fenderbender

That's a sweet looking rig. Love that nifty rear lamp mount too!
I have a straight gauge cro-mo 80's mtb that just beg for a similar treatment. Wonder if a 24" kids mtb rear would be better way to go. Position the top rack further down and lower the gears too. Time to start scavenging for parts, not to mention 'time' I guess!

thehum

i was inspired by all these great ideas, so here's my first iteration of the longtail bike I put together yesterday from inside my cramped college dorm room:

the bolts holding on the rear triangle were rusted on so tight I stripped them of any use so I resorted to my trusty old hack saw. Also had to drill out the inside a bit to get the axle bolt to fit:

Home depot square aluminum tubing for triangle beam:

washers and bolts:

put together:

all done! for now...


Still have to:
-get some racks and a skateboard deck like others have to make a roomy platform
-maybe fabricate some runners so I can haul bigger cargo on the side.
-rear derailleur (with bolt on hanger)
-rear brakes

edit:
-added racks commissioned from my other bikes
-zip tied my huuuge duffel bag by the straps to one side to hold boatloads of stuff or tow bikes(something I havn't tried yet)
-extended brake cable and cut longer housing to make rear brakes work.

with racks:


a bunch of junk I had lying around (helmet, sneakers, snowboard boots, statistics textbook, laundry detergent, bivy, cd binder):


and all that junk packed up nicely:


I used heavy duty zip ties on the end handles, then zip tied one main handle on the other side, while using a bungee on the other main handle.


JB weld on the frayed and intertwined extended brake cable (holding up very well so far).

HSean

Feast your eyes on this!


Yeah, it aint a longtail... YET! This is what I plan on useing to my next Intrest unique Longtail!
Yes! it shall be very odd and wonderfull and everyone shall look att it and go Ouu Wtf?! lol

Edit: Oh also Nice start on your home build Xtra TheHum, if you want odd ideas ask me lol

HSean

Here it is, this is the temp basic shape of it, I got some odd plans for this bike.

alanf

What do they drive like?

Sixty Fiver

My longbike has a 64 inch wheel base and rides like a dream... with bigger tyres it would get even smoother than it is with 26 inch mtb wheels with 2 inch tytres.

It does handle like a bus though...

Sixty Fiver

badmother... That is one of the coolest and most beautiful builds I have ever seen.

You just raised the bar a few notches.

I also have a weak spot for border collies.

Grim

Read this thread about 6 months ago. Loved the idea Just never had a bike to do it with. Well I had a bike I picked up thinking of flipping come into my stables. Its a 1995 Proflex Arcadia full suspension MTB made out of 4130 CroMo.
The bike is down because the rear suspension is Elastomer spring and the only place that seems to have them is in Scotland. $30 for the bike was well worth it for the full Acera bits and Mavic Rims but add the money for the Spring and it is not worth fixing for the flip when the most I could hope to get out of a old bike like that is maybe $125. I could make the same profit parting it. So I started to think about parting it and using the rims as spares/offroad for my M400 C-Dale. Well this thread popped back in my mind as something this bike may lend itself to.

The good points I see is the rear suspension A frame bolts onto the BB Where most of the home brew bikes in this thread use a hard tail MTB and then uses the original rear drop outs to mount off of. That looks to make for about 16 inches of stretch. In some ways it makes for a lot of clutter and extra weight.

What I am going to do is build a T bracket that will be more like how a Big Dummy is Set up. With the top fork (seat stays) being hinged it is easy enough for me to lean them forward for a low rack height. I can also make the extension any length that I want. I could make it 35 inches if I want. In this case I am actually going to go a little shorter then most of the bikes in this thread and only make a 10 inch extension of wheel base and center the load over the rear wheel more so as not to add a lot of loaded weigh to the front suspension.

I'll make the extension parts out of thin wall mild steel since I can weld that easy enough. I hope to add less then 10lb to the bike's weight. It will be totally reversible if I decide to buy the Elastomer spring.

I don't know when I will get to this as I have a lot of projects in line but I who knows I may have enough steel in the garage to do this sooner then later.

IR Baboon

Here's my completed home-made longbike. Inspiration courtesy of mplsmtb, thank you for giving me some great ideas! She'll never win any beauty contests, but she rides well. I still have a few things I'd like to do before I'm completely satisfied, but I took her on a shakedown ride today and was mostly satisfied. A good smooth ride to be sure, and it handles better than I thought. Comments welcome, if you want more, or detailed pictures, just let me know and I can probably oblige.

https://2.bp.blogspot.com/_wtE0EuoAla...h/PICT0389.JPG

After I get it all perfect, I think I'll paint it green.

