Recumbent in Slovenia

In the AtomicZombie builders gallery, Bojan shares pictures of his first recumbent bike project with homemade polyester seat. See more>>

Merry Christmas and Seasons Greetings

To our amazing worldwide bike building community. Wishing you and yours health, happiness and love. Please ride safely and be kind.

From the movie "Elf".

Randy's Recumbent - Arkansas

This homemade recumbent is ready to be painted. Built in two months.

BY RANDY HELMICK

"My wife and I ride bikes when the weather is nice. One day, I went to a bike shop and road tested a long wheel base recumbent bike. I really liked sitting back and enjoying the view. The bike was a lot of money, though. I have been looking on the Internet at recumbent bikes and discovered that some people were building their own. So, I started to get the bug to build one myself."

Read more>>

Wheel Bearing Service Bicycle Repair Tutorial

Learn to lubricate and setup your cup and cone wheel bearings. Keep your DIY recumbent bike running like clockwork. This tutorial includes 45 high resolution photos and 9 high definition videos.

Although most of your bicycle pedaling efforts will be thrown to the wind (literally), some of your energy will be eating up by friction from moving parts such as bearings, chain links, and even the compression of the tires on the road. Bearing friction does not account for much of your power loss as long as your bearings are in good working order and properly lubricated. This basic tutorial will show you how to remove, clean, reinstall, and then set the clearance on your bicycle hub bearings for optimal performance. Here, I will be using a 20 inch BMX from wheel with a 14mm axle, but this tutorial can be applied to any front or rear bicycle wheel that uses the very common cone and cup style bearings.

The term cone and cup refers to a type of bicycle hub that has a set of ball bearings sandwiched between a cup that is built into the hub shell and a cone shaped nut that is threaded onto the axle. Basically, the cone and cup are the bearing races that the balls ride on. With the exception of some seriously beefy mountain bike hubs that include large diameter hollow axles, most bicycles will have a cone and cup style bearing system. It is easy to identify this type of hub by looking for a locking nut sitting on top of another nut that has only two flat sections as shown in this photo. The nut with the flat sides is the cone nut, and it reaches below the sealing cap you can see and into the hub to connect with the ball bearings.

To disassemble a cone and cup wheel, you only need two wrenches, but one of them is a special kind of wrench specifically designed to remove bicycle cone nuts. This wrench is of course called, a cone wrench! As you can see in this photo comparing the cone wrench along with a crescent wrench, from the top, it looks similar to a box wrench. The crescent wrench will be used on the locking nut, and the cone wrench will be used to grip the flat sections of the cone nut it was designed to fit. There are several sized of bicycle cone nuts, and for the wheel I am working with, I needed a 19mm cone wrench.

- See more at: http://www.atomiczombie.com/Tutorial%20-%20Wheel%20Bearing%20Service%20-%20Page%201.aspx#sthash.iBJFJUxt.dpuf

Although most of your bicycle pedaling efforts will be thrown to the wind (literally), some of your energy will be eating up by friction from moving parts such as bearings, chain links, and even the compression of the tires on the road. Bearing friction does not account for much of your power loss as long as your bearings are in good working order and properly lubricated. This basic tutorial will show you how to remove, clean, reinstall, and then set the clearance on your bicycle hub bearings for optimal performance. Here, I will be using a 20 inch BMX from wheel with a 14mm axle, but this tutorial can be applied to any front or rear bicycle wheel that uses the very common cone and cup style bearings.

The term cone and cup refers to a type of bicycle hub that has a set of ball bearings sandwiched between a cup that is built into the hub shell and a cone shaped nut that is threaded onto the axle. Basically, the cone and cup are the bearing races that the balls ride on. With the exception of some seriously beefy mountain bike hubs that include large diameter hollow axles, most bicycles will have a cone and cup style bearing system. It is easy to identify this type of hub by looking for a locking nut sitting on top of another nut that has only two flat sections as shown in this photo. The nut with the flat sides is the cone nut, and it reaches below the sealing cap you can see and into the hub to connect with the ball bearings.

To disassemble a cone and cup wheel, you only need two wrenches, but one of them is a special kind of wrench specifically designed to remove bicycle cone nuts. This wrench is of course called, a cone wrench! As you can see in this photo comparing the cone wrench along with a crescent wrench, from the top, it looks similar to a box wrench. The crescent wrench will be used on the locking nut, and the cone wrench will be used to grip the flat sections of the cone nut it was designed to fit. There are several sized of bicycle cone nuts, and for the wheel I am working with, I needed a 19mm cone wrench.

