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Kids' bikes with 20-inch wheels are abundant at the dump and yard sales, especially the cheap steel frame units. These bikes not only take a beating, but they are outgrown in a year or two, so you will probably find a lot of them at your favorite scrap yard or city dump. These frames are easy to chop, and 20-inch bikes make great choppers, but unless you are only 4 1/2 feet tall, there won't be much leg room on one of these bikes.
The problem of size is compounded even more if the head tube angle is taken back to add more rake, as this pushes the handlebars even closer to the seat. At this point, your only option is to move the seat higher or farther back, creating either a goofy looking chop, or a flying death trap that pulls uncontrollable wheelies on so much as a sneeze.
To get a little more leg room on a chopper made from kid's 20-inch frame, two frames will be joined together in order to move the bottom bracket further up. The head tube will also be pushed forward, allowing for a nice long set of forks to be installed without creating a super tall wheelie machine.
More cool projects can be found at: http://www.chopzone.com and
http://www.atomiczombie.com
The problem of size is compounded even more if the head tube angle is taken back to add more rake, as this pushes the handlebars even closer to the seat. At this point, your only option is to move the seat higher or farther back, creating either a goofy looking chop, or a flying death trap that pulls uncontrollable wheelies on so much as a sneeze.
To get a little more leg room on a chopper made from kid's 20-inch frame, two frames will be joined together in order to move the bottom bracket further up. The head tube will also be pushed forward, allowing for a nice long set of forks to be installed without creating a super tall wheelie machine.
More cool projects can be found at: http://www.chopzone.com and
http://www.atomiczombie.com
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The sacrificial lamb is a typical steel girl's frame 5-speed bike (Photo 1), fresh from the garbage heap at the local dump. For this project, you will need two 20 inch frames, and the components to make one complete bicycle. Depending on how you join the frames, the condition of the front half of one frame and the rear half of the other may not be important, as you will soon see.
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You dont want wide wheels ?
http://static.flickr.com/60/162009890_726f28e588.jpg
I've been thinking of ways to stretch this and make it more ridable. I was planning on extending the stays, but some variation of the above will work much better.
Your book was what got me started on hacking bikes. I'm currently saving up parts to turn this: http://static.flickr.com/65/169664786_385a81144c.jpg into a hammerhead.
You rock!
http://flickr.com/groups/orangebicycles/