My Rat Rod - Riff Raff

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Rockenstein

New Member
Feb 8, 2009
442
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Ontario, Canada
This is the bike the apple juice can gas tank is going to live on and I've affectionately named it Riff Raff :)

The inspiration for this build came from too many visits to Rat Rod Bikes dot com ...lol

I'm obviously no where near done this project but I've been chipping away at it in my spare time since I dragged the frame home from the junk yard back in early June. I went to the junkyard that day just to search for treasure and I spotted this at the bottom of a pile...45 minutes later I had it in my hands. I went to the weigh in office and said I'd like to take this home, how much? The man giggled, scratched his head and said have a nice day!! lol...I said thank you sir and walked out with a big smile on my face. I had traveled to the junk yard on my MB and if you can picture it I rode home (about 6km) with one hand operating the throttle and front brake and the other hanging on my treasure...lol...it made a heck of a racket rolling down the road with no tires and I think I seen sparks more than once coming off the rusty old rims! Anyway after much work this is where I'm at with it and about the only thing I didn't save was the wheels...yes as rusty as the fenders were in the original picture the black ones you see now are them! It's amazing what vinegar, sandpaper and a wire brush can do for ya! I picked up the el cheapo Chinese springer fork at the local bike shop and man are these things ever a wobbly POS! Downright dangerous for MB use out of the box in my opinion! So to solve some of the wobbly'ness I bushed it where the axle goes through the steerer tube and at the pivot point in the fork legs plus instead of using just a long bolt and nut to hold everything together I used the axle out of the front wheel that was originally on the bike. The bushings I made for the fork legs are silver brazed in place and they go all the way through the original hole which I opened up to about 1/2" in size. One other thing I did was lock the spring out with a length of chrome steel tube over the bolt that normally adjust the spring tension. Needless to say the front end feels nice and tight now, sure I've lost the suspension part of the deal but all I wanted the springer for was looks anyway. The wheels I bought new locally and they were originally chromed steel, the back wheel features 12g spokes, a Shimano CB E-110 coaster brake hub plus one of Jim's sprocket adapters and sprocket. The front wheel is another story...I had a brain fart when I ordered the wheels in that I never considered front brakes! DUH!! As that story goes I now have to order another chrome steel rim which I will build up using the disc brake hub from a bent rim I scrounge up, haven't decided if I will paint that hub red or if I'll have it chromed. I have a spare Hayes MX4 mechanical disc brake caliper on hand along with a new rotor so once I fashion and braze some caliper mounts on the left springer leg and build the new wheel we should be all set for stopping power up front. The bullet headlight and tail light pictured along with the 6v SLA battery are what I figure I'll use for my lighting setup and I've already bent up a battery tray that fits nicely down between the seat stay and the rear fender.

So I think that pretty much covers where I'm at with the project, no big rush to finish as it will give me something to do this winter when I'm bored and feel like tinkering with something :)
 
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Rockenstein

New Member
Feb 8, 2009
442
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Ontario, Canada
Just in case your all wondering what I'll do with the leftover red front wheel I'll have after building a new disc brake wheel for the front end of the Riff Raff bike...me thinks that leftover wheel will live on this frame :D

I dragged this junker home the other day from another local salvage yard...lol...this one cost me a 5 dollar donation to the Children's Hospital and needless to say I was cool with that :) It's a CCM of some kind and it's at least a 1974 or older frame as the faded City Of London bicycle registration sticker that's on the rear seat stay is dated 1974! I'm thinking I will build a peddler out of this one so I can go for leisurely cruises to the park and Dairy Queen with my kids.

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Rockenstein

New Member
Feb 8, 2009
442
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Ontario, Canada
Nice build... It looks very familiar. :D
I like the extra touches to the fork!!! They really do need that!!

I just checked out your site and I can see where the familiar comes from...lol...the first bike has an under seat tank. Out of curiosity did you build that tank or did you scoop it off of another machine? I concur on the forks, they wiggle and wobble around pretty good out of the box and trying to tighten them is a losing game because you'll just crush the fork legs at the pivot point. But hey they cost 50 bucks right and are meant for bicycles that would not likely see 20 km/h on a good day so I'm not going to complain about having to work them over for my purpose.
 

Clotho

Member
May 25, 2008
304
2
18
Looks like fun!

Disc brakes are always a good choice.

The name reminded me of the hunchback in the Rocky Horror Picture Show.

Be sure to inspect the front forks on the second frame. They look bent and that usually means imminent failure.
 
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Rockenstein

New Member
Feb 8, 2009
442
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Ontario, Canada
The old CCM frame pictured will be a pedal only rider me thinks although ya never know...when you got torches, some steel tubing, a spare motor and a spare Manic Mechanic sprocket adapter collecting dust under the workbench who knows what can happen ;)
 

Deadend

New Member
Aug 19, 2009
75
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ca
The old CCM frame pictured will be a pedal only rider me thinks although ya never know...when you got torches, some steel tubing, a spare motor and a spare Manic Mechanic sprocket adapter collecting dust under the workbench who knows what can happen ;)
lol scratch the itch brother! dnut
 

2door

Moderator
Staff member
Sep 15, 2008
16,302
175
63
Littleton, Colorado
Rock, you never cease to keep me interested in what you're building. I can't wait to see that junk yard refugee complete. Great work.
Tom
 

wheelbender6

Well-Known Member
Sep 4, 2008
4,059
221
63
TX
Well done, Rocky. I have posted a few of my cruisers on ratrodbikes also.
It's a good site for bicycle specific info.
 

sojudave

New Member
Oct 18, 2008
189
3
0
austin tx
Rat Rod bikes.com is a cool site. I was building a chopper and had lowrider springer forks. What I did with bouncy problem was remove the spring and replace it with a piece of steel tubing. In this case it was a piece of a spare pair of handlebars from a mountain bike. I didn't need to bottom out the bike, which would have been a certainty due to it being 3.5 inches off the ground. The bike handled alot better without the spring but due to design issues on my part, I scrapped the project all together.
 

Rockenstein

New Member
Feb 8, 2009
442
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Ontario, Canada
Was just thinking, I've got to learn better self control with regards to sites like ratrodbikes.com...and the vintage motorcycle sites...and the youtube videos of old Indians, Harley's, Norton"s and Excelsior's :oops: Then again some of the vintage bike stuff is so inspiring and then when I go read ..again.. about how Burt Munroe would scrounge up discarded cast iron city gas pipe and use it to turn up some cylinders for his old Indian in a well used and worn 3 1/2" 1920's Myford lathe....my head hurts...lol :oops:
 

42blue15

New Member
Sep 18, 2008
136
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St Louis metro, USA
i wouldn't let a motor get anywhere near that frame. not with those bolted on rear seatstays. yikes!
The seatstays aren't bolted on, they're welded like normal. They might be really thin at the top end, but they're welded.

The split for tightening the seat-post in the seat tube is in the rear center between the seatstays, and the bolt you see is the bolt for tightening the seatpost in the frame. With these kinds of frames, there is no additional seat-post clamp needed. This was considered a "customized" touch on frames in the 1960's and 1970's, and became fairly common on many bikes made during the 1980's.

The forks definitely are trashed, but I do not think that the frame itself is bent from the front-end collision.
~