- See more at: http://www.atomiczombie.com/Tutorial%20-%20Wheel%20Bearing%20Service%20-%20Page%201.aspx#sthash.iBJFJUxt.dpuf

Although most of your bicycle pedaling efforts will be thrown to the wind (literally), some of your energy will be eating up by friction from moving parts such as bearings, chain links, and even the compression of the tires on the road. Bearing friction does not account for much of your power loss as long as your bearings are in good working order and properly lubricated. This basic tutorial will show you how to remove, clean, reinstall, and then set the clearance on your bicycle hub bearings for optimal performance. Here, I will be using a 20 inch BMX from wheel with a 14mm axle, but this tutorial can be applied to any front or rear bicycle wheel that uses the very common cone and cup style bearings.

The term "cone and cup" refers to a type of bicycle hub that has a set of ball bearings sandwiched between a cup that is built into the hub shell and a cone shaped nut that is threaded onto the axle. Basically, the cone and cup are the bearing races that the balls ride on. With the exception of some seriously beefy mountain bike hubs that include large diameter hollow axles, most bicycles will have a cone and cup style bearing system. It is easy to identify this type of hub by looking for a locking nut sitting on top of another nut that has only two flat sections as shown in this photo. The nut with the flat sides is the cone nut, and it reaches below the sealing cap you can see and into the hub to connect with the ball bearings.

To disassemble a cone and cup wheel, you only need two wrenches, but one of them is a special kind of wrench specifically designed to remove bicycle cone nuts. This wrench is, of course, called, a cone wrench! As you can see in this photo comparing the cone wrench along with a crescent wrench, from the top, it looks similar to a box wrench. The crescent wrench will be used on the locking nut, and the cone wrench will be used to grip the flat sections of the cone nut it was designed to fit. There are several sized of bicycle cone nuts, and for the wheel I am working with, I needed a 19mm cone wrench.

 Read more>>

 

Build a winter trike

Meet the Hammerhead
This simple DIY project is designed to inspire you to build a bike to conquer a typical winter climate with snow, ice and slush. The Hammerhead is a two-headed monster that eats snow and ice for breakfast and has no fear of Old Man Winter or his frozen wrath. Read more>> 

 

Welcome to Atomic Zombie's Murphy's Moments

When bad things happen to good builders

 BY RADICAL BRAD, ATOMICZOMBIE.COM

Wheel dropouts broke off of an electric hub motor, causing a dramatic crash.

"Perhaps this one was only partly Murphy's Law fault, leaving the other half of the blame to the crazy dude that didn't listen to reason. When I was building the E-Style Electric BMX, I originally put on a pair of front suspension forks from a mountain bike. Now, this might not seem like a bad idea, but if you know a little about electric front hub motors, then you probably know that this is a recipe for a face plant.

Here is the problem in brief. Front suspension forks have aluminum dropouts. Aluminum is an evil unpredictable metal. Front hub motors introduce heavy torque to the axle. The axle is connected to the dropouts. Eventually, the aluminum dropouts rip away from the fork tubes and you get a very rude and swift introduction to the pavement. Sadly, I knew this ahead of time.

I never intended to release the plan with these forks, but didn't actually think that such a well-made set of forks would be an issue, so I threw them on for some test riding one weekend. My hub motor was only rated at 500 watts, but I did modify the controller and bump up the voltage from 36 volts to 48 volts, boosting the top speed from about 25 Mph to 40 Mph or better!

There I was smoking down a street in my neighborhood and I took a sharp turn into the parking lot of the coffee shop I like to visit, trying to look cool as I carved into the lot running under silent electric power. Actually, I did look cool until the exact instant that the front wheel went in a different direction than the rest of the bike!"

Read more>>

Restoring a bicycle derailleur - DIY tutorial

From this...to this. AtomicZombie shows you how to restore a typical derailleur.

A new tutorial for all of you bike hackers who recycle and reuse parts for your projects. This 10-part article includes step-by-step instructions, 53 high resolution photos and 13 High Definition (HD) videos to show you how to take apart and recondition a grungy derailleur using basic tools and methods. The tutorial also explains the difference between "hanger" and "frame mounted" derailleurs.

Here's an excerpt:

"The tension spring shown here, is wrapped around the main bolt, and it is responsible for the pulling back action that picks up the slack in the return chain. This will be one of the dirtiest parts of the derailleur, so give it a good wipe down with the degreasing agent and a rag. "

More on the Derailleur Tutorial>>

Bike building a family affair

Rex and his family built their own tandem bike.

By Rex Marin, Rochester, New York

It's been a while since my last bike build. In the meantime, I've built a baseball pitching machine and a squat rack for lifting weights. Now that my kids are all skilled riders, I decided one Saturday morning that it was time to build a unique bike with them.

