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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 ...
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, ...
I wanted to extend the suspension forks a great deal, but still keep the bike functional, so the frame would have to be extended and the rake increase...
That was easy! I just inverted the cut section of top tube and butt-welded it to the down tube to create an "extendo" frame. This modification increas...
Wouldn't you know, that chunk of muffler tubing over in my scrap bucket was just the right length and diameter to become the new top tube for the newl...
Muffler tubing is much like electrical conduit in wall thickness, slightly heavier than bicycle tubing. The tubing I found in my scrap bucket is about...
As long as the new top tube fits, just start welding it in place. Since there isn't much that can go out of alignment, it's just a matter of getting a...
For this chopper to become a worthy beast, it was decided that keeping the front suspension in tact would be a good idea. The front forks were cut jus...
Extending these forks was so easy, I was starting to feel lazy! Just cut two equal lengths of conduit (I used 4 feet each), and jam them into the top ...
Now that the top of the forks are welded to the extension tubes, repeat the process with the lower section of the forks. Because the lower half contai...
The welded fork set should be straight as an arrow. Because the original tubing was used as a guide, there is no excuse to have a crooked or warped fo...
The forks and bearing hardware are installed on the bike. I like to temporarily place the forks and wheels on a chopper in order to visualize what mig...
For the Mountain Lion, I wanted a seriously padded seat, after all, it would probably be riding over rough terrain. Of course, I didn't want a seat so...
Since the homebrew seat will bolt directly to the frame, I did not want the original seat post clamp, so it was cut down as short as possible.
One of the spare fork sets will become the base of the seat. Although any small tubing would work, why not use scrap from the bicycle parts bin? The s...
This chopper was going to have a seat with a backrest as well - when you are climbing those steep mountains, you wouldn't want to fall off the bike. T...
Once the four fork legs have been welded together to create your seat frame, insert the seat post stub into the seat tube then center the dropouts to ...
The bolts are either welded to the frame on each side, or a long bolt is used through both holes. Once installed, the seat frame will be held solidly ...
To try something a little different, the seat padding will be made from three small blocks. The blocks are made by gluing some 2 inch foam to a few sq...
The seat covering is made from the highest quality vinyl material money can buy - in this case $3 worth. Because the seat blocks are square, you will ...
To complete the seat, bolt the foam pads to the forks by drilling holes and using woodscrews. Any number of pads can be positioned in whatever placeme...
The Mountain Lion has a large rear fender, cut from some scrap sheet metal of approximately 12 gauge. This photo shows the three pieces that will be w...
Once you are done tack welding and bending the center strip, it should form a perfect curve along the top of the fender. At this point it is easy to m...
If you have some patience, the finished fender will look factory pressed after you grind the welds. I always do the rough grinding with a heavy disc, ...
The rest of the components were installed on the bike, so it could be taken for a test ride before painting. It's always a good plan to do this, as an...
Here is the completed and painted Mountain Lion chopper. The ends of the forks, head tube and rear triangle were sprayed black just like the original ...
Overall ridability of the chopper was good, the suspension still worked over rough terrain, and the seat pads picked up the rest of the road shock - b...
Adam rips down the back lane, heading for the bike trails. If you're going to hit the back trails and venture where no "bike freak" has ventured befor...
More cool projects can be found at: http://www.chopzone.com andhttp://www.atomiczombie.com
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