Finding donors (Bicycles) specifically for a tall bike.

[Lanzecki]

So While I've done stuff like this :

http://www.mig-welding.co.uk/forum/showthread.php?t=27692&page=2

And

I've never built a tall bike.

I'm running out of stuff to use. The usual local sources like dumps has dried up in the need to recycle everything. Now they are called recycling centers and everything get thrown into big skips and crushed by heavy rollers as quickly as it get thrown in.

Apart from this being such a waste it means that bikes are getting harder and harder to come by.

I did have an agreement with a local worker, where he was gonna put all bikes to one side for the price of a few beers. Health and safety got involved a few days later.....

Health and safety don't exist in my book, well it does, but nothe red tape and yellow jacket parade.

So after all that waffle, where do you suggest I get my sacrifices these days?

 

[brightspark]

off the local scrap men trouble is they will go out nicking them if theres a market for em

 

[chunkolini]

I have heard of people going to the police for bikes from their lost property dept' I am not sure whether this would work these days.
Another option might to ask if your local paper would put in a small feature/column saying local loony after dead bikes. Just beware of being inundated.
Whatever you do dont go buying bikes for this kind of nonsense.
I used to get some from mates at a local bike shop, if you are after frames and scrappers might be worth trying this line. Proper bike shops that is, ones run by enthusiasts not Halfrauds or the big bike boutiques.

Tallbikes, a warning. You will become the official Town Idiot the minute you go out on it. if you fall off in public that is the ultimate disgrace.
Go for it, have you had any thoughts regards design? some of the shorter style versions wheelie quite viciously. My first one was a potential killer.
The second one has never tried to kill me and has got up a 1:5 hill.
When you are sorted we must try Tallbike Jousting http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xT7Fz4DfZps
Or maybe not.
A small piece of advice, dont butt weld your forks, also try and brace them.

 

[mr_splatter]

Hi,
you might find a local plod station near you that uses this site. http://www.bumblebeeauctions.co.uk. Often a source of cheap (and sometimes good quality) bikes.
HTH

 

[Lanzecki]

Sorry guys I forgot to say I'm in Ireland. Different rules.

The scrappys won't let anyone in for fear of injury, and all the good stuff gets crushed at the recycling centers before getting to the scrappys.

Police? Yea, the last thing they'd wanna do is to hold onto people lost property.

And... The only thing I'd buy is brakes. Everything else is scrap.

I will try the Local bike shops.. That might work. I've a good relationship since I bought a road bike from him.

Thanks for the ideas I'll report back.

 

[chunkolini]

We always had a rule for bike building, the only thing we could spend cash on were cables and brake blocks.

Recycling "all the good stuff gets crushed at the recycling centers "
Does the old swede in. Surely reusing is better than scrapping.
Worst thing is some of these guys seem to enjoy destroying decent stuff to thwart people like us.

Also remember cheap nasty frames are much easier to work with than nice ones. the Kona Cindercone on my tallbike was a right **** to mig weld onto the dodgy muddyfox. But using nice frames does wind a few people up a treat. (the Kona had cracked rear stays otherwise I would have used it as a bike).

 

[Lanzecki]

Yea, recycling begins at home, and by extension your family. "can I have that odl bike you are no longer using?" "No, I took it too the recycling center" A conversation I recently had with my brother in-law. a 5 year old bike that was working fine, it just wasn't the latest and greatest.

My favourite bike is the British Eagle shown above. I bought it second hand around 1998. God know how old it actually is.

While I do love my road bike, it's inpractictable for everything except going very fast.

As to these 'recycling' centers that don't let ya take stuff to recycle.... Seem illogical.

 

[chunkolini]

A length of mig wire across cyclepaths might find some donor bikes.
But these days they are almost all aluminium and no use for this game.

 

[Lanzecki]

Or the spwn of the devil... Carbon!!! Run!

Hmmm.. Mig Wire across the cycle Paths.... Well, it's parts I guess. .... What's that? Ohh My wife suggests that mig wire wouldn't weld very well after that.

 

[chunkolini]

Carbon fibre? burned toast and glue.
How can you make a bike out of that.
Another thought avoid bikes with lugged frames, they are a pig to work with, big holes inside the lugs and they have been brazed.

 

[stuvy]

Carbon fibre? burned toast and glue.
How can you make a bike out of that.
Another thought avoid bikes with lugged frames, they are a pig to work with, big holes inside the lugs and they have been brazed.

i was put off when i snapped my easton handle bars! il never have a carbon bike again

try your local corner shop, stick a note in there window or on ebay try nearest first then max 5quid or euro in your case! you can normally get bikes that way

 

[Lanzecki]

Thanks for the suggestions on getting what's becoming hard in my neck of the woods to get.

