Building a "Dixie" bike

[CDoherty95]

Hey y'all

It was suggested to me back in November that I call my white ladies racer Dixie. Somehow Dixie just didn't seem right for that bike.

I recently got back into recumbent bikes. They're bikes that you sit back on and the pedals are infront of the handlebars. Unfortunately they are really expensive so I decided to build one myself.

Here's a picture of what I'm basing mine on

I started searching,an found someone selling three kids bikes for €20 total!

The one on the left is going to supply the handlebars,pedals,front forks,chain and wheel.

The middle one is going to be the main bike that I sit on.

The one on the right is going to donate it's axles to help hold the forks of the black bike to the frame of the middle bike.

So far I've managed to fit the forks into the seat post of the black bike. Unfortunately I can't do any cutting at the moment because I haven't got any cutting disks. Hopefully I can get a few this weekend.

I'll post more pictures as I go along. My goal is to have it painted and ready to use by Easter. And I was thinking of going with the Dixie paint job for this bike,seen as I've already got a General Lee and Rosco bike

[HossC]

That's an interesting new project you've got there. I knew a guy who used to build and ride these 25 years ago. At the time I'd never seen anything like them. I got a chance to ride one about 10 years ago. They say you never forget how to ride a bicycle, but you have to learn again on one of these .

I understand that cost dictates the use of an old bike as a starting point, but the height of the seat makes it look like it'll have a high center of gravity for this type cycle.

[CDoherty95]

the height of the seat makes it look like it'll have a high center of gravity for this type cycle.

The biggest bike I'm using has an 18 inch wheel (my General Lee has 26's) so I'm practically sitting on the ground.

I've got a little bit of previous experience building and riding recumbents. Back in September I built one using my dads old (and very heavy) mountain bike and another (very heavy) mountain bike.

With this one the pedal system was connected to the front wheel and forks,so I had to steer with my feet. This,combined with the overall weight (something like 5.5 stone,the average bike weighs under 2.5) made for a very hard to ride and dangerous bike. I ended up parting it out and scrapping the frames.

However on the new bike,the pedals are independent from the steering, there's less metal hence less weight, and I'm making the new seat out of a wooden frame with a plastic office chair.

[CDoherty95]

I had a free hour this afternoon, so I mounted the pedals to the main frame.

This process only took about an hour total,including drilling the holes,measuring everything up, and bolting everything together.

Here's a shot of the a rear gear system I had lying around from one of my donor bikes. The chain is going to feed through this, and will also act as as a tension system.

The only flaw in the slaw with all of the bikes is that they all only had one gear on the pedals. So I mounted this other cog from another bike I stripped.

I know there's only one bolt on it in the picture, but the drills battery ran out before I could drill into the original cog.

Hopefully I can spend Saturday afternoon working on it,and if I do I should hopefully get the frame and mechanics completed.

[CDoherty95]

Well today I finally got a couple of new cutting disks, and I managed to cut away all the excess frame

Some of the excess frame left over

[CDoherty95]

One more angle

"But wait",I hear you cry,"in the first pictures you have three bikes and no you only have two. What happened to the little red bike??"

Unfortunately that bike was beyond salvagable. I soaked all the bolts and stuff in oil but no luck. The rust was so bad that the saddle collapsed when I sat on it.

I decided to turn it into modern art,by cutting it down the middle to make it look like it was emeded in the wall

And finally...

Anyone remember the post I left a few weeks about me making a mini Dukes movie? The final scene calls for Rosco's bike to crash off a cliff. Since filming that scene I've left the wrecked frame in my back yard. I had already stripped it of everything worth stripping before turning it into a Rosco replica, so it wasn't loosing me money by sitting around.

I half forgot about it until today,and it seems the weather has taken it's toll on the bike

[CDoherty95]

Paper and tape aren't exactly famous for their waterproof qualities...

The front forks which obtained most of the damage during filming. When I first left it outside,there was no rust or missing paint on any of the frame

[CDoherty95]

I had some free time today so I did a little work on Dixie.

I fitted the BMX handlebars,the back chain,and the support for the seat.

You can see roughly how it will look when it's done.

I finally finished drilling the holes for the new cog.

[CDoherty95]

And one more of part of the seat bracket

I've got two weeks Easter holidays now,so hopefully I can get up to speed on all the different projects.

[CDoherty95]

Hey guys

I went out earlier today to do a little more work on the bike, but unfortunately because I left it outside for so long and because we've had mostly bad weather for the last few weeks, the pedals and cranks seized up. Rather than scrap the entire bike I just removed the seized pedals, and fitted a saddle to the end of a spare set of handlebars to use as an extended seat post. The result is this

I haven't taken it far yet, just a spin around the block, but it's a nippy little bike that would probably be ideal for cycling in Dublin city.

I've also got a few bikes to paint, so once I'm finished school I can hopefully get them all done.