Frankentstein Recumbent

[ferball]

Finally started building my recumbent to day. I got the basic frame welded up. I still want to add a couple of braces, and I have to go through and grind my welds (they are ugly, I also realized near the end that my voltage setting was wrong, so I want grind and tag all my joints again). It is ugly but I figure by the time I get it painted and everything installed it should look decent, but it will be comfortable.

I plan on using the rear most crank as a jackshaft and the middle crank for a freewheeling intermediate drive so my pedals and engine drive the same chain ring. It has a 24 inch rear wheel, my understanding is that smaller diameter wheel will can take more weight than the a bigger wheel of the same quality, plus it was what I had for a donor bike. Front wheel will be a 20 in bmx wheel, I have accumulated about 5 of these over the winter. Gas tank will be behind the seat and I will be doing underseat steering. Middle portion of the frame is an old french ten speed, with 1 inch tubing, so the little HT will mount in there without any special mounts.

All in all I am pretty excited about my first fabrication build, even if it is uglier than sin and I spent all day cutting and grinding to make four of the ugliest welds I have ever seen.

 

[matthurd]

and what fine ugly welds they were

function first fashion later, you're off to a good start

 

[wdbtchr]

Hey, I do ugly welds just so's I can play with my new grinder.....really. :>O

 

[ferball]

Some people weld, the rest of grind....

 

[ferball]

I forgot to put a plug in for the tube coping calculator I used. It works awesome, just put in your specs then print off a template so you can put the right notch in your tubing for a good fit. coping calculator

the cheap alternative to a "fish mouth" notcher.