thinking of selling these off....

anyone here in SG interested? drop me a mail at ohchusan@gmail.com

these were hardly used before i swapped these out with my current 24" rims, so the condition is as good as brand new. SG$200

got these exchanged for a set of 24" 140 spokes instead.... so long as i can mount up my 24x3 white tires i got from Mauz sometime back hyuk hyuk!!!

looks like my trike's gonna be completed real soon...

did some graphics for the "tanks" and had my printer friend produce it for me on reversed print decal.... should get the prints back today... quite excited i must say...

wonder if it'll turn out ok though.. 

all mounted... not too shabby eh?

here's what it looks like on the trike..

seen here keyed inside the strut to prevent rotation. while the thumb screw works just by hand tightening, i'm taking no chances and torqued down a little with an allen wrench..

got off my lazy @$$.... finally!

spent some time on my home mill and lathe and came up with these... the raised rectangle portion is keyed for the slot in the fork strut, allows some height adjustability (yep, don't really need it but hey... might as well right? haha)

the old brackets

some may be able to spot that my old brackets (seen above) actually came off a 1/8 nitro engine mount, cut in half with the rough edges filed down. this of course was a temp measure until i got off my lazy @$$ to actually fab something up.

lights install... finally some progress on my trike..

got a couple of real old lights from a real old bicycle store. real bulbs in there.. no LEDs, yes that old. haha.

gonna wire up these to some RC packs i have that are collecting dust, so they might as well serve some purpose. i have some ideas on how to install the packs onto the trike, but i'll have to wait and see what works out. 

night time photos

here's a night time shot... as you can see, photography is not my strong point. hahaha.

CABLE ROUTING

been wanting to get some nice cable clamps for the trike as zipties just won't do it justice.

so been messing with my home lathe recently and i came up with this... really diggin the look and feel but this will only work in certain circumstances...

here's the shifter mounted on my trike. not a very good picture but you get the idea. had some issues with where to mount it cause most other places, my arms would not be able to shift the shifter! short man, short arms mah!

anywez, since the tube where i finally mounted the shifter is smaller than the clamp, i lathed out a delrin spacer to take up the slack, tried to use the old "inner tube wrap around the tube trick" but it was too ugly for my liking....

also relocating the brake lever to the left of the handle bar just in case i need to stop in a hurry while i happen to be shifting gears seemed only natural.

i'm still having issues with the rear box/chair though... just looks wrong to me...

COOL OLD SCHOOL SHIFTER...

was kindly donated to my trike project by a guy i don't even know except from an overseas bike forum! how cool is that! all i did was pay for postage!

seems the guys who hang out at ratrodbikes.com are all like that, quick to offer not just advice but parts too! 

well, thanks to bombshelterbikes from ratrodbikes for the great shifter! you're da man! 

my kids giving my trike the shake down

FINALLY STARTED WORK ON THE REAR END....

the "truck bed" idea won hands down in the end.... 

well, i wouldn't want my kid to fall off a rear springer seat now would i?

anywez, decided that i would re-use an existing IKEA rack (see below)

that i purchased some years ago. this way i get materials i need for my trike and i get to clear some unwanted clutter in my workroom! (also,  this has got to work! if not y wife will kill me for wasting a perfectly good piece of furniture!!!)

but since the stock dimensions of the rack was too large, i had to "shave a little off the sides" to make it look right....oh ok..i had to do it twice, finally got the thumbs up from both my kids meant i could progress on with the project.




here's a trail fit on the trike (not bolted on yet) to see if it fit on the trike's behind and that it fit both my kids behinds! haha...

Jade's first ride on my trike...

here's my older daughter's first go at my trike. yes, she's the one that mumbles under her breath that my trike looks silly! i bet she dun think that way now though...hahaha

IDEAS..

even before the parts came together for this trike project, i have been thinking about some ideas for the rear of the trike.

now that the trike is up and running, for sure my 5 year old is all set to ride shotgun with her pops on that "silly thing" (as my older daughter mumbles under her breath  ever so often, she just doesn't get it... haha)

idea 1: is to have a bent seat post that stretches from the stock seat post location to all the way to the back and mount two individual saddles onto it, the rear of the seat post being supported via a sissy bar of sorts.

idea 2: is what you see below, this for me is more do-able as i have tools to cut wood but no tools to bend such a seat post in idea 1. 

i could also pad the inside of the "wooden truck bed" to make it comfy, almost like a rumble seat?

for sure my younger daughter would much prefer pretending to be a sack of potatoes.

anywez, still keeping my options open for now...

