Affordable lowracer

[Old Wizard]

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? Thanks.

 

[B. Sanders]

"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

 

[Mikael Seierup]

"Old Wizard" <[email protected]> skrev i en meddelelse 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?

The Zephyr is probably the cheapest full kit around. I don't know if 1190 euro plus shipping is
still too expensive.

http://www.ligfiets.net/zephyr/home.php?pagina=lageracer&links=lageracerlinks

Mikael

 

[Joshua Goldberg]

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

 

[Dj Blag]

My complements Barry. I especially like the chain run. Did you need anything longer than a typical
LWB chain? Chas

 

[B. Sanders]

Dj Blag" <[email protected]> wrote in message
news:[email protected]...
> My complements Barry. I especially like the chain run.

Thanks for the compliments. I spent a lot of time (okay, so maybe half a day) getting the chain
routing just right on the v6.2 design. It involved tweaking several frame parameters every which way
to get it to all work out neatly. I used to have an M5, and didn't like the way that the non-drive
chain was routed over the front wheel, with the sharp-edged nylon pulley sticking straight out of
the headtube where it gets clipped by the rider's knee (ouch!) In my design, as in the Optima Baron,
the chain tucks under the boomtube and beside the headtube to minimize leg interference. Of course,
you could just omit the over-wheel chain routing, and probably get marginally better drivetrain
efficiency and a slight speed gain, but you would give up steering freedom. It's a tradeoff.

I used existing lowracers as a guide for the design, and tried to incorporate the best features of
each bike. The SpeedRacer v6.2 has a steeper seat angle and lower seat height than most popular
lowracers, which was a design goal. I didn't like the super laid-back design of the M5; but I did
like the low-to-the-ground stance. The SpeedRacer v6.2 is a bit more like the Festina or Sunset
lowracers; but with 26" rear wheel and tiller steering. I might end up trying the "tweener"
handlebars of the Festina, Bacchetta, SpeedMachine, etc, just to see how it works comparatively.

> Did you need anything longer than a typical LWB chain?

I haven't built the bike yet; but I'm planning to just buy 3 regular 7/8 speed chains and hook 'em
together. The prototype will probably get whatever is in my parts box.

I've worked up a 20" x 16" version of the SpeedRacer, which I'm calling the Typhoon Racer,
because it bears more than a passing resemblance to the Challenge Taifun. Here's a PDF of the
current design:

http://bsanders.net/TyphoonRacer1.3.pdf

Though it's perhaps not obvious, this design uses a mid drive jack wheel to step up the gearing
ratios. Currently, I'm thinking of just having it be a static jackwheel setup; but I could make it a
variable-ratio mid-drive, like the Rotator Tiger, Trek R200, Longbikes Eliminator, and many others.
Seems like a good way to allow the use of off-the-shelf cranks and cassettes to get useful gear
ranges. Low weight isn't the primary goal of this bike. Speed and versatility are more important.

-Barry

 

[Tom Sherman]

Barry,

"B. Sanders" wrote:
> ... The SpeedRacer v6.2 is a bit more like the Festina or Sunset lowracers; but with 26" rear
> wheel and tiller steering....

My Sunset has a reasonable amount of tiller - enough to eliminate any high-speed "twitchyness", but
not enough to cause low-speed handling difficulties. It should be noted that my Sunset does not have
the stock (ugly) C-bars, but a RANS Flip-It hinge, inverted and cut down RANS LWB riser, and cut
down RANS T-bars installed by Earl "The 48-mph downhill Big Bent Brat" Russell.

> I've worked up a 20" x 16" version of the SpeedRacer, which I'm calling the Typhoon Racer,
> because it bears more than a passing resemblance to the Challenge Taifun. Here's a PDF of the
> current design:
>
> http://bsanders.net/TyphoonRacer1.3.pdf

Is the front wheel ISO 305-mm or ISO 349-mm and is the rear wheel ISO 406-mm or ISO 451-mm?

> Though it's perhaps not obvious, this design uses a mid drive jack wheel to step up the gearing
> ratios. Currently, I'm thinking of just having it be a static jackwheel setup; but I could make it
> a variable-ratio mid-drive, like the Rotator Tiger, Trek R200, Longbikes Eliminator, and many
> others. Seems like a good way to allow the use of off-the-shelf cranks and cassettes to get useful
> gear ranges....

With a 13/20 step-up jackshaft, a 44/32/22T Deore crankset, an 11-34T Megarange cassette, and a
47-406 Comp Pool tire on the drivewheel, I have a gear-inch range of 19-120, which should be
adequate for anything in East Central Illinois. Shifting is also much better than that on most other
recumbents.

Tom Sherman - Quad Cities USA (Illinois side) Various HPV's