Cost so far: A$197.33 for two bikes

Day 1 Day 2 Day 3 Day 4 Day 5 More

So begins the saga of Andrew and myself building our Recumbents. We ride to work most days on our “Wedgies”. This is a total distance of approx. 17km’s each way. We both enjoy the riding but are sick and tired of the sore shoulders, neck, back, bum and of course are worried about the penile numbness that goes with a good long ride which we frequently do.

After a little research we came across this weird and wonderful looking cycle called a recumbent. This is for us we thought until we went and priced a couple from different locations. $3500 + is just a little out of my price range. So what is the next best thing a man should do - build one yourself of course.

No problems we thought except for one or two minor things. Neither of us had any engineering backrounds, nor had we ever attempted anything like this before. I tried to make a shoe rack once and stuffed that up, how was I going to go making a push bike.

Another problem - who was going to do the welding - not me I said, not me said Andrew. Well I took the bull by the horns, or the bike by the pedals and went and did a welding course at the local TAFE college. As luck would have it I am not to bad a Oxy - Welding (even if I must say so myself). I even found a reasonably cheap Oxy set at the local Pawn shop.

Enough procrastination we thought on Saturday 28 Nov. 98. This was the day that would start our journey into the unknown world of Recumbents. We decided that the project would be called “HOOK”. Why? good question which deserves an equally good answer. Unfortunately you will have to do with this one. Recumbents are called Bent for short - a Hook is bent, - get it -, also I think that one ride on the bents and we will be Hooked.

We have decided to build two SWB hooks. I am not sure yet weather it will be above seat steering or under seat steering. The truth be known I think it will be able to be fitted with both so I can change mine at will.

Anyway we actually got off our collective backsides and went out and bought the timber required for our seat and frame building jigs.

Suprisingly after not to much swearing and not to many hours HOOK’s seat welding jig is almost complete. Not a bad afternoons work at all. (stay tuned for the pictures)

Day Two

Sunday 06 December 98 was the day that Andy and I had set aside this week to continue work on the hook. We decided that first thing in the morning we would go off to WARR (Western Australian Recumbent Riders). This is were a group of bent riders from around Perth get together on a fortnightly basis at Gino’s coffee shop in Fremantle , tell lies and drink coffee.

Anyway we got there and no bloody WARR’ers, we got the week wrong - great start to the day. So we decided to visit Martin - the builder of the LOGO bent Trike (Check it out here). After drinking coffee and telling a few lies we headed for my workshop to continue work on the Hook.

Andrew and I finished off the seat welding jig in about 40 minutes. After a few high 5’s we moved on to the main frame welding jig.

Filled with a new found confidence we plowed right in, cut our pine to size and screwed the whole thing together. Well all I can say is that a blind Freddy could have probably made the thing squarer. So after unscrewing the whole thing again and then taking some care with it put the frame back together. It is maybe not the best looking thing around but it will certainly do the job.

We needed to make some blocks that were 4” x 2” x 5” with a 1 &3/4” hole drilled in the middle - easy, right. WRONG.

First off we could not cut the wood square with our power saw, then when we had given up on making it square and decided that if we just had the holes the same distance from the bottom we could lay a piece of straight pipe in it and then secure them to the jig. Great idea we though, but we could not figure out how to drill the pilot holes straight without a drill press.

My ingenuity came to the fore, I came up with the idea of using a house brick that had a hole in it the same size as the drill chuck. This idea was a failure.

Then Andy’s ingenuity kicked in and he said why don’t we take it to work and get the engineers to do it. HMMMM who made him so smart.

I did get him back though because I remembered a miter box I had tucked away in the shed and convinced him that it was a much better idea to cut new blocks by hand than it was to go to a friends place and pick up a Triton work centre so that we could cut square blocks with the power saw.

I mean really what is better than standing in a tin shed with no ventilation under the hot Australian sun and sawing 4x2’s by hand.

This completed we decided to call it a day, We may not have achieved a great deal today but we had plenty of laughs throughout.

Day 3

Sunday 13 December 98 was our day 3. We didn’t achieve much today except for building a couple more blocks to put on the main frame welding jig. Whilst we were screwing them into the jig Andrew said rub the screw through your hair and it will go in easier. Great I thought so after a quick trip to the medicine cabinet to fix up the hole I had in my head from sticking the screw in it by accident we finally got the whole thing screwed together.

we came to the point where we now need to buy some muffler pipe and have it bent (HMMM what a great name for a cycle) before we can continue. Unfortunately no muffler shops are open in our neck of the woods on a Sunday, so it will have to wait for a day during the week.

So not having too much to do Andrew and I drank some coffee whilst Andrew told me about his morning with Martin (The builder of the logo Trike) and a couple of potential customers.

I have to say that today was an absolute glorious day of about 36 degrees C (95f), sun shining and not a cloud in the sky, so when Andrew told me that he was glad that he was wearing sunnies up at Gino’s this morning I thought it was just because of the sun. What he really meant but was that there were plenty of good looking women getting around and not wearing to much either. You see Andrew took his wife Joanne with him (G).

Anyway enough of getting Andrew in trouble, we decided that we should practice our welding, as we are both novices. We started off good and just got better (after we turned down the amp’s on the welder and stopped making a sieve out of the metal) all afternoon. In fact I was so impressed with some of the welding I even began to think that the welding course I took at TAFE was beginning to pay off. Of course just as you get smart along comes a weld that you just want to bury in a big hole. OH well I thought - don’t get cocky.