FIRST RIDE - sunday night 01 June 2008

managed to get the trike into the lift after all. i even had... say 15 to 20 cm more space between the front tire and the lift ceiling! should have made her longer! dammit!

at first, my body was automatically trying to counter the lean of the bike, then it occurred to me that i was no longer in control. having two wheels behind meant that i was a puppet and the less than perfect road was the puppet master. good fun!

still need to fine tune the rear derailer as the chain tried ghost shifting every now and then. other than that, the first ride was a good one. 

oh yes, need to work on that dreaded springer out front. my 3" wide tire tends to rub the inside of the fork as i made tight turns.

SHE'S BACK IN ONE PIECE AGAIN....

well, got the parts back few days ago, had to wait till today to put her back together though. had to attend a marketing forum.

anywez, the paint is really nice, even up close...took great pains in bolting her back together making sure not to chip the paint. that would so suck!

fiddled with the derailer (never owned a derailer type bike before)... i think i got it right... i think...

the thumb shifter that came with the gomier is a cheap looking plastic piece from "sunrace"
... never heard of it..haha..

so i'm looking around to see what cool looking shifter i can find.... either locally or online...
i'm thinking "cool stick shift"....yep...online.

also, need to think of the brake solution too... dun want ugly cables running all over the long frame. hmmmmm??....

well, here she is.

i'm happy.....

IT'S READY FOR PICKUP!!!!

wooohooo! just got an email from Sulaiman... my frame is ready for pickup!!

bad news is, i'll be stuck at a marketing forum for the next 3 days!!

SPY PIC

dropped by the Rebound Centre yesterday and managed to snap these pics with my crappy handphone camera.

Sulaiman really is good, this thing is shiny direct from the paint booth, and he didn't even start polishing the frame yet....

really can't wait to put this baby together man!

WHEELS WHEELS WHEELS...

my wife has recently started to drive again after a long hiatus, good for her but bad for me....

been wanting to send down my wheels to the bike shop near my workplace but without a car, its kinda difficult.... 

nothing really wrong with the current steel rims except that they may be a tad too narrow for my tires?.... need to check to see if they  have wider rims for my 24x3 tires. 

i'm thinking nice white rims? perhaps?..... as long as they have nice decals that go onto the rim! haha

hmm....

no prizes for guessing what colour i'm going with...actually, i'm kinda surprised that i chose to repaint the frame blue again..... never really liked blue but i guess that old school flavour that this shade of blue exudes won me over....

PHASE TWO: PIGMENTS

Finally! ...... managed to find time to send down my frame and trike attachment to the painters yesterday.
yep! in the end i opted for 2K paint instead of powder coating or a DIY spray can job. i guess in the end, being able to remove the paint sounded like a better option than the more permanent option of powder coating should rust form beneath. so i met up with Sulaiman, famed painter of the local bike scene. from the looks of the stuff at his workshop, i'd say my frame is in very good hands. should take from 2 to 2 and a half weeks. can't wait!
....

IT'S BEEN MORE THAN A WEEK....

and still NO progress whatsoever. been hella busy with the dinner and dance prep work for the company i work at. once again, i DID NOT WIN a single damn thing! UNBELIEVABLE!!! it is now my 8th year with this company and not a single prize?!! what gives!!! hahaaha...

anywez, i suppose i can finally get some momentum rolling into this project of mine...

EVERYONE! STAND BACK!!!

just got off the phone with several powder coaters and seems none of them want to remove the original paint for me!! how dumb is that! i've heard that they don't want to be liable for any damage done to the frame!

well, that settles that for me...i'm a gonna paint it myself. if it works..GREAT! if not, then i'll have to remove paint anywez....

wish me luck!

LOOK WHO'S GOT NEW SHOES!?

well, its only right that the next of kin gets to inherit the "FANS"... but i didn't realize how damn heavy these steel FANs were till i swapped them with the raleigh's original wheelset.... sheesh!

DON'T THEY LOOK SWEET?

