Terminator Chopper Build - Part 2

Terminator Chopper Build - Part 2

Figure 9 – Two almost identical shapes cut for the front forks

After cutting the second shape from the first one, both should be placed in a vice so that edges can be cleaned up and both parts made equal. The two shapes shown in Figure 9 are very close, but not perfect due to small errors made while following the lines with the grinder disc.


Figure 10 – Using the sanding disc to make both parts identical

To even out the two parts, place them both in a vice as shown in Figure 10 so you can work the edges with a zip disc. It only takes a few minutes of grinding with the zip disc in order to make both parts identical. Once you have two identical side walls, it is easy to take an edge measurement and make the other two tubing walls in order to create a complete tube. Technically, you are making a square tube, although the side profile is far from square.



Figure 11 – Making the inner fork blades

Because of the generally random shapes being made and having no real plan as I go along, it is very difficult to classify each part and impossible to give measurements, since I did not take any. Of course, the goal is to show what can be done using only a grinder and a welder, and you will most certainly want to make your own version of the Terminator, so let your imagination run wild.

The two new shapes shown in Figure 11 will form the inner walls of the lower front forks. I only made sides walls for the lower inner section of the front forks since the part of the forks above the wheel will form an archway and a sold front shape. This will make more sense if you read glance ahead at some of the completed front fork images. Again, I am “winging it” without any plan whatsoever besides wheelbase and fork length, so you are on your own if trying to make the frame similar to mine.


Figure 12 – Measuring a curve using some wire or string

So far, all of the pieces cut have been the sides of the tubing, or the visible sides that show off the free flowing curves of the frame and forks. To create full tubing, 1.5 inch wide strips will be cut and welded along the edges of each shape to form a solid tube. Now, how do you cut a strip that will be the same length as the edge of an arc, you are probably wondering. Let me show you a simple trick.

Figure 12 shows the overall length of the part as indicated by a measuring tape. The problem is that the outer curve is longer than the length of the part and the inner curve is shorter. You could certainly cut a piece using the length shown by the measuring tape and simply trim it off later for the inner curve, but the outer curve needs to be measured somehow. The easiest method is to bend some wire or lay down some string along the curve, and then just pull it straight after to measure the length needed.

Simple arcs like the one shown in Figure 12 can also be measured by rolling them along a surface like a wheel, marking the start and stop points to get the distance. The string or wire method always works, and if you can add an extra inch or two, then you will never come up short.


Figure 13 – Cutting the inner tubing wall strips

I decided that all of my frame and fork contours will be only visible from the sides of the chopper, and that the general thickness of the front fork tubing on each side of the wheel will be 1.5 inches.

Figure 13 shows a few lengths of 1.5 inch strips needed to create tubing by following the edges of the shapes shown in the previous photos. If you plan to need a lot of 1.5 inch or similar size “stripping”, then you could also purchase the appropriate width and thickness flatbar to simply cut to length. Being hardcore, I decided to make my entire frame from the same sheet metal.


Figure 14 – An easy way to make long straight cuts

When you are making long straight cuts in the sheet metal, you only need to “score” along the line, cutting about half way into the steel. After cutting along the line, grab the part with pliers and bend it back and forth until it snaps free. The edges will be razor sharp and certainly need the sanding disc treatment, but you do save time and zip disc wear using this method of cutting.



Figure 15 – Completed inner tubing wall strips

Figure 15 shows the strips of 1.5 inch sheet metal that will be welded along each arc to complete the lower part of the front forks that will hold the front wheel in place. As you can see, I wasn’t kidding about how much work this project is going to be. This is only a small sliver of what is to come.



Part 3 coming soon..

Build the SkyWalker Tall Bike

SkyWalker is a radical two wheeler that allows the bicycle hacking adrenaline junkie to surf the skies while at the same time amusing or confusing the slack-jawed onlookers below.

Sure, tall bikes are nothing new, and have been around since the 1800's, but SkyWalker takes things to new heights by allowing the rider to climb up and down the frame while the bike is in motion. What this means for tall bike pilots is that they no longer have to cling to a telephone pole to mount the bike, and worry about finding another pole when it comes time to dismount.

SkyWalker is designed so that the pilot can control the bike from the ground, and all the way up to the top while climbing the built in ladder. Since the handlebars double as ladder handrails, the pilot is under complete control of the tall bike during the entire ascent.

Why would a person want to build and ride a 12 foot two wheeler you ask? To win a Darwin award? Train for the circus? Overcome a fear of heights? Set a world record? Who can say, but for me it has always been the same reason - because it's fun, and it beats sitting on my butt watching the tube!

The entire SkyWalker plan is now available for free on the Atomic Zombie web site. Yes, some things are still free. Enjoy!

