24" cruiser stretch

["Chainsaw" Jim Johnson]

Philphine posted in 2009 on FBN .....

"Someone on ratrod once asked that I take more pics the next time i stretch a bike, so there's a build thread there, but here is a pic of the finished bike (except for paint, but I hardly ever paint them) along with a comparision pic of a 26" stretch."




"I tried to make it proportionally smaller. I even had an 18" wheel for the front where my 26" use a 20" front. worked out pretty good, so I'm keeping an eye out for 24" cruisers (and a few more 18" wheels) to make about 3 more eventually."

Replies to post ......

Chainsaw .... "Swoopy-cool! I liked it over on RRB but I love it here! Man 18s are super hard to find in our area. We usually go to Canada and steal them outta YYZMEC's backyard! Thanks for sharing!"

Philphine ..... "I do know where one more 18" wheel is, and my nephew hardly rides his bike anyway.... I can be patient. those 24" cruisers seem to be just as hard to find anyway. I do plan to try this style again, but drop down one more size. if I can find a cheap black friday krate I'm going to try a stretch stingray, and see if I can keep the banana seat and apes."

Philphine ..... "I haven't been on ratrod much lately, and I've been looking at this bike and thinking up an idea for it, so I'm going to float most of the build posts over to keep the original build and what I try later together. Plus it's the only time I've completely explained the stretch I've done most, so I wanted it over here."

Philphine .... "yes, you may have noticed i have project a.d.d."



Philphine .... "At one time I told someone I'd try to take more pics the next time I do a cruiser stretch, but I haven't come across a regular old cruiser frame since I said it. I've been seeing this 24" at a local thrift store for a while and considering a smaller scale stretch try. they dropped the price some so I picked it up.
I just gonna try to scale down what I usually do. don't know if that will work exactly, but I figure it's not rocket science so it ought to still work. preliminarily I mean to cut 2" off the bottom tube I usually use, and I happen to have an 18" wheel for the front where I normally use a 20" on the 26" stretches."



we'll see what happens.

...

a disclaimer i meant to add at the beginning.

i've said before, this design isn't my idea. this is the bike i tried to copy, from atomic zombie

www.atomiczombie.com/gallery/sammyharris/chopper.htm

i've also seen one other person who makes them about the same, but i saw those after i tried this, so i'm just making that clear. it's not really my design, but it works good for me.

i also don't have a frame jig. the couple times i tried to make one it came out more crooked than the bike i was trying to make. i need to make a decent one eventually, but this is just eyeball and tape measurer and hope it works.

ok, we now return to our unsceduled and disjointed build.....

["Chainsaw" Jim Johnson]

"The frame all cut up and the extra tubing needed. One good thing about doing it this way is you just need the one bike and a couple extra tubes."



"I guess the measurements don't have to be hard and fast, but for this the bottom tube is 24.5" long. It's a gutted conveyor tube from where I work. When I do a 26" I use it at it's uncut length 26.5". No real reason beyond I just didn't cut it on the first bike I made like this and it works for me. I've also made the same bike for my brother and use a 32" tube because he's pretty tall and it still worked ok. I just figured I'd cut a couple inches off to scale the whole thing down. I guess i could have left it and had it be long and low, but this way a shorter person could ride it. A piece of emt or fence post or something should work as well I think. The other tube extends the top tube. I use black pipe most of the time. Just whatever matches the tube size close and works for you.
First quick thing, smash one end of the bottom tube down so the lower chainstay tubes can fit in it."



"Sorry this pic washed out so bad. hope it works ok. I'll explain as best I can."



"The first set up. when I do a 26" I set the bottom tube on a 4x4 and try to have that be what the end ground clearance will be. For this I set it on a 2x4 and a 1" piece of decking to lower it about an inch. Again, just guessing at scaling it down a bit. I may set it back on a 4x4 "cause I usually mess up and get the ground clearance too low anyway.

This is just the unbent rear section sitting on the bottom tube. On the left there's a tape measure to measure the distance from about the middle of the dropouts to the ground. To keep this bottom tube ground clearance the measurement needs to be 12" for a 24" wheel (13" for a 26"). In the pic the measurement is about 14.5". If I welded it as is the ground clearance would be less than an inch, or even scrape the ground or the wheel not even touch the ground. So what I do is bend the tubes going toward the front of the bottom tube back til I get the 12" measurement I need with the bottom tube sitting as is.

Should be slow at work tonight so I'm going to take these two pieces to work and try to get that part done."

["Chainsaw" Jim Johnson]

"MARK THIS MOMENTOUS DAY IN THE ANNALS OF BIKE BUILDING HISTORY!!!!"



"ok, maybe not. This is about the first time I got the height of the bottom tube right where I actually planned it. It's maybe 1/4" high, but I don't mind that. I'm thinking if this bike gets a regular rider, it would be younger kid, who might not pay attention to a lower ground clearance, or a woman who probably wouldn't think scraping everything they ride over to be all that cool."

"A notch to set up the front section."



"And basic setting up the front section."

["Chainsaw" Jim Johnson]

"A "why do it this way?" note ...."

"I know a lot of people don't like the smaller front wheel, but it works for me. If I use the same size front wheel as the rear it either gets raked out too much, or I have to extend the front end more than I want and have an uncomfortable reach or find the absolute biggest handlebars I can (I end up looking for big handlebars as it is). It's still raked out some, but it rides pretty decent. You can't ride it with no hands, but there's no fighting at all as long as you have a hand on the bars."

...

"Today is even nicer than yesterday, so even though I have to work this Saturday, I'm taking my bike again so no welding. I did do some more prep though."



