Using my homemade bike trailer for moving across town.

This is my homemade trailer. I got it since 5 years, and hardly used it before. Now that I am moving together with my GF, I have to move my stuff about 5 kilometers to our new apartment.

First a new desk. The challenge was the big plate.

When I rode to pick up the chair, I cornered with speed and made the trailer run on one wheel. I should be more carefull.

A janitor, gave me some abandoned bikes.

I was asked to bring a ghostbike to a fatal accident location.

Finally starting to move.

My commuter bike was stolen, so I had to use  my roadbike. The glass desk was heavy, so I took extra care.

Not enough care. No idea how the desk survived.

The shaft of the trailer broke, so I had to replace it.

Good thing I had this part of a failed diy recumbend bike project at home.

It works out fine.

Time for more stuff.

I also had to redo my old appartment, so went to the hardware store.

Kind of tricky to load paint.

Another load, taken with the camera mounted on the rear rack.

Went to Ikea and the rim gave up.

I was able to get home and replace the wheel.

Damn! I had to brake hard with the empty trailer. The fork gave up, and the wheel made contact with the frame. I was thrown over my bike.

After a useless hospital visit, I collected the trailer with the broken bike. The bag is my girlfriend's, not mine.

The bent fork.

Now I had to use the shitty bike from my girlfriend. No way I would park my other bikes on the street.

Had to use my keychain to attach the trailer.

The trailer is not always needed.

Some more pictures of the moving process.

Some of my bikes.

How I attached the trialer to the road bike.

My complete workshop, including a drill press.

My trailer

This is my bike trailer. I made it with nearly zero budget, since I don't need it very often. It is very robust, A person can sit on it without problems. The couping device is just an u-bolt. I secure the trailer with rope for safety, but never lost the trailer so far. I'd recommend a different coupling if you cover long distances.

Broken Aluminum Frame repair with fiberglass and resin.

I bought a used bike to repair and resell and noticed, that the frame had a crack. I decided to build up a rigid mountain bike for myself and repair the frame. 

The bike was a Pinarello Treviso Mountainbike, a very rare bike from 1990 or 1991. Aluminium frames were pretty rare at that time, however the weight of the frame is only 1.6 kg.  Quite obvious that it broke.

 

If you look at the dropout, you notice, that it is welded the rear tube, which got squashed. An obvious design flaw. Since I can't weld aluminum, and always wanted to repair a cracked frame with fiberglass and resin, I repaired the frame this way:

 

 At first, I brazed a steel base layer, which distributes the force from the dropout better to the brittle aluminum frame.

 With a lot of good glue and some fibres, I glued the steelframe to the aluminium frame.

 I covered everything with resin and added fiberglass. I used an old bicycle tube to apply pressure to the fiberglass. With this technique you can use a lot more fibers and less resin which makes the frame stronger.

 After a few layers, I finished it.

 As a test ride, I took the bike to the most difficult trail in my area and rode it hard. It is interesting what you can do with a rigid bike, if you have tires with a lot of grip. I always thought before, that I would need my Enduro to ride that trail.

 I know I mixed up the components from two decades. I can already feel the retro bike enthusiasts cringing.

 The repaired part of the frame:

My diy steel-fullsuspension bike is completed

After about 3 months of testing, my bike is finally ready:
I used an old hardtail frame as a base and modifed the geometry, installed a bearing and made a rear swing.

Here is some data:

• Material: Frame from an old Giant bike, rear swing from steelpipes from a building supply store
• Costs: around 550 Euro, all parts were bought used in mint condition.
• Travel: 160/160mm
• Thrust in my own welding: I still check for cracks regulary
• Weight: 16 kg

Here are the links to the blogentries about how I built it:

About the concept
How I made the bearing for the rear suspension
Early progress pictures
The frame
An overview about the project

And some video

 

It works!!!

During the last months, I welded a custom  steel Enduro bike. I used an old Giant hardtail frame and welded / brazed the rest.

The bike has 160/160mm travel and weights 16kg.

Last week, I finally got the chance to make a longer ride. Here is the video of riding it on my local trails:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=defT4baMbUo

I can tell you, I works very well. To create something new, I chose the wheel distance very short, and the fork angle rather flat. I expect to get great riding performance on slow steep and difficult descents.

Here are some pictures of the frame building process:

I have to say although everything looks improvised, I spent a long time figuring out how to build it.

Defining the amount of rear travel

Adapting the fork angle - and yes I thrust this connection ;)

I made the bearing for the rear suspension out of an hold front hub. Used a stationary drilling machine and an angle-grinder as lathe.

The finished bearing

The bearing in my "jig" - Ready to get brazed into the frame

The frame nearly finished

I want to thank the Fahrradküche Graz, a local self service workshop to let me use their facility.