For those lost and still to be found

The world is watching, many hearts are broken. It has been a heart wrenching week wondering how many friends have been lost. I haven't been able to think of much else, let alone conjure something up to blog about in the midst of photos and video of the misery and suffering. Maybe later this week as word reaches us about those lost and those still yet to be found.

For now, we mourn and wait, nos amis. Vous êtes dans nos coeurs. We can only hope for good news, but the reality has yet to sink in.

If you can, please make a donation to a credible international organization like the Red Cross, Salvation Army, etc.

www.cnn.com
www.cbc.ca

Thanks/merci.

THE TERMINATOR CHOPPER BUILD - Part 1

One day while relaxing with a pencil and notepad, I began to draw a chopper frame that had free flowing lines and curves in the frame, something that would have been difficult or impossible to achieve using tubing of any kind. At the time, I did not really consider building such a chopper since I mainly used round or square tubing for frame building, and such lines would not be possible.

Then, I remembered seeing one of those chopper motorcycle shows on TV where they would form a gas tank using sheet metal, welding the corners so that just about any shape could be created. I thought, “Hey, why not build an entire custom chopper frame out of nothing but sheet metal, essentially creating every single tube from scratch so that it would look more organic and free?”

The idea sounded like an insane amount of work that only the most hard core garage hacker would ever attempt, so in traditional Atomic Zombie fashion, I began cutting that same day!

I’ll warn you ahead of time - this build involves a huge amount of physical labor. Sure, anyone with a cheap AC welder and hand held grinder can do it (that’s all I own), but be prepared to sweat and work muscles you didn’t even know you had. If this was easy, every bike freak would do it, so you will certainly have something unique if you have what it takes to see it through to the end. You have been warned!

Originally, I planned to create this “no tubing” chopper as a plan for our AtomicZombie.com website, but I realized that not many people would be crazy enough to build a complete frame from sheet metal. Instead, I decided to do it as a free source of information that would showcase what can be done with only a basic welder, an angle grinder and a $100 worth of thin sheet metal. The other issue that made this build unsuitable for a DIY plan is that there are no measurements - seriously!

I just took a marker and began to draw free form shapes like forks and frame tubing right on the sheet to be cut out. This build will require you to release your creative energy because I have no idea what the angles or dimensions of any of the tubes are, nor would I have any idea how to even measure such complex shapes.

What I did know ahead of time was how far the wheels will be apart (wheelbase), how long the forks will be, and where the bottom bracket needed to be so that I could reach the pedals (about 32 inches from the end of the seat). Other than that, I took very few measurements, and simply based the “size” of the Terminator on my favorite three choppers, stealing ideas and features that I liked from each one.

Figure 1 – OverKill was my first chopper to use a car wheel on the rear

The Terminator had to have a car rim on the rear - that was a must. After trying this crazy modification on my first chopper, OverKill, it just seemed silly to go back to some skinny little tire, or department store chopper rear wheel.

As shown in Figure 1, that 15 inch wide car tire puts those 4 inch wide department store chopper wheels to shame, almost mocking them. What really blew me away was how smooth OverKill was to ride, even with that 60 pound monster on the ass end. Another benefit to using a car rim is that you can pick them up free at just about any metal scrap yard and add a few dollars worth of bicycle spokes to create the entire wheel.

It is certainly not difficult to add spokes to a car rim (as you will soon see), and like all things custom, it’s simply a matter of doing a little manual labor in order to create something you can’t purchase. In the world of custom bikes, money ain’t king, only your ability to pour some sweat and blood into your work (I mean that literally).

Figure 2 – The Gladiator Trike Chopper was very comfortable

As for seating position and handle bar height, I found the Gladiator Chopper Trike to be about perfect for my riding style. This chopper has two car wheels at the rear, a springer front suspension, and a full recumbent style padded seat. Besides the fact that it took a little effort to get those huge boots rolling, the Gladiator was a real smooth cruiser that I would often ride for hours at a time.

I decided to base the general size and wheelbase of the Terminator on the Gladiator, so I found a bucket that was the same height as the seat on the Gladiator and then took a measurement from the top of the bucket to the position of my heel when extended outwards.

Other than your leg length (inseam), you are free to do just about anything you want on a chopper, creating a massive 5 foot rise on the frame, or keeping it mean and low. Just grab something to sit on, drop a pair of wheels on the floor (front and back), and imagine your chopper. You could even prop up a few broom handles, or bits of tubing to get an idea of what you might like for fork length and frame height as well.

