Interesting...I'd favor the Rear Suspension version and go with Mechanical Alum. Disc Brakes fore &
aft (if) you wanted to flog these bents via a limited production run. Sell in Kit form and have the
option that the buyer can arrange their own Powder Coating (saves U the cost). As for the Swanson
(designed) Hardshell @ $135., the foam and cover (may still) be an added cost. Turner does an
Aluminum Cobra that can be better bolted to a mild steel frame...Fiberglass is prone to cracking
around the bolt holes (I use an Optima Baron Hardshell on my trike and had to reinforce the clamp
bolt area with Carbon fibre. Power-on (would) be a good source for the RANS tiller & scooter wheels.
Try Ricky Horwitz for an Aluminum splined (adusting) Boom. Not sure if you'd need to do the $60.
Liability Insurance thing (if) U flog them in Kit Form. (IF you do it), post some construction
progress reports here. ---------------------------->#/%+what the<----------------------- "B.
Sanders" <
[email protected]> wrote in message
news:%7l3a.109809$tq4.3875@sccrnsc01...
> "Old Wizard" <
[email protected]> wrote in message
news:[email protected]...
> > My son and I have seen various lowracers on the web and he naturally
> thinks
> > they would be a thrill to ride. Unfortunately, my disposable income is insufficient to cover the
> > price we've seen listed. We have confined ourselves to the entry level models on most of the
> > bikes that we ride:
> road,
> > mountain, and recumbents. Is there an affordable entry level model or is that wishful thinking?
>
> There is a way to obtain a lowracer for under $300: Build it yourself. Have a look at my
> design for an Optima Baron lookalike that uses discarded BMX and mt bike wheels and 2" steel
> exhaust pipe.
>
>
http://www.bsanders.net/SpeedRacer6.2.gif
>
> And here's an earlier version that uses the rear triangle from a dept.
store
> suspended mountain bike:
>
>
http://www.bsanders.net/SpeedRacer.jpg
>
> All of the components can be from discarded bikes, which can also donate
BB
> shell, steel tubing, headtube, etc. The seat can be fabricated using
nylon
> mesh lashed to a frame of electrical conduit, or you can buy a pre-fabricated Euro-style
> fiberglass seat for $135 from PowerOn Cycling at
http://www.poweroncycling.com PowerOn also sells
> the RANS Flip-it steerer assembly to make steering fabrication much easier. The fork is just a
> cut-down MTB fork.
>
> I figured I could probably get a skilled welder to weld-up such a frame
for
> about $75 to $100 or so. A local muffler shop quoted me $25 for the steel tubing, bent to my
> specifications.
>
> I'm hoping to get started building one of these cheap lowracers very soon, and will post my
> progress reports on this group. Maybe I should start building a bunch of them and sell them on
> this newsgroup. There does seem
to
> be a demand. I know I backed away from the $1,300 to $1,800 that it would cost to buy a frameset.
> Yikes! Figured I could build 5 entire lowracers
for
> that much money!
>
> There are a lot of homebuilder resources out there. Start at
http://www.ihpva.org/
>
> Let us know what you end up doing.
>
> Barry