Is this makeover possible?

[Ivan]

Hello horizontal flyers!

I will be very gratefull if you could help me answer few questions about possible makeover of this single speed up to a recumbent.

I have Nazca tourer for more than a year now and am super happy with it. Plush touring machine.

But every winter I am working abroad in different town and this year to get to work and back I needed to purchase a bike.

Since it was very cheap,70e,and it is fast I have questions if this bike can be turned into recumbent with a help of good welder.
I don't know yet if it is steel or aluminium frame. 700c tires.
Since already bike is here and before going home in a few months I would like to know if I should take it home with me(100e transport) or try to sell it.

So, questions are:

-do you think this bike can be transformed into a front or rear wheel drive recumbent?

-if yes, can you say how much would it cost?

-if yes, how demanding it is for a average welder?

-what is needed?
Seat, different cassette, aero bars..


- some other suggestions?

Looking forward to your answers!!

Thanks,
and greetings
Ivan

 

[HenriP]

I don't think, there is such a thing as transforming a conventional bike frame to a recumbent. Scrap steel frames can be cut to get some tubes, rear triangle with dropouts and headtube, but you don't need to ship and destroy a perfectly good bike for that.
Real transformations are done with compact bikes, folding bikes, children's bikes (maybe BMX, too?).

Is the rear even wide enough and centered correctly to fit a normal wheel with cassette and does it have the mounts for a rear mech?

Something may still be doable with it, but it does not seem to make sense to me. But for me such a project rarely makes sense, so maybe I am not the one to judge anyway.

 

[wolfson]

Suche mal nach Beiträgen zu "MBB", die kann man auch auf Basis von normalen Fahrradrahmen bauen.

 

[Krischan]

makeover

Sams unvollendetes Velociped (MBB)

Auf Anregung von @Krischan an dieser Stelle starte ich hier mal das Thema meines coronamitbedingten Bauversuchs eines MBB Liegerades. Ich finde das Cruzbike s40 einfach toll und orientiere mich daher daran und an der Einfälle statt Abfälle Ausgabe für Chopper-Liegeräder. Ich versuche innerhalb...

www.velomobilforum.de

Vielleicht so?
Dein Schweißer sollte Dünnblech < 1,5mm schweißen können.
Viel Erfolg, Gruß Krischan

 

[HFKLR]

Ausfallende nach hinten zeigend ist gut für MBB, das ganze gekippt, dann zeigt das Ausfallende nach unten ähnlich einer VR-Gabel...

 

[tieflieger]

I do not think it would be worth your time and money. U can buy or collect some scrap or very low budget steel frames, buy an old steel frame with usable wheels, gears, and use those parts.

Most recumbents have a single very thick tube, these tubes are way to flimsy. U need a 3d spaceframe to work with thin tubing.

U can make many conventional recumbent designs with 40x40mm tubing, or use round tubing.

One could make a mbb design from a conventional frame, as Krischan points out.

 

[Ivan]

Ok, not the best idea.
I thought since I got bike cheap "I" could convert it to recumbent but obviously from your comments that it is harder to do it than I think.

Thanks for answers!

Pozdrav,
Ivan

 

[Krischan]

It is possible... I did it

LR - Krischans Grille - Flevo Racer à la Christian Kuhtz

So, liebe Liegenden, nach langer Zeit und bald 12 Mm stelle ich die fast 50 Baubilder meiner Grille ein. Mit heißer Nadel gestrickt und mit geringem technischen Aufwand wollte ich als Hommage an den ehrenwerten Kieler Christian Kuhtz, den großartigen Erfinder der "Einfälle statt Abfälle" -...

www.velomobilforum.de

Gruß Krischan

 

[Ivan]

Oh wow detailed "how to", thanks..

 

[Marc]

@Ivan have a look at these.

Recycled Recumbents!

BUILD YOUR OWN! PARTS FOR SALE! (Frames...Kits) THE SHOWROOM!! (for complete bikes)

sites.google.com

Recycled Recumbents! - General Notes

BEFORE YOU BEGIN - GENERAL NOTES Other plans exist. These plans go farther than Gardner Martin’s book and sketches, or the other clone plans available on line, to describe the process, the salvage of parts, the measurements for a great bike, and the new hardware you need to make a great long

sites.google.com

 

[Aslan]

@Ivan
Also have a look at these models built by @HFKLR - I'm sure he'll tell you details how he built them.