YEAH! my Fatti-Os came in yesterday and managed to mount them on the wheels last night.... finally some progress!

still debating if i should get wider rims?....hmmm

PHASE ONE

well, finally got some work done this weekend. managed to mate the two parts with minimal hack-sawing and drilling. just in case i wanna go back to a regular bike (bike end has only two holes drilled into it).

now that this is done, i have to decide what kind of finish i wanna use for the trike. do i send it out to powder coat? or DIY spray paint it?
hmmm....

i'm looking at either orange or white and i've read that powder coating besides black might give a non uniform finish in colour also, if it starts to rust under the coating, it'll be a real bi+ch to remove the coating and treat the rust.

perhaps i'll paint it one my own, so i can touch up the paint work as and when needed (coz it will get nicked and scratched as its meant to be a daily driver). i'll paint it matte...sorta like a rat rod "orange or vanilla sorbet" type finish...yummy!

sigh...... still not here....

man, this sucks! my tires are still not here....

ORGAN DONOR

this is the backbone of this entire project of mine. Got a brand new in box 24" Gomier trike, 5 speed version.(got the trike locally and the whole thing costs less than shipping in just the rear end from ChoppersUS or Bicycledesigner). In blue of course, unfortunately the blue does not match my stretch cruiser frame....but thats a whole other story.

GOT MY RUBBERS TODAY, 6 BOXES!

got my 24" tubes today at Gee Hin Chan. the dude i spoke to was really cool. didn't seem impatient at all with my silly Qs. now that's a sign of great customer service! kudos!

seems they had an overstock of 24x3s at one time and Murphy, being a great fren of mine....made sure that they were all gone when i got there. so i got 24x2.125s instead, which i've read, shood be good enough. especially so since i'm not an off road type cyclist.

Ebay and ChoppersUS has these 24x3s but shipping's a bi+ch wor. will try these out first and see if i do get a flat * note to self, carry a spare tube during rides.

WHERE THE RUBBERS AT?

Just found out the the inner tubes that i need for my project trike are really hard to come by... locally that is..... duh yah! rubbers...inner tubes... made of rubber! What the heck were you thinking????

INSANE! JUST INSANE!!!

met up with one of the CNCSG guys last night to pick up, what i consider to be the most insane deal of the century!

got 2 innova 24x3s tires for a buck a piece!???? WTF!!!????

couldn't believe this guy's generosity even after walking away with my new tires in hand!

THANKS MAUZ! you da man!

these will prolly end up on my raleigh cruiser, need to get 24" wheel sets though....

WHEN ALL ELSE FAILS...THERE'S EBAY

one thing i realized soon after taking on this project, ...there is absolutely no support of this style/type of bicycle here in Singapore what so ever!

ok ok, in all honesty, i knew this long before hand but then would i let something like this dampen my dream?....

the donor trike that i acquired comes with 24" wheels and get this....24x1.75 tires!!!! hahahahaha.

anywez, here's a pic of the donor...

well, not this one exactly (picture compliments from the www) but you know what i mean right?

well,...now that you've seen the skinny tires....you just know that there's just no way that these would be used in my project. btw, anyone want to buy 3 brand new tires + tubes? really cheap! honest!

on the way to SG from ebayland are my brand new, 24x3" tires affectionately called Fatti-Os

no..no...that's not a FATTI-O....

i just put that up cuz i like looking at it! HAH!

this is a Fatti-O...nice no?

THISMYTRIKE

well, technically speaking, its not a trike yet...

anywez, 

this is an attempt to document the progress of my current project. which as you can tell by the name of my blog, is a bicycle.

i got this bicycle from www.bicycledesigner.com only a few months back.(thanks to the great exchange rate) but as far back as i can remember, i've always wanted one of these...well, ever since i saw RED one in a hip clothing store below my place of work in pacific plaza down by scotts road. (takes deep breath)

MAN! that was more than 10 years ago when tower records was THE place to be .

i suddenly feel so old.haha.

anywez, now that i have one in my living room, living's not to easy anymore. as its almost 2 meters long! notice the slight difference in wheelbase...;D

and this is my second bicycle.

the first being a raleigh retroglide...

obviously, space is at a minimum. and if my ideas proceed as planned, SPACE, or the lack of it will get even worse. perhaps i shood seriously consider selling of the other one?....hmm..

anywez, managed to do some minor custom work on the front fork assembly. took 2 long bars of alu (hope it holds up!) chucked it in my mill at home and came up with these..

also chucked some thick round stock into my lathe and did some nut covers...