Sculch

Ralph Nader put an end to these type of bike once along with stick shifts on the top bar of those Schwinn Sting Ray's. Here is a few of mine.





Last one is a Wobbly John clone I made, a good way to build them.

Sculch

LesterOfPuppets

Why the backwards stems on the last 3?

mustachiod

wut?

Sculch

Because these were made after the first one. I found that some of these bikes needed leverage to run them and trying them the other way gave it a different feel. I never paid much attention to the first bike and I don't know why I didn't change that one. The blue Vista is the one I ride all the time. Does anyone else here ride these?

Sculch

mustachiod

just watched some videos, do they always swerve or is it possible to ride in a straight line? so far it looks like a fun toy for a closed course, but a great way to be hit by a car if ridden on the street

LesterOfPuppets

I rode one in the streets and lived to tell about it. Yep, you can ride one with the wheels in line, takes a bit of concentration to keep 'em in line, but close enough for government work is no problem.

Sculch

Yeah you can ride them in a straight line but I don't know why. It is a great way to get hit by a car.

hairnet

I love these. A while back my friend's only functioning bike was his swing bike

unterhausen

this thread reminds me that I need to go finish my swing bike. I got halfway done building it and decided I wanted to do things differently.

Dave Armstrong

I built one a few years ago, I like watching people try to ride it for the first time. This one was a trial and error. The two pivot points are not paralell so when it swings the seat leans back. I have an orginal swingbike frame I bought off of Craigslist for twenty five bucks. The seatpost is the only thing I need to put it together.

lz4005

I used to have a swing bike that only swung to one side. Ok, it was a folding bike with a broken locking mechanism for the hinge. But I still rode it. Not as fun as swinging both ways. (bad joke in 5...4...3.......)

Doug5150

The commercially-made ones I saw (~30-odd years ago) had a locking latch for the rear wheel that kept it from swinging if you wished.
~

Black Sunshine

I there a problem with crushing your inside leg when you first learn? Or is this the least of your worries?

What about tall swing bikes? I want to see some pics of those.

KOTA

This guy "sculch" is a master builder. I've seen him and his swing bikes in person. If you EVER wanted to know anything about tall bikes or swing bikes, this is the guy to ask. His daughter makes it look easy, but rumor has it he made her a swing tricycle when she was TWO.......He started teaching me how to ride one last year, but I'm a slow learner. I'm gonna do it this year!

katcorot

I try'd one this last summer during our Velopalooza event (vancouver, bc). Was instantly hooked. Now I need to build one for myself.

unterhausen

my impression is that for stability you want the rear head tube angle to be more laid back than the front head tube angle. That makes the seat go up as you swing

Dave Armstrong

The one I built I thought it was a problem that the seat leaned back as the front would swing. I have an orginal swingbike frame, I think the two pivot points are paralell. I'll have to take another look at it, I'll post a picture.

unterhausen

I think that's true of the original swing bikes, and may be enough. The one I've had access to is shown in this video:

Sculch

When you were a kid how did you learn, did you crash? Same thing here, there may be leg crushing involved.

About the pivots being the same......I've tried different angle approaches and they all made the bike handle differently. The very unstable ones I redid. There is the old Schwinn swing bikes have pivots opposite in angle from each other. I have never had a ride on one of these. The Blue Vista that I ride now was very unstable when I first rode it but now I find that I like it. You need the bike to be a little unstable or it would suck the fun out of it.

.....and KOTA, as I remember you nearly took off the side of a Lexus. You didn't and I'm happy for ya!

Sculch

crazzywolfie

its not like it would be that hard to build a lock to stop it from swinging. this makes me want to build one.