Atomic Zombie's AfterBurner Chopper Bicycle

Another easy and affordable project! Transform a standard bike into something cool and unique in just a day or two - seriously! This is a great garage or backyard project that doesn't require special tools or skills, although basic welding is required.

This classic 1970's style chop was named and built by Enzo and Nathan (father and son team) from an old mountain bike that was found laying in the mud at the city dump.

Instead of the extended front forks, this chopper is roughly styled after the classic Raleigh Chopper bicycle with the straight frame and tiny front wheel. This project requires no extra tubing in the frame, and except for a few small add-ons, only requires cutting and welding two frame tubes.

Any mountain bike with 26 or 24 inch wheels can be used for this project. Besides replacing the seat and handlebars, you will only need a front wheel of any size smaller than the original rear wheel. A 16-inch wheel was chosen for this build.

Health Hazard
All welding processes produce fumes and gases to a greater or lesser extent. Galvanized steels produce added fumes from the vaporized zinc coating. Fumes from welding galvanized steel can contain zinc, iron and lead. Use precautions, including high-velocity circulating fans with filters, good ventilation, air respirators and fume-extraction systems.

More cool projects can be found at: http://www.chopzone.com and
http://www.atomiczombie.com

Step 1: Find a donor bike

The donor bicycle is a typical variety steel framed mountain bike. This frame is described as "uni-sex", but looks kind of "girlie" to me. Don't worry about it, dude, when we are done, that won't be the case.

The overall condition of this bike was fairly good considering it sat in a mud hole at the local dump, and was probably run over a few times by the bulldozer guy. This is a good thing, since we will be using everything but the front wheel, seat and handlebars.

Comments

[bad apple]

all it needs now is a sissy bar. Awww, yeah.

[The nerdling]

i call them sissy bars too :)

[chevy79]

CLunstrum333, No it isn't, but I have built 2 of them so far. And thanks for noticing.

[sarliaee]

congratulations nathan! well done on building such a great bike!

[CLunstrum333]

They have a bike like this at the Boise bike Project here in Boise.

Just Curious: Is this the one in there?

[555mst555]

now i know why he needs such a big seat.....lol.....just a little of my thoughts

[nobby_sk8]

this is realy good and easy does any one now a way of modding some normal bars to make ape hangers? or a cheap web site

[I smell bacon]

I've done this once and it works allright. Take some regular 2-piece BMX bars and take out the middle piece. It may weaken them though it essentially makes ape hangers.

[lasersage]

I managed to buy some ape hangers for my girlfriends chop project at a bikers autojumble. I was after a new seat for a motorbike and spotted loads of ape hangers for between £5 and £10!!!! not bad. Autojumble is the way forward.

[I smell bacon]

Mountain bike!? the original bike had no suspension, how is that a mountain bike. Apart from that a pretty good instructable, I am hoping to do a similar thing with a BMX i found in a skip bin.

[lasersage]

You don't need suspension to class it as a mountain bike. The big knobbly tyres and gear range are enough

[mkamchin]

how much did it cost

[camb00]

http://www.chainreactioncycles.com/Models.aspx?ModelID=16897
found some handle bars and they come in black and a saddel allthough not a phat 1 but sure this would look sweet!
http://www.chainreactioncycles.com/Models.aspx?ModelID=27894

[Cam F]

The frame flips or turns in every pic!!! (~.~)

[KoolKat]

Translation: This could be very well called “How to ruin a bicycle that worked perfectly”. On the contrary. It was found at a landfill site about to be thrown into a pile of scrap metal and, no, it didn't work "perfectly".

[babyboi512]

ditto!! the other guy hu made a zombie bicycle is wayyy koool

[rimar2000]

Thank, Koolkat. I prefer the first approach of the bike. Sobre gustos no hay nada escrito (on inclinations not to have swum writing, http://ets.freetranslation.com/)

[pyroo5576]

i like all this kinda stuff but i cant weld is there ny thing else i can do?

[trebuchet03]

Do you take out the BBs when you work on it? I couldn't tell from th picture - but I didn't see the bearings in the disassembly picture... Just wondering if you have a method to remove it... I don't have a BB tool and I've destroyed one BB already with a vice and wrench :/ --- Still makes me wish I had/could afford a welder :P

[KoolKat]

The main point of this design is to show how to modify and invert the frame by flipping the front half upside down to extend the rake (steps 3 to 5). For more info. on bottom brackets, see http://www.utahmountainbiking.com/fix/bracket.htm

[KoolKat]

and http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bottom_bracket

[KoolKat]

and here http://www.sheldonbrown.com/gloss_bo-z.html#bottom - highly recommend spending some time on Sheldon's site. It's an awesome collection of info. on bike-related stuff. Use the search function to find specific info.

[spinach_dip]

You glossed over the brake, but hey that can't be too important. :P From the pictures it looks like it was added as an afterthought. It's in the last pic, but not the second-to-last one So that's one rear brake, right? I suppose it's not a road bike or anything. What's a BB? ball bearings?

[KoolKat]

Yep, one rear brake is all that this young builder wanted and he put it on mainly by himself, with a little help.

[trebuchet03]

Bottom Bracket ;)

[rimar2000]

Esto podría muy bien llamarse "Cómo arruinar una bicicleta que funcionaba perfectamente".

[trebuchet03]

Apparently you didn't see the chain beforehand :P