The small one (20") is now mine; you can see its further development in my thread.

 

[Dan]

If you have a bit powerfull legs and are not afraight of a 40 pound bike you can also try these without welding:

LR - Dan's Eigenbau MBB "Mid-Cruzer"

Statt dessen hab ich an meinem gut fahrenden MBB noch bissl herumprobiert.: 1) mir scheint an dieser Stelle wichtig, dass (vereinfacht) der Gesamtschwerpunkt Fahrer+Fahrzeug beim Einlenken nicht absinkt - wenn ich meine Beine (ca. 20kg) beim Lenken knicke, hebe "ich" da schon mal 10kg ein Stück...

www.velomobilforum.de

the final version - for how-to read from the beginning..
intermediate parts catalogue:

LR - Dan's Eigenbau MBB "Mid-Cruzer"

Kleines Update - 17 Wheels to France - and back... Wir waren mit Kindern, Kegeln und Rädern bis vor 2 Wochen im Heimatland des Kougin Amann* - der Bretagne! (*bretonisch für Butterkuchen) Haben aber leider kein einziges anderes LR gesehen, nur unsere... Geschafft haben wir 180km an 7 Radtagen...

www.velomobilforum.de

and the predecessor:

Selbstbau MBB "Highracer"

Ich halte @Nemberch für recht erfahren in MBB Konzepten. Vielleicht magst Du das Konzept seines Rads zu den Punkten vergleichen, die Dir bei Deinem Konzept auffallen? https://www.velomobilforum.de/forum/index.php?threads/mbb-mit-verstellbarer-rahmengeometrie-und-federung.44810/

www.velomobilforum.de

 

[Thomas Neubauer]

Ausfallende nach hinten zeigend ist gut für MBB

aber ein Schaltwerk ist nicht vorgesehen, singlespeed halt. Dürfte dazu ca. 120mm Klemmbreite haben.
Und dann noch diese Pseudobremse.....

Ich weiß nicht.

 

[Ivan]

Thank you for your suggestions guys.
After thinking about it and watching YouTube, I "found" compromise between having fwd and not to butcher bike too much or at all.
https://youtu.be/o1HQ5sMg6LM

I also made professional technical drawing of a makeover.

Please tell me it is doable!

Thanks,
Ivan

 

[Sam Hari]

Get a magnet and find out if it's a steel frame. This will increase your chances by a lot.

If it's steel you can put the rear dropouts in a vise and make your standard front wheel fit. But still you have to make a new frok triangle. Take your time and read, because there is a lot to f* up. You may need another donor-frame to get additional tubing and dropouts for the front wheel.

 

[Ivan]

Thanks @Sam Hari!
Tested it with fridge magnet and it is sticky.

Ok, find extra frame.. that shouldn't be to hard.
But what kind of frame?
Steel offcourse. MTB or BMX or?
@Sam Hari when you say there is a lot to f.up, what would be most obvious mistakes?

Thank's too all of you with sharing your knowledge.

P.s.
I will write to these yutube guys maybe they can help.

It is obvious that I am clueless, right?

 

[Sam Hari]

yeah it's a steel frame you found!

And hey, l completely feel your cluelessness. it was the same for me tying to figure all that out. and for my limited but not inexistent experience on that subject l can't point out sth like a top5 things to avoid or so. let me try to vaguely swirl arround that sort of thing.

For the frame: just go for sth cheap and not too high quality because you get thicker tubing that way making it easier to weld. but the kind of frame depends on your height (more later).

Any fwd bike climbs better the closer to the front wheel you sit. lt seems to be a simple more weight more traction thing.
the closer your hip is to the headtube the easier driving curves becomes.
now you could think of just getting your behind right at the steerer-tube and get it all perfect that way ... yeah, maybe not. the higher and closer your body-mass is in relation to the front wheel ... the easier you flip over in case of an emergency-brake. so ... what ever is perfect - l don't know.
l tried to make a longer wheelbase to just reduce the load on the rear wheel that way. that's possible, too - but mine ended up on the long side which is only good for my use of strapping clunky stuff to the bike without having it to stick out to far beyond the rear wheel. lf you go for ~1,2m wheelbase, things are fine. much longer? nope.