"Probably a good thing I'm having to go slower, need to make a small change. I just cut the tube needed to extend the top tube back to the rear wheel. I put a slight bend in it using precision tools. Leaned it against a 4x4 and hit it a few times with a sledgehammer and set it in to check the fit, it WAS ok. Also did a rough cut of the seat post tube. Once it's rounded to fit the tube it's sitting on, it should sit about 1-2" lower.

Then I measured the for the bottom bracket position. From the old chopper bike forum, I learned to measure up about 11" from the ground and mark that spot on the down tube for the bottom bracket. It works good. I'm not into pedal scraping and this height works for as far as I'm going to lean on a cruiser like this. Since with this 24" bike the crank arms are shorter I marked it at 10" instead. It's the piece of tape on the down tube.

You might notice the yellow forks. The originals were bent. I knew it but didn't think it was that bad, 'til I measured for the bottom bracket position. The wheel looked to close to where the pedal would be at it's most forward position so I held the crank about in place and didn't like how close it was. Fortunately I have another 24" fork and that showed my bb spot as being good.

But that made a new problem. with the front wheel now in it's right position with the good fork. It's not touching the ground. So if I welded as is the bottom tube I've been trying to keep level would be tilted. Truthfully it shouldn't be too bad, but since I know it, I need to work on my top tube extension again. I can recut a new slightly longer tube, but I don't want to waste this piece. So I believe I can bend it a little more and make it work.

Quick edit: I just remembered that the sleeve I'm using is about 2 1/2" long. I think I can pull the two tubes apart enough to cover what I need for the new wheel position and still have a strong enough weld there. It only took me about 4 hours to think of that... duhhh

OK, so I'll try to get this all welded together next week and hopefully deal with the bottom bracket (one of my personal struggles making sure it's straight with the rear). It's down hill from there."

"Done"




"It seems like I rushed the end, but like I said before, at a certain point it's all down hill. I already showed the front end setup the fork problem was solved with bending the top tube a little more, then welded it all up.

Next was the bottom bracket."

["Chainsaw" Jim Johnson]

"Just notch it with a hole saw, line it up on your spot and weld it up. One note, don't make the notch too deep. If you do then the down tube will be in the way of the crank passing through the bb. Then you have to notch the down tube also. I've had to do it on a few of mine. It's some extra work but doesn't ruin the project. It's just extra work to avoid if you can.

"An extra note of thanks again to uncle stretch. I used the string thing to line up the bottom bracket and it was the easiest line up ever. It's gonna make it easier to start doing these at home since I won't need all the clamps and a straight piece of bar stock i have access to at work.
...
Stuck the chain guard back on."



"Just make whatever tabs you need and put it back if you want to. I wouldn't bother with them for myself much, but since I'm trying to make these for family I try to have some kind of chainguard on them. I got on ebay and got a few of the front sprockets that have a guard attached, but since I'm trying to make about 10-12 of these that was going to add up. So I try to stick whatever came on the bike back on if I can. Also, the handlebars were a good shape to extend. I may even cut a little back off."

"A comparision to my normal 26" stretch, and a for fun pic with the longest one I made for my tallest brother."





"I noticed the pic doesn't make it look that much smaller, but I can tell when I ride it. I need to pull the seat out to ride it comfortably.

So that's the 24" stretch. hopefully there's enough notes to transfer the "how to" back to a 26" cruiser."

["Chainsaw" Jim Johnson]

Comments .....

Chainsaw wrote ..... "Looks real good Phil.
I like how you're walking us thru the build. I think we need others to do the same thing to help inspire the newbies to try building a bike. I appreciate you sharing your Freakish Wisdom with others.

I think this is the best looking out of all the similar designed bikes you've done. I think it's because of that big ol' chainguard. It just give the bike a vintage look. Do you think you could match the paint or rust out the newer pieces? I know you're like me and you paint very few projects but I think this is one that needs some pigment! Damn cool either way!

I've got a Sky Rider that is very similar to yours. It's a 26" and is colored a little differently but otherwise they're the same. I've had it on Craigslist but not too much interest and those that were interested thought I should give it away. Who knows, I may butcher it over the winter."

Philphine ..... "Thanks, I just figured I'd put the build on the forum I'm on most. I think this was the only one that was completely somewhere else.

I guess I'll paint it eventually. not painting bikes isn't really a plan as much as laziness, plus some idea or another pops up and it ends up being a good thing I didn't paint it.

The chainguard, I think maybe half of the bikes I made like this, I put them back on. Originally I was trying to make a group of these bikes for family, and was on ebay looking at the sprockets that have a ring chainguard on them. But at the time I was planning to make around ten bikes, and that was going to add up. So I started trying to put whatever chainguard the bike had (if it had one) back on."

Chainsaw ..... "I was just looking at my Sky Rider and my chainguard is dirty butt crack ugly! :ack: I'm thinking that I might just make it a simple rodded bike and use it on the Peddler's rides next year. They are more old cruiser style and they occassionally take a side trail or break brush down some supposed trail they all rode as kids. :nuts: A couple of rides this year found my bikes tilling soil. :lol: So I think a nice rod would be more beneficial.

Paint sometimes seems impractical. When I do put some paint on a bike, it usually doesn't make it more than a day before I drag it down a sharp object or knock the damn thing over. Always makes me think that the money I spent on paint would have been better spent watching a bag of ice melt!

Your welcome to move ANY builds over here!

Sorry I did everything backwards to your post, I'm kinda wandering today."


Shaggyevil .... "That is awesome! Thanks for sharing the build pics!"