Sixty Fiver

I got a new horn and installed some Schwalbe Marathons so now I can drag race roadies.



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We had our annual all day bike festival yesterday and I hauled most of the shop down like I did last year and sent quite a few folks out for test rides... a fellow with an Extracycle said my longbike handled better than his bike which he said had some tail wagging tendencies.

IR Baboon

Sixty Fiver-

I noticed that you have kept the rear derailleur on the "front" bike. Do you notice any particular advantage there? Chain tension perhaps? I'm just curious as I can't stop messing with my version.

Sixty Fiver

I moved the stock derailer to the rear (Shimano Acera) and used an old Suntour Honour as an idler... because it is an open cage rear d I can remove the chain and run without it and found that the bike runs more smoothly with than without and keeps the chain up a little higher.

It adds a little chain tension which also aids in shifting but does make a little bit of noise... it is lined up with the middle of what is an 8 speed cassette.

Sixty Fiver

I did a mechanic's workshop tonight and the longbike got a fair bit of attention and just about everyone who attended took the bike for a spin... everyone had good things to say about the ride, stability, and how what has to be a pretty heavy bike felt so light and fast.

I am often asked how much the bike weighs so tonight when I got home I used the bathroom scale and found that I have a 47 pound bike which now includes a new front rack, generator, and headlight.

On that note... I was carrying a good amount of gear tonight and had the front paniers loaded up and found the handling on the bike was incredibly stable at all speeds and there were a few screaming descents during my ride through the valley today.

My next mod will be to add an electric assist as my friend gave me one of several ZAP motor kits he picked up from a local dealer when they stopped carrying them... I would really like to add a Bionx to my longbike but that will have to wait a little while.

Sixty Fiver

From today... we had to get dressed up a little for the silly summer parade.

You can never have enough lights...

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And streamers...

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longbike09sillyparade.jpg
My new generator...

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With the trailer I was 16-17 feet long...

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I love this bike... I figure I have ridden it 50 miles in the past few days.

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fenderbender

Great looking build! Hmm, those brightly coloured ribbons make me smile!
Both funny looking and a good way to catch car drivers attention i must say. Have you tried to "surf" it yet? Looks like the board is in the way a bit. How did you fit the hooks of the bags to the rack?

Sixty Fiver

I have indeed surfed off the back of my bike for some goodly distances...

Those are sling type motorcycle bags that have no hooks and when I have use hooked bags I tie their handles together to make them into sling bags... the hoks grab the deck pretty tightly and I have had no issue with losing them.

hopperja

Has anyone made (or considered making) one out of an Adams trail-a-bike, or some such similar attachment? Seems like any bike could easily be converted back and forth between a regular bike and a longtail in just seconds...

rtciv

These are nothing to do with me, but I don't think they've been featured in this thread yet:


https://www.flickr.com/photos/kennyraceboy-bikelord/



https://www.flickr.com/photos/kstoerz...7600037279838/

Sixty Fiver

As per numerous requests I finally took a few close ups of Stretch's skeleton...

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Sixty Fiver

And nekkid...

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Sixty Fiver

badmother - This bike is my truck so gets used a lot for hauling things to and from my shop, for shopping, and in yesterday's case we were going on a picnic.

It is a smooth and comfortable bike that just got better with the addition of some leather upholstery...

corkscrew

Now that mine is operational, I thought I'd add to this great thread. Still need to find a skateboard deck, place my rear lights in better places, and other little stuff.

HSean

Skateboards can be aquiered easly, find skateboarders. they buy boards offten when they beat theirs up. or thrift stores of even walmart ones lol you might even find a use for the other left over parts from it one day, since i'm posting here I decided I shall tell you all first, I'm bringing ApocoCycle back from the dead. how well liked was apococycle? nice people left notes on it saying it should die... they actualy did it! what did it ever do to deserve that!?

badmother

Show us the Apoco, can not remember any dying utility bikes

HSean

This is the Apococycle. when it died I was hardly ever posting in this thread so I most likely never mentioned it. anyway in the main utility threat theres a post on Mr Apoco himself. i've gathered the needed parts! well many of em