Now your leg-length comes into play. If you have long legs or want a high bottom bracket you can need longer chain-stays - so a 28" trekking-bike frame may offer that even if you later use a smaller than 28" front-wheel. maybe you want a low bottom bracket (like l did for the ease off driving after a red light or sth.) - then you might go for a 26" mtb-frame or a roadbike-frame and put in a 28" wheel in it anyway. or you find a lady's step-through frame and think it may be easier to convert into the rear end of the bike you may like to build and use it like the taller wheeled one on the left in post #11 - who knows. and maybe you don't find a bike with long enough chain-stays ... the get some steel tubing and just make them long enough.

Now - the only narrow part where you can get your legs along is the steerer tube. depending on how wide your fork is. so the lower you want to sit the more you might want to take care your legs won't touch the fork/front triangle. a smaller front wheel may lead to a shorter fork and therefore more space here.

If you do not have any gears yet - maybe you like to get a shimano nexus 8-speed hub (!) with the roller brake (!). it's cheap and you have the brake further away from your legs compared with rim-brakes on the fork. an other idea would be mounting the front brake close to the bottom bracket - maybe on the side facing towards the ground. but the roller brake offers just a change in spokes, rim and tire in case you want to change to an other sized wheel later to adjust for any unwanted behavior of your bike. and that hub might go well with the horizontal dropouts of your funky fixie donor as well.

But take my advice with some healthy skepticism. l've just built two of those contraptions and therefore can't know all things for sure because there are lots of things l could just got right/wrong/mediocre by chance.
I know thats just a boring thing to say out of thin air so: here is a bunch of linked things (beside some off topic of course - hey it's a forum after all) where you get other peoples thoughts on how to do it. some are easily to be machine-translated making them maybe even well understandable in Croatian or what not.

And honestly: have fun with it. because these bikes really are a lot of fun.

 

[Ivan]

Hello
@Sam Hari
and big thank you for sharing your thoughts.

I will try to read as much as possible to see if I can actually involve myself in this.
Because I don"t want to find myself in that Czech cartoon "A je to".
I was thinking since I already have tourer Nazca, e bike, "I" could build fwd but only if it is doable from existing frame(+donor bike), wheels and
to invest very little money.
Bike70e, transport 100e,
but if it is extra costs that I am not aware than maybe better to buy recumbent from it's birth, not a transgender.( I guess it is a bad joke).

But hey! I just had idea why not rear wheel drive, just weld front boom, cut horizontal tube connecting head tube to seat post.
Lover it down, weld again horizontally.
On that horizontal tube seat would be attached.
Would that work?
I guess this way minimum work and transformation.

Thanks again @ Sam Hari for your and others explanations and opinions!

Ivan

 

[Ivan]

Hello reclined lovers,
I can't let go the idea to make recumbent from this bike.
I hope picture will help you to answer if you think this is doable.
I have real recumbent at home but I'm 2000 km away from it and this bike in picture I'm using to go to work. If I make recumbent from it I can explore Irish coast. For now bike is fast but uncomfortable.
So my question(s) are..
Is it possible to put wooden self-made seat under my bum? In picture seat should be in area between two wheels. In another words it should follow my body contour in picture.

Is it possible to instal this seat just by cutting horizontal pipe and putting it lower, so it is in same horizontal line as tires?
And offcourse to weld horizontal pipe lower( under my bum , in picture).
And if "I" weld pipe lower is bike going to be stiff enough? If not where do you suggest to put reinforcement?

And to weld horizontal pipe-boom in front. My legs are to high offcourse in picture. Bike is single gear and is usable only on flat but it is possible to instal gears since rear distance is enough (measured with meter).
I have old kids MTB as donor for bottom bracket and boom pipe.
Is this doable?
I even found welder, welding 50e.

Thank you for your answers!!

Ivan

 

[Sam Hari]

In general: Yes. but just cutting out the top-tube and leaving just the down-tube is probably not stable enough.