at what
pricing. I'll have more fun if we correspond or talk, and I want to
find a way to help you help yourself!
A. D. Carson
Telephone 414-616-0307