Since the kids have outgrown their bikes, the boys have taken an interest in taking them apart, so we ended up with some donor parts. We decided on a tandem.

The long tubes are from some parallel bars that were destined for the dumpster at the prosthetics and orthotics clinic where I work. So, we chopped away and made a small tandem in one day.

The kids took a few minutes getting used to the feel of steering with a long wheelbase.

We took it to the school parking lot, and it wasn't long before they were riding around the school and around the block. They had such a blast riding that I had to cut them off at two hours!

My wife and I took the liberty of riding it as well. The kids love it and can't wait until the next project.

Many thanks to Rex and his family for submitting this article and pictures. Rex has been a member of the AtomicZombie family since we launched our first bike building forum, roughly 10 years ago.

A Zombie inspired Front Wheel Drive lowracer

Ian posing on his homebuilt recumbent lowracer.

Homemade recumbent project in England

BY IAN W. SWINDELLS (SWIZZ69)

I'm sitting to write this a day after being paid a huge compliment. A friend upon seeing the bike for the first time exclaimed, "Wow!" and asked, "Isn't that what they call..." furiously searching for an appropriate descriptive, "...a C5?" And this, just a week after taking part in a discussion of that very machine on the Atomic Zombie Forum!

An insult to many quite possibly and whilst the lowracer may be one wheel, an electric motor and a sleek body shell short of a real Sinclair C5, having been a 9-year-fan of Sir Clive's creation back in 1984, to now have built my own recumbent cycle and have it even loosely compared...well, you get the picture.

I'd been toying with the possibility of owning a recumbent for a good chunk of the last decade after finding Velo Vision magazine. A chance online discovery of modern velomobiles led me to a Dutch company who sold the Alleweder velomobile in kit form along with plans for a 20/26 'bent.

Searching further online for bike plans led to Atomic Zombie's website and whilst none of the bikes at the time suited, the notion that people were building their own kept me interested. Every return visit to the site revealed a new model and when the Warrior was released, Atomic Zombie really had me hooked. Here was a serious bit of kit!  
Read more>>

Building kids' chopper bikes - England

This is first ever attempt (more of a mess around than anything) by putting adult bike forks on kid's bike.

Building bikes isn't just for the young at heart. It's a past time that youngsters can participate in and learn some skills along the way.

 I built the one with my middle daughter using Land rover steering arms on forks.

Bike builder and forum member, Naughtyboy, of England shares more photos of his homemade bicycle choppers. Chopping up and re-building custom built bicycles a passion that he shares with his kids.

For this one, I used scrap air pipe from work (to build the) forks.

See more than 4,000 custom built rides: recumbents, trikes, tandems, choppers, electric, tall, cargo, motorized and fun bicycles at the AtomicZombie bike builders gallery.

www.AtomicZombie.com

Gravity Bike Racer - England, UK

Custom made Gravity Bike.

John "Doc" Warner shares some photos of his modified bicycle for Gravity Bike competitions. Named "Hee-Bee GB II", Doc built the gravity bike for a competition this past May.

What is a gravity bike?

A modified bicycle with a frame that's low to the ground to reduce wind resistance and the center of gravity. It has narrow handlebars, no pedals or chains, front and back disc brakes, knee rests and long foot pegs so the rider stretches out horizontally.

Lightweight and built for speed.

The goal is to descend steep downhill courses to reach insane speeds, often exceeding 90mph. This extreme sport has been gaining popularity worldwide for more than three decades and Gravity Bike races are held around the world.

Competitors wear helmets (some races require full-face), leathers, speed suits, gloves, footwear, and elbow and knee pads. According to Doc, "It's a great sport, very cheap (to build and compete), fantastic fun, and very accessible to all abilities and ages. Perfect for DIY/home-builders. You can build a competitive bike for around £60/$100 (but) you can, of course, spend less, or much more.


"This is my first Gravity Bike build. I made it earlier this year to enter the 2014 Penn House Gravity GP and finished second overall (Streamlined Buggy beat me by just over a second)."


See more pictures of Doc's Gravity Bike in the builders gallery.

To learn more about Gravity Bike racing, search for phrases such as "gravity bike competitions" in your web browser and check out these links: www.pennhousegrandprix.co.uk and  www.facebook.com/PHGGP .

www.AtomicZombie.com

Making a pair of homemade tadpole trike mudguards using sink waste pipe

A bike builder shares her innovative solution
BY EMMA WHEATLAND (AKA TWINKLE)

Riding a bike in the rain and sleet isn't fun when you're constantly showered with spray from the tires. Emma Wheatland discovered that finding mudguards for her homebuilt recumbent trike wasn't possible. So, in true build-it-yourself spirit, Wheatland figured out how to design and fabricate guards for her trike out of plastic pipes commonly used in plumbing. She shares details of the project and some of the challenges she faced along the way. The results are stunning. Read more>>

Chopper mania - USA

Fantastic detail on this one-of-a-kind chopper.

