Tallbike luggage rack
Out with the weekend welder, and the Tallbike which was finished is now even finisheder. -
On with a front mudguard - easy - and then on with a rear mudguard, which required two tags welding to the frame for 6mm bolts, and a bit of alteration of an old TV aerial to turn it into a mudguard stay which, hitherto, was missing.
'kay, that dealt with the non-issue of riding it through puddles which I don't propose ever to do.
It had struck me that since it's easy to mount and dismount, it wouldn't be a bad plan to use that most valuable of space, low between the wheels, for luggage. Accordingly I propped up the world's standard disposable container (a banana box) underneath the pedals and welded on a couple of hangers for a roller-skate wheel to hook the floppy-half of the chain out of the way. One of those rubbish folding chairs gave of its flimsy, lightweight, very thin-walled 5/8" ERW tubular legs and got turned into a rack, and a piece of old sturdy mountain bike (perfectly good, thank you PC Morris, a perfectly good gentleman's mountain bicycle) front fork got sawn off and welded to the lower mainframe to attach the front thereof.
Now for weight to test the wobbliness. Garden raided of river-cobbles, 51 lbs of which were uploaded into banana box.
Onto rack, and round and round the garden like a teddy bear, digging deep grooves into the grass which I don't care about. What's the purpose of a lawn anyway? You only have to mow it, and nobody actually enjoys a lawn. We ought to keep a sheep.
Well, it rode okay, but was wobblier than it should've been. Scratch head: grab rack, wiggle, determine that there is movement in the two rear members.
Decide to add triangulation, gaining the approval of all the world's engineers.
Lo! It no longer wobbles. Moreover I discovered that the left-hand pedal is a folding one, which I had not spotted before. Amazing what you find when people dump bikes on you.
So it is becoming a useful cargo bike, like one of those ancient Trades Bikes that Chris Darby used when we were kids and he wasn't distracted by November the Fifth and blowing up cowpats with bangers. And I bet young teenagers would be a jolly sight keener on delivering groceries on a Tallbike than one of those heavy things, if there were groceries requiring of delivery, if anyone used bicycles for delivering anything these days where one cannot function one child to school without the aid of a ton of four-wheel-drive metal.
Current weight increased to 38lbs. Still thinking about bracing that worryingly empty parallelogram.
On with a front mudguard - easy - and then on with a rear mudguard, which required two tags welding to the frame for 6mm bolts, and a bit of alteration of an old TV aerial to turn it into a mudguard stay which, hitherto, was missing.
'kay, that dealt with the non-issue of riding it through puddles which I don't propose ever to do.
It had struck me that since it's easy to mount and dismount, it wouldn't be a bad plan to use that most valuable of space, low between the wheels, for luggage. Accordingly I propped up the world's standard disposable container (a banana box) underneath the pedals and welded on a couple of hangers for a roller-skate wheel to hook the floppy-half of the chain out of the way. One of those rubbish folding chairs gave of its flimsy, lightweight, very thin-walled 5/8" ERW tubular legs and got turned into a rack, and a piece of old sturdy mountain bike (perfectly good, thank you PC Morris, a perfectly good gentleman's mountain bicycle) front fork got sawn off and welded to the lower mainframe to attach the front thereof.
Now for weight to test the wobbliness. Garden raided of river-cobbles, 51 lbs of which were uploaded into banana box.
Onto rack, and round and round the garden like a teddy bear, digging deep grooves into the grass which I don't care about. What's the purpose of a lawn anyway? You only have to mow it, and nobody actually enjoys a lawn. We ought to keep a sheep.
Well, it rode okay, but was wobblier than it should've been. Scratch head: grab rack, wiggle, determine that there is movement in the two rear members.
Decide to add triangulation, gaining the approval of all the world's engineers.
Lo! It no longer wobbles. Moreover I discovered that the left-hand pedal is a folding one, which I had not spotted before. Amazing what you find when people dump bikes on you.
So it is becoming a useful cargo bike, like one of those ancient Trades Bikes that Chris Darby used when we were kids and he wasn't distracted by November the Fifth and blowing up cowpats with bangers. And I bet young teenagers would be a jolly sight keener on delivering groceries on a Tallbike than one of those heavy things, if there were groceries requiring of delivery, if anyone used bicycles for delivering anything these days where one cannot function one child to school without the aid of a ton of four-wheel-drive metal.
Current weight increased to 38lbs. Still thinking about bracing that worryingly empty parallelogram.
Labels: Tallbike, tallbike cargo bike, tallbike rack
posted by richard middleton at
1:15 AM
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