Talking about getting cocky, Andrew made mention today that he was starting to understand the plans. About bloody time I thought to myself, at least now one of us understands them.

Today will probably be my last day working on HOOK for this year as my parents are coming for a visit for Christmas and since I have not seen them since Easter I want to spend as much time with them as I can.

Well have a merry Christmas and a safe new year. Come back about the 10th of Jan 99 to read more adventures of “HOOK”.

Day 4

Well after a wonderful Christmas break which actually went for a week longer than planned Andrew and I are back building our Hooks. Santa clause was really good to me this year he got me that drill press I wanted and the OXY set I needed.

During the Christmas break Andrew and I changed our minds and decided to build the bents out of Square tube, we did this because we are both engineering moron’s and thought it would be better to make the bike out of flat tube but then we changed our minds back again , then back again and we finally decided on round tube.

We came up with some really good ideas on how to make the hook out of square tube, although I guess for the time being they will have to remain untested. However I already have at least 2 other bent plans floating around in my head which I plan to bring to fruition at some stage but I suppose I had better finish this one first. <G>

We ordered all the tube bar the mainframe tube from Metaland in Rockingham. The guy their seemed genuinely interested in our project and helped us heaps, so if your in Australia use Metaland if you can.

The only problem we had was gettin 1 1/8” tube for the derailleur stem. Here is a tip, if you are using the bottom bracket out of an old bike, instead of cutting the tube that already has the derailleur stem on it off flush with the bottom bracket, leave it on and use it. This saves mitering a tube. When it comes to welding on the bottom bracket just line up the derailleur stem at the angle you want it, ie. 65 degrees

We bought our mainframe tube from “Gary” at Toms Tyres Muffler Center in Rockingham. Gary was a real big help, he stopped working on the car he had on the hoist and attended to our needs on the spot, he cut and bent the mainframe in a matter of minutes and then came the biggest shock when I went to pay for the frames. Two frames, cut to length , bent to 21 degrees on the spot no waiting and all for the measly price of A$15.00. That’s $7.50 per frame WOW.

I highly recommend Toms Tyres Muffler center to all you budding and experienced bent builders.

Ok enough of the free publicity. Andrew and I rushed home with all of our goodies, put them in my shed and I promptly cut my index finger on the burrs left over from the tube cutting. After much swearing and bleeding I got settled and back into the building.

How much did we get done today, well not much because of the limited time we had available, 1 1/2 hours was it. But wait till tomorrow.

Day 5

Day 5 dawned a beautiful day, even if it did start a bit early. Can you tell that Andy and I are committed to building the bike here it was a Sunday Morning and we started work at 6.45am.

After 2 swiftly downed cups of Java of I went to the shed, shouting at my son Robert “Boil the jug and keep the coffee’s coming son.” At least he boiled the water but that was as far as he got.

Today we achieved heaps.

Firstly we drilled the head tube hole in the jig top. (Did you know that once you use a holesaw it gets very hot and can easily burn your finger’s. I do NOW, but the silver lining to the burn was that the cut I got yesterday was now seared closed.)

Again after much swearing and tantrum throwing we ovalized the main frame in readiness for the bottom bracket shell fitting.

There was much consternation happening as to, firstly, which way to ovalize the tube and secondly how to make sure it was perpendicular to the chain stay.

Straight forward I hear you say, well maybe so but remember we are not exactly mental giants at the best of times let alone when it comes to engineering matters. Anyway the ovalizing was finally carried out but not without us having to invent a simple jig to ensure that the main frame was level and perpendicular to where the chain stay holes are going to be.

What we did was put the mainframe tube in the vise at the required height then made sure that it was level, we then measured the distance from the underside of the tube to the workbench top and cut up 3 pieces of wood that height. Then with the tube sitting on these, one near the vise, one near the bend in the mainframe and the last one at the chain stay end of the tube. With the tube sitting flush on all these three pieces of wood it was exactly horizontal and therefore it would (in theory) be square.

Andrew and I then made the bottom bracket shell support block, this is to hold the bottom bracket in the required position for welding (I’d like to see that). We agonised over this for a long time. Not because it was hard to do but because it was hard to do for US. However with some effort and “Fine” chisel work by Andrew we got a bracket that will (Hopefully - sorry Andy) do the job.

We then mounted the derailleur stem support blocks and cut and drilled the idler bracket support block.

HMMM when you type it out it doesn’t seem like 4 hours work at all. I must have been the 20 minutes Andrew spent trying to retrieve a piece of plastic from the bottom of the drill press with a screwdriver through the top, when all that had to be done was lift the drill press and get the plastic bit from the bottom (Oh well it was and early start).

Oh I nearly forgot we also invented some brackets to hold the mainframe whilst we drill it to fit the bottom bracket. We called these “Sunday brackets” (Original Huh) because today is Sunday. Basically this “Sunday bracket” is a piece of 2 x 4 with a 1 3/4” hole drilled in the middle and then cut in half. The mainframe is then placed between the two halves and the whole lot is then clamped to the drill press base. The mainframe doesnt move and you get an nice even saw cut. (Not bad for a couple of technical moron’s)