Mountain Lion Chopper Bicycle

It's always fun when building a chopper from a complete bicycle to keep some of the original character in the bike. Like one of the other choppers we built, Granny's Nightmare, I try to keep the theme of the original mountain bike in this chopper, The Mountain Lion.

To create a chopper rebellious to the "normality" of every day life, yet still claim to be worthy of trail riding, one will need a heavy mountain bike with front suspension. Where does one find a scrap suspension mountain bike? The city dump of course! That's where many Atomic Zombie Extreme Machines krew members find all kinds of parts for their creations. Atomic Zombie Extreme Machines

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

Step 1 Find a donor bike and take it apart

All the little bits came apart nicely, and there was no damage to the frame, wheels or bearings. For this chopper, I planned to use all of the parts, so it's a good thing nothing was bent. When you hunt for donor bikes at your local landfill site, you have to get there right before closing, or the "bulldozer man" will turn all the usable bicycle salvage into twisted piles of unrecognizable scrap.

Comments

[letsgoboilermakers]

@koolcat. what do you do with the gears on the bike? also can you do an instructable on how to make a suicide brAKE? PLEASE! you should also try making a tricycle chopper. that would be cool! once I find a donor bike im definately making one of these. thanx!

[Aron313]

Do a wheelie!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[husamwadi]

http://www.instructables.com/id/Mountain-Bike-Chopper/

I made a mountain bike chopper

[Barrettkg]

To anyone: is butt welding that main tube the safest solution? I have 2 identical bikes which i am going to transform into one chopshop bike but the main tube is oblong making butt welding my only option. I was just afraid that there would be too much stress on the weld. Thanks for your time

[husamwadi]

It worked for me

http://www.instructables.com/id/Mountain-Bike-Chopper/

[husamwadi]

I am in the process of building a chopper, I don't know how far along you are, but i will answer some of your concerns.

I used butt welding to weld the forks together, which i now realize is a bad idea.

I think there is too much stress on the forks.

I have to find a way to reinforce the forks now.

Hope that answers your question

[husamwadi]

Hi, do you know if butt welding the forks will hold?

Thx for answering

[pyro1324]

 i personally think that the pedals should be more at the front. so i'm probably follow you're instructions to the point with the pedals position till summer.

[j0nathan]

 thanks so much for the instructable

this is my one, i did most of the welding but am still learning the structural part. notice the awesome suspension. yes,i know it dosent work but it looks great!!!!

j0nathan

[dwele]

Hey
How inches do you cut the tubes?
thanks

[superhubbardman]

how did you get the gears to work? did you make the wire longer and just reattach it or what?

[camb00]

maaaaaaan i need a welder but there expensive

[Danish M1Garand]

Buy a Lincoln "Tombstone" My dad bought one USED in 1963 or 1964 left it outside till the case rusted away. I rebuilt the case with a metal box from work. I will have to decide which Grandson gets it in my will. A new one cost 270.00 USD. Very cheap when you break it down by the month.

[sthealthraider]

nope just look goods and you find 100 dollar 60 dollar ones

[2 stroke]

i got my stick welder for 40bucks it was on sale for 50 i had a 20 percent off coupon and i got it great welder

[bob.smitty]

harbor freight has some for as little as 99 bucks. no excuses!

[mkamchin]

can you have people weld parts for you?

[buildingteen]

if ur worried about that failing u dont have anything to worry about my front fork is an old lawnmower handle. at least its the old iron ones though not these pos aluminum ones u can bend on your knee. and the one thing i would like to see is a chopper with a motor on it like what im aiming for. although i do need some help on my clutch search CONE CLUTCH to see my forum post and also if u have any ideas that i could use for it.

[jward92]

ZOMG!!!1! I found one wit a motor

[I smell bacon]

Ive been planning a motorized chooper bike, I first of all had a crazy electric motor idea, but i thought a regualr engine would run better with a clutch and all.

[killerjackalope]

Did you ever get a clutch? if so where, I'm building a motorbicycle too and am in dire need of a clutch to get everything ready to go...

[buildingteen]

Unfortunately the chopper took a back seat to kiting and hang glider design for a while but I hope to get up to a scrap yard/motorcycle shop to get a serpentine cog in the size I need. IDK if you have ever taken apart a snowblower but the clutch is very simple and I am recreating that. Just pull the side panel off and you will see what I mean, or perhaps google snowblower clutch. It is a loose belt over 2 wheels and a 3rd wheel on a swing arm, so when you pull on the cable attached to the 3rd cog it swings up and puts tension on the belt and engages it. What kinda engine are you putting on it? Good luck, Nick

[killerjackalope]

No such thing as a snowblower in Ireland I suspect, we have little snow etc... I'm sure that could be done and if not, I could hijack a centrifugal clutch out of something to preserve as much natural bike function. I'm putting as big an engine as possible in, either one that just fits or the biggest I can find, probably the 12hp compressor engine at the moment, it's very big but quite old, If I found a newer engine of similar power it would be smaller and lighter... good luck with designing a hang glider that sounds like a cool project

[Who Needs Brakes]

Mate i had a mountainbike with a still FS86 Brushcutter on it, it done 55-60 Kph allong the road & i got it up to 95+ going down hills, the set up is quite simple, but i did have to brace the frame, go for it there a buzz to ride, might convert it to a chopper lmao

[ringofrizz]

What kind of welder are you using. Mig, Tig, or Arc. I've got an Arc welder will that work. Oh by the way, thats A sick Bike man. I might try to build one myself.

[KoolKat]

Just a basic AC welder. Thanks!

[ringofrizz]

For cutting and grinding, did you lust use an angle grinder.

[KoolKat]

Yes, just basic tools. You can find the answers to many building questions at http://www.atomiczombie.com/forum/default.asp . Become a member of the Atomic Zombie Support Forum!

[Doveman]

nice chopper. I might built one (eventunetly). I would have a wheel in the front that has about half the diameter of the back wheel.

[Doveman]

waeight a minunte... lol i didnt read it all the way. It says "stick to the original mountain bike"

[bedbugg2]

awesome

[joemonkey]

sweet! luckily my grandpa has a super easy to use welder! im going garage sale-ing sturday and ill find my chopper! im going with an electric lime that fades into a bright blue paintjob. (my dad paints model rockets a lot so he's like a master!!!!

[Professor Tor Coolguy]

sry.i mispelled ur name.:(

[Professor Tor Coolguy]

i'd have to agree with esderas. that looks a bit awkward.i'd recomend you reinforce that connection point and get real chopper trees. but thats still frickn AWSOME.

[esdreas]

I believe that your forks will snap and when your taking that lion up your mountain, you'd better watch your ace Jack. Otherwise it's cool

[buildingteen]

another thing you might want to try is to cut the tube the fork rotates in off and cut like an inch or two off the top support bar of the frame (the ball crusher one) and weld it back on so that is sits a little more level the front fork will sit at less of an angle and makes for a more comfortable ride but your forks need to be stronger.

[Remote Man]

Thats cool.. if only i had a welder.... but those front forks do look like they could bend. but i trust your judgment. 8/10

[maxwell]

you know, the thousands of dollars in dental implants after losing some front teeth when that conduit fails might make you wish you'd spent four bucks more on some proper steel. Or four bucks less and just stuck with cannabalized bike tubes. EMT is so sketchy, it's not structual, there's no quality control.

[KoolKat]

On the contrary. Been using EMT for 10 years now, never had any structural problems and have all of our original adult teeth, too.

[KoolKat]

Yeah, we were trying to get a banana seat and sissy bar, but couldn't find one in decent shape, so had to improvise.