New Yorker and AtomicZombie member, Kempracing, has an addiction. But, don't worry, it's a good one.

He loves to design and build choppers. It doesn't matter if they're on two wheels or three. Each one is unique. Kempracing puts a lot of thought and care into his bikes. 

Nice tribute to our own OverKill!

Check out the detailed web design of the purple chopper above. He built and donated that chopper for a raffle at the Howe Caverns Bicycle Show and Swap Meet in New York this past July. A lucky winner pedaled off with that beauty.
 
 

A trike for the Mrs.

An embedded star burst heart on the trike he built for his wife, Patty. Awww.

Couldn't wait for paint. Gotta take it for a test ride.

Trying out something different with rear phat tire.

Interesting tires and matching spokes.

See more of Kempracing's custom built choppers. We invite you to add photos of your own handmade bicycles in the AtomicZombie builders gallery.

www.AtomicZombie.com

Stylin' handmade footbike - Mexico

Custom built footbike

Victor Hugo of Mexico is at it again! The custom bike builder reveals his latest project, Dany-Footbike.

Victor adds flair to his projects.

Victor is known for creating radical bicycles that are not only functional, they are also visually appealing works of art. Check out the detail on the platform.

You can see this and other cool custom bikes at the AtomicZombie builders gallery.

Tay's homemade chopper trike - England

Tay helped his dad build this chopper trike from scrap bike parts.

Submitted by AtomicZombie forum member and bike builder, Naughtyboy.

"We built this because my youngest two kids needed bigger bikes and they both love workshop time with daddy.

One of the kids from school turned up on a shop built chopper, so Tay looked it over and said, "Me and my dad can build (one) better."

We've built all sorts from scrap wood and metal and they have even helped me with rebuilding an old Land rover.

Tay decided he wanted a trike after seeing my Gladiator (chopper trike) plans, and he also looked through my 15 other plans to plan future bikes. The front is based on the Gladiator chopper trike and the rear, I think, was based on the DeltaRunner Recumbent Trike, but flipped over.

The forks are made from 16mm od x 8mm id blow pin shafts left over from machine re-furb at work. Suspension is made of old trampoline springs I found. The handlebars are from an old rotavator which I'm planning on using engine on quad-cycle (so many ideas, so little time).

I had to turn some sleeves to fit them as id was bigger than od of forks. Tay helped with drilling on lathe. Front wheel is 20" and back started as the same size, but are now 26" as we needed the smaller one for his little sister's trike.

I just wish he would let me finish painting it, but he's too busy racing on the road with his mates! I am impressed with how tight a turning circle it as and how fast he can go."

Read more about this project at the builders forum:
http://forum.atomiczombie.com/showthread.php/9247-happy-boy

More pictures in the bike builders gallery:
http://forum.atomiczombie.com/gallery/browseimages.php?do=member&imageuser=5871

www.AtomicZombie.com

 

Max handmade electric velomobile, made in the USA

AtomicZombie forum member, Canvasman, is crazy about trikes and velos. Check out his latest velomobile. It's a beauty!

Stylin' handmade velo named Max.

"New this spring, molded fiber glass, plywood & Dacron. On a Performer trike, rear wheel 700c. Hit 38 mph today."

Check out the aerodynamic lines of this baby!

This velo is a functional, sleek work of art.

A true green powered vehicle that looks great with mint performance.

Congratulations on a job well done! See more of Canvasman's bike creations in the AtomicZombie builders gallery. There are more than 4,000 photos of recumbents, trikes, tandems, tall bikes, ebikes, cargo bicycles, trailers, velomobiles, kids' bikes, fun bicycles and more.

http://forum.atomiczombie.com/gallery

Homemade FWD Recumbent Lowracer

Bike builder Swizz69 of England, UK, shares photos of his recently built recumbent lowracer @ the AtomicZombie builders gallery. It's a beauty!

"Whilst not a AZ design, it was built with much Zombie inspiration, with 40mm mild steel tube frame and fwd forks, Ocean Cycles seat, Tandem Stem, Sturmey Archer drum braked hubs, Marathon Racer tyres. (It) rides nice and the front wheel drive works well."

"I mounted the panniers reversed so the heel cutout faces the rear. Apart from looking better it keeps more of any weight carried within the wheelbase. On a grocery trip with both bags loaded the bike handled fine, if not slightly better."

 

What a great-looking recumbent. Kudos on your fabulous project!