"Woodie" Rack for FD"

[noisydad]

I like most everything about my friction drive - except the way it looks. To me, it's a form-follows-function exercise with no particular "industrial design" applied at all. Aside from styling-up the look of the thing, I also wanted to be able to carry stuff somewhere other than in a backpack, and without adding a front rack to my bike. I've always liked the look of varnished wood, especially on wood-bodied station wagons of the 1940's and 50's, so I decided to build myself a "woodie" platform that would attach to the FD rack unit. I like that I could mount my tail-light in a more visible spot, too. Future additions will include bungie mounting points at the corners and some kind of mounting scheme to hang a pannier-style bag off the right side of the rack.

 

[NunyaBidness]

While friction drives aren't my thing, that rack is looking pretty good.

 

[gobigkahuna]

I like most everything about my friction drive - except the way it looks. To me, it's a form-follows-function exercise with no particular "industrial design" applied at all...

Agreed. I'm looking at using a rear wheel friction drive on my first build and the biggest obstacle at the moment is how (sorry, but I have to say it) ugly they are. I like what you've done though, it definitely makes it look a lot better while adding some additional functionality.

 

[Stoney]

Hey noisey,
That looks great! The woody rack and matching engine paint really gave your motorized bike that "IT" factor. No Wonder women are gooshing over your ride...

 

[Stoney]

Hey there was supposed to be an icon at the end.

 

[happyvalley]

Looks good and convenient to hang a light and pannier mounting hardware.

 

[noisydad]

Hey noisey,
...No Wonder women are gooshing over your ride...

LOL - Yeah, I wish!

 

[noisydad]

So I'm continuing with my modular-mounting idea. Last year I found myself in Shanghai, China, for a work assignment, and I was intrigued with the stainless-steel trunks on a lot of the scooters in town. When I got home, I looked for something similar and found a half-sized trunk on eBay that I thought I could do something with someday... Anyway, after I built my woodie-rack, I realized I could adapt the stainless trunk to mount on the rack. I routed some 2x2 wood supports to interlock with my woodie rack, added tie-down points to the rack itself, and found myself with some extra storage for my chain, lock, spare tube, etc. See the photos. The only thing that concerns me is the extra weight over the rear wheel, which already has the bulk of the FD motor/rack/etc.

 

[Dan]

Looking good Noisy. Very classic.