wobble bike

Build your own wobble bike! This double-jointed rolling wonder lets you steer from both ends. Also known as a "swing bike", there was even a commercially produced version in the 1970's. The wobble bike is one of many types of "freak" or "chopper" bikes you can make. Its one of the easiest to start with if you have never made something like this before. It's also great fun to ride! It only takes a couple minutes to get the hang of it, and then you can ride it nearly anywhere.

You can make the wobble bike in just 3 or 4 hours. You don't need to be very good at welding, but at least have a friend show you how to do it if you've never done it before.

This article is brought to you by MonkeyLectric and the Monkey Light bike light.

Step 1: Tools used

WHAT YOU NEED
- 2 steel beater bikes
- a small Arc or MIG welder.
- an Angle grinder with cutoff wheel and paint-stripping wheel

Comments

[Bennybenbenny]

Cycling shoes with cleats? Would you dare install click-in pedals on this bike? I mean, since you have the shoes...

Great i-ble.

[ratgod]

I saw a bike that had the handle-bars geared so it would steer in the opposite direction, it was at some holiday resort in england on the west coast, probably Blackpool, and some guy was offering prize money for people who could ride it through a set of cones without falling off.

Maybe you could challenge people to do something similar with this bike for a laugh.

[Pickles5000]

I've seen this too - the trick is to steer with the front fork, ie. holding onto the front fork and steering like that rather than with the handlebars. This directly turns the wheel in the dropout rather than through the handlebars.

[The nerdling]

i've seen some like that they were confusing

[jakobus9]

talking about theft prevention :D nice work!

[gadlen]

Excellent. A friend has built a similar bike. He added on a disc brake on the rear hinge, controllable by hand-brake. It works great. You can lock up the hinge when you see fit and ride with it in that position.

[kstadden]

Brilliant mod.

[BillerB]

Thanks for this post. I have just built my own wobble bike using this instructable as a guide. Great fun building the bike - and it is ridable, it has front and rear brakes and gears !

[dan]

wow great! can you post a photo? i'd love to see one with brakes!

[BillerB]

This is the wobble bike I built, complete with brakes. I haven't painted or grinded down the redundant frame parts which does actually make it easier to work out the construction. I found Dan's post the most useful in understanding how to build a wobble bike. The design is probably closer to the post put up by wobblejohn.
The welding aint too pretty - It took me and my friend a while to realise that we were using his 'no gas' welder with regular non flux coated welding wire. A trip to machine mart and a purchase of CO2 canister made all the difference.

[rustychrome]

Haha! I just built one of my own tonight. Its was like wrestling a pig trying to keep it all clamped together while I was doing my cutting and welding. Only problem is that my feet are too big and the front wheel rubs my toes. I need to go with a smaller wheel or lengthen the frame. Does certain changes in the geometry help it handle better? I felt like I was learning to ride all over again, but it was fun.

[vmod32]

Where are the breaks?????

[Liteachey]

Coaster brakes. no wires. no mess.

[thinkdunson]

i don't think he's going to be going very fast on this bike to begin with, but it would certainly be easy to attach a BRAKE to the rear wheel and control it on the handlebar.

[sabbysayshi]

cant you use 2 gyros?

[thinkdunson]

 of course, but that won't be nearly as effective as a brake.

[halberdear]

Breaks are for noobs. 

[Arx]

 There are no "breaks", His welding looks solid.

:P

[thinkdunson]

 well done, sir.  well done.

[crazyg]

nice job ,well and simply explained
reminds me of when i had a go on my friends little brothers friends rusty ol bmx when they wernt looking ,the breaks were rubbish and went front wheel into a wall as i stood and rode the frame went all bendy so i parked it where i found it,
i guess the mask is ironic

[3VIL G3NIUS]

 I'm sure this would make for a very interesting crash!
Using brakes would be ruthless wouldn't it, the front would cause it to fold, the back to straighten out suddenly. Which makes it all the more fun, time to make mine.

[XOIIO]

Hmm... No breaks, and wouldn't that be hard to ride?

[cantthinkof bettername]

What would stink, is to find out after you built it, that you couldn't figure out how to ride it. I built a recumbent, before I ever rid one, but I got the hang of it.

[admanrocks]

no, you build it so you can learn to ride it. where's the fun in always doing what you know!?

[cantthinkof bettername]

well if that is the case then it would only be fun while you were learning it.

[admanrocks]

i'm not trying to argue with you, i'm just saying that learning new things is fun. I'm sure this bike would always be fun to ride.

[cantthinkof bettername]

Yeah. If I had the time and money I would probably try this. But the thing about not being able to learn is what keeps me from getting a unicycle. It looks fun, but it is expensive, and I might not be able to ride it.

[tubanator-2.0]

actually unicycles can be really cheap depending on what you get. the one my friend got for me was 20 dollars off of craigs list it didn't really need much work just the bearings had to be greased. as for learning, just learning how to balance is hard but not as hard as most think.

[cantthinkof bettername]

 I have not been on in a long time, but I learned to ride a unicycle several months ago.  It was fun, but I think I damaged the unicycle in the process of learning. haha

[admanrocks]

... you're right, never try anything you might not be good at.

[foxtrot4697]

lol

[cantthinkof bettername]

That's not what I'm saying. This project isn't right for everyone, but that doesn't mean it is bad. I would like to try riding one of these, but I have too many bikes already so I don't want to build another one right now.

[callmeshane]

Boys and Bicycles.... Boys make better bike riders, because they have to be... Not having had the experiences of riding this type of bike.... I am curious, what would one have to do, or end up doing to make this go very badly, very quickly.... as in folding up like a concertina while in full flight.... And don't say dumb stuff like "hit a car"... I am thinking more in terms of "speed wobbles" etc...

[pyro1324]

check this out www.youtube.com/watch?v=R5P70XtI4zQ

[mrdepo96]

 enough periods there? I don't think soo...

[DavidKaine]

three sequential periods is an ellipses

[mrdepo96]

gee thanks!

[rada194]

Try and do a wheelie on that. lol

[pyro1324]

 try to do a stoppie^^

[VagsmaCutter]

Swingin bike, I've always wanted one. I remember the swing bike in the bike shop, the celeb that was on the ad. was Jimmy Osmond...I think I remember it had a mean looking spring that looked like it could play hacky sack with you if you weren't careful, if you know what I mean.