I wanted to build a chopper for my second bike-building adventure, inspired by 4th Horsemans "Blingatron" chopper which I had stumbled upon a picture of at Chopperbicycle.net. I loved the stance on Eric's chopper, and the clean lines of the body, I knew I couldn't put in the money (or skill) Eric did creating Blingatron, but I thought if you're going to build a chopper, you should please yourself, so I did :~) I started with the tire, a 180/55/17in Dunlop cycle tire I found used for $50, I built the center section into the 17in Chrysler rim with some 1/4in plate. $99 for a Walmart 20in "X Games" bike gave me a set of disc brakes, a crank with a good stroke length for myself, front shocks, front wheel, rear hub and freewheel amonst other pieces. I would say I spent no more than $300 on this bike. The Bike took about 5 weeks of my free time to build (weekends basically). I'm not a "trekkie" per se, but I grew up watching Star Trek, and I had planned on painting the bike with stainless steel epoxy, after the bike started coming together I got a few "jeeze it's huge" comments, I then decided to call her the Enterprise :~) Many basic bike hacking tips were used from Brad Graham's "Overkill" download from Atomic Zombie for my build, although I have been welding for over 30 years, Brad's plans truly got me going in the right direction. You can check out more of the build pictures at my website. Thanks Jim, BR&K rules!! |
Jack Mann: The Enterprise |
I wanted to build a chopper for my second bike-building adventure, inspired by 4th Horsemans "Blingatron" chopper which I had stumbled upon a picture of at Chopperbicycle.net. I loved the stance on Eric's chopper, and the clean lines of the body, I knew I couldn't put in the money (or skill) Eric did creating Blingatron, but I thought if you're going to build a chopper, you should please yourself, so I did :~) I started with the tire, a 180/55/17in Dunlop cycle tire I found used for $50, I built the center section into the 17in Chrysler rim with some 1/4in plate. $99 for a Walmart 20in "X Games" bike gave me a set of disc brakes, a crank with a good stroke length for myself, front shocks, front wheel, rear hub and freewheel amonst other pieces. I would say I spent no more than $300 on this bike. The Bike took about 5 weeks of my free time to build (weekends basically). I'm not a "trekkie" per se, but I grew up watching Star Trek, and I had planned on painting the bike with stainless steel epoxy, after the bike started coming together I got a few "jeeze it's huge" comments, I then decided to call her the Enterprise :~) Many basic bike hacking tips were used from Brad Graham's "Overkill" download from Atomic Zombie for my build, although I have been welding for over 30 years, Brad's plans truly got me going in the right direction. You can check out more of the build pictures at my website. Thanks Jim, BR&K rules!! |
