One Saturday after noon,
after a couple cold beers,
while I was looking for something to do for my next project I spotted the wife's 25 year old ten speed 24 inch wheeled 26 inch bike, that she hadn't ridden in over twenty years and remembered that I wanted to make a low ride chopper bicycle...

A few hundred hours latter here's what I built...

Here's what I planned...

Here's what I designed...

Here's some of the main fabrication...

Here's a couple of my best welds...

Here's some of the assembly fabrication...

Here's some of the painting details...

Here's some more pictures of my finished bicycle...

It took longer than I thought but turned out better than I expected,,, knowing from experience that it would be allot of work to experience the extra work I needed to go through before I could really learn what not to do again...

Except for deciding not to do the front brake for my own personal bike because the look is much cleaner besides being less work and that I do not go fast enough to need it, I have been true to my design. So far everyone who has ridden this bike has verified my design intent and is looking forward to seeing my finish fender and mounting bracket and a production version of my design.

Overall this low ride chopper bicycle turned out to be what I planned,,, it has the full-body rowing like physical work-out I hoped for and of course it has the cool factor to encourage riding...

This is actually my second custom bicycle I built. The first one when I was about 14 back in the sixties. It was not a low rider, it was a 26 inch boy's bike with 20 inch wheels, a banana seat with a very high sissy bar and extended front end with drag bars that I made from shopping cart tubing and my neighbor welded up for me. I remember that it was hard to pedal up big hills but was pretty fast on flat roads. I used it to do my newspaper delivery route and gave it away after I got my driver's license.

This one is a keeper and although I did not plan on building another one for a while, one of my neighbors has donated a seventies girl's 24" tricycle with the basket on the back. I'm thinking, peddle low rider trike with an electric motor assist . . .

Now I save the couple cold beers,
for after an hour or so ride...

As you can see, I made the bracket out of thin brass. I formed the shape like a shell and filled it with a two-part epoxy. I cut the fender from a larger one. I squeezed the mount end closer and opened the back end. I trimmed the back of the fender to look like a birds tail. Then filled, primed, sanded and sanded then painted the bracket and fender black, of course.

Now that I am truer to my design drawings with the rear fender added, I have to admit, the bike has a nice chopper styled finish look to it. I think I am actually finished with this one but you never know what the next season might inspire...