Ebay's a blow out.
I'll try some of the more local idea such as local adds. The last bike I tried to pickup from a skip the owner wanted money for. "But it's in your skip, you're throwing it away". I walked away. Maybe I shouldn't has asked, but it's the way I was brought up.

I suspect that's the attitude around here. "How much can I make from it?" I don't mind a few €, but €50 for a skipped bike's insulting my intelligence.

I want to build something like :

I've got a lot of metal stock that I can use. And the anarchy style of the frame on a frame design isn't what I want at the moment. But I'm playing with the design to add some modern ideas.

I'll post some pictures of the frame design I'm working on. It's based on the above with triangulation.

 

[Ragnarok]

i was put off when i snapped my easton handle bars! il never have a carbon bike again

try your local corner shop, stick a note in there window or on ebay try nearest first then max 5quid or euro in your case! you can normally get bikes that way

the handle bars on my mountain bike are the only bit of carbon on it, well them and a headset spacer haha i like the carbon bars personally, had aluminium on it when i got it, but i like the flex the carbon bars have easton carbon monkey lite

 

[bod]

My carbon bars broke when I was doing about 40mph (always the init?) and I made my face even uglier. I've gone for ti ones now, still have the flex but I don't have to check them every time I have a little prang.
Back on topic, how about putting a sign on a bike a riding it around, maybe in a costume or something equally strange. People seem to take pity on bike weirdos and tend to give us stuff for free even if it's so they can laugh at us once we've "transformed" it.
Even if it doesn't work you'll probably have a bit of a laugh.

 

[Lanzecki]

 

[steve.h]

I like the design of the kids bike welded to the pole and connected to the lead bike, really spooky as we where camping a week or so ago and say something just like it, but it looked like a shop bought job, the pole clamped to the head post of the kids bike, just removed the front wheel nd away it went. better than the seat on the pole job as it uses the kids bike instead.

 

[Lanzecki]

I did get the ldea from that type of thing Steve. I had this great idea that all the family could go on a ride as I have a 4year old that was gonna go on it.

Turns out she's scared of it. She won't even sit on a normal bike we saw in Halfords as she was too scared. I don't know why, she's normally covered in mud and blood. Just bikes.

Even though she wants a bike with a carrier (for 'da baby) and tassles on the handlebars.

 

[Lanzecki]

Things change over time.

It doesn't take much to find designs of of 'frame on frame' tall bikes.

Such as :

While it works, there are IMHO problems. The weld at A takes a lot of load as it's the main join between the two frames. While the headset's are joined that has to move as well. Alignment of the headset's seems very important.

There really should be an extended seat stay between points B and C for better triangulation.

The main issue is stability. The wheelbase (same as a normal bike ) coupled with the higher centre of gravity poses concerns. Wheelies and endo's would appear to happen a lot.

So, maybe something more sensible (WTF?)... While a tall bike goes up, maybe it should go out as well.

Enter V2.

Reduced chance of going over the front or back, a chance to put that front end idea I have in my head. It's something similar to a springer, but it doesn't provide suspension (not shown here). And it just looks better, and provides loads more strength.

Structurally is should be better as well. The top frame has the seat and chain stays removed and a single tube welded in place.

Has anyone done this?

V3 is brewing as I type, so I won't type much more. Please excuse the drawing's. Just remember some of the best aircraft designs started on the back of a fag packet.

 

[Lanzecki]

And then you try the search function.

http://www.mig-welding.co.uk/forum/showpost.php?p=98253&postcount=10

I should have known. How's it Ride Chunko?

Spitting bleeding image. I must have seen this before.

 

[chunkolini]

Rides just like a bike, no wobblesvery stable, have even riddden it no handed.
If you take this route check how high you can hop, I carried a tape measure round with me and checked how high a hop up I could make.
For me a tallbike has to be able to be freemounted with no structures needed.
Here is a clip of Johnnypayphone on his triple high http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-ehR_0Bl_w8 a good mate of mine from Chicago, he started me off on this nonsense years ago. A living legend. Check out his other Utube videos.

I woud definitely go with long wheelbase design,much nicer going up hill and more stable when stationary. Trackstands are easypeasy on these things but dont tell anybody, stop a junction and just sit there balancing by moving your knees, that really confuses people.
The forks? definitely brace them as in the pic, I had an old stem up the botto of the stearer tube braced to by the front brake mounts, then trianulated back to the forks.
the chain run almost caught me out hence the small jockey wheel.
I think this lookis much more elegant than two bikes stacked and safer. I have even toured with a trailer full of luggage on it.
Go for it but dont get killed.