Sometimes I put down the wheels and bucket to sit on then take a photo to manipulate in Photoshop or simply print it out and pencil in the rest of your frame. Seriously, don’t get too technical, or you will wind up spending our valuable time in some forum squabbling about rake and trail when you could be building your chopper!

Figure 3 – The Vigilante was my first attempt at building a square tube frame

When I decided that I would attempt the Terminator build, I set two rules: there will be no tubing used in the entire frame besides the small necessary bits such as the bottom bracket and head tube, and everything else will be made from flee flowing shapes made by welding sheet metal into custom tubing.

One of my first attempts to avoid round tubing can be seen in Figure 3, the Vigilante Chopper. For this chopper, I used only square tubing, and it was all installed at 45 degrees, creating a diamond shaped frame.

The “theme” was to make the Vigilante look like a stealth bomber featuring a flat black body with many sharp edges and contours. The Terminator will also have sharp edges in the frame tubing, but also free flowing curves, creating a kind of carved look throughout the frame and forks.

Figure 4 – Starting with the front forks

One of the only planned measurements on the entire build was the length of the forks - 5 feet long. The reason for this is because it looked good on my other choppers, and because the scrap piece of sheet metal shown in Figure 4 just happened to be 5 feet across. The sheet metal you will need should be non-galvanized (not shiny silver) and have a thickness similar to that of bicycle tubing (between 14 and 16 gage).

Don’t worry too much about the sheet metal thickness if you can get a good deal on some scraps. It might be a good idea to bring a bit of bicycle tubing along with you and tell the supplier that you want a 4 by 8 sheet of whatever they have that is close to the thickness of the round tubing.

The sheet I used was a 4 foot by 10 foot sheet of 16 gage mild steel, and yes, the damn thing was heavy, just like your chopper will be when you are finished making the frame! If you want a lightweight bike for touring the countryside, then you are reading the wrong plan.

Since the only goal so far was to carve out a 5 foot long fork for the Terminator, I just hand drew a few arcs on the sheet as shown in Figure 4 so that my forks would have a profile similar to a machete. This is where you must put your artistic brain to work, as there are no rules when you are making your own tubing from scratch.

If the tubing has a side wall of less than 1.5 inches, then the frame will be extremely strong and able to support just about any rider. In Figure 4, the pointed end shown on the left of the photo will be the wheel end of the forks, and the other end will become the handle bars. The handle bar end of my tubing is will create a shape with a 1.5 inch profile.

Figure 5 – You will need a decent stack of discs for this project

To cut out the side walls that make up each tube, you will need a good supply of patience, as well as grinder discs like the ones shown in Figure 5. The disc on the left is a 3/32 cut off disc (zip disc) and the disc on the right is a flap disc (sanding disc).

A zip disc is a great tool for cutting along marked lines on sheet metal, and you can even follow curves if the arc is not too small.

The flap disc is used to remove razor sharp edges after cutting the metal with the zip disc as well as cleaning up mirrored parts so that they are both identical. Although this is only a guess, you will probably use at least 10 zip discs and five sanding discs for this project, so look for deals on multi packs. A good full face shield as also a must when you are working with the thin zip discs and doing so much cutting.

Figure 6 – Cutting sheet metal with a zip disc and a jigsaw

As shown in Figure 6, a jigsaw with a metal cutting blade can also deal with the sheet metal, but it takes a great deal more effort and time to cut so many lines with a jigsaw. I highly recommend that you get used to handling the grinder for cutting and leave the jig saw only for intricate curves that may be too difficult to cut with the zip disc. The grinder is the ultimate tool for any garage hacker, so become one with it, making it feel like an extension of your own arm!

The first of the four sidewalls for the forks are shown being cut in Figure 6. The zip disc took about 5 minutes, whereas it took over an hour to make it half way across the first line with a jigsaw, and wore down a brand new blade.





Figure 7 – The first front fork side wall cut from the sheet

The first shape is shown in Figure 7 after cutting it free from the sheet using the zip disc. After cutting out the metal, the flap disc is used to clean up the curves and to take off the razor sharp edges along the cut lines. When making two identical shapes, the first one will be used as a template for the second since it would take an engineering degree to figure out these random curves using math.

Figure 8 – Tracing out the second front fork shape

The nice thing about using the zip disc to cut curves is that you don’t have to be perfect with the marker since the lines will be “smoothed out” by the action of cutting with the grinder. Once cut, any ripples or mistakes can be cleaned up further using the flap disc as well.

Figure 8 shows the magic process of drawing an identical freeform shape for cutting – using the first piece as a template.

A sharp black marker is the best way to draw a visible line for cutting, and makes tracing a new shape very easy. Since we are making side walls, there are no front and back sides, so it doesn’t matter which way you cut out the shapes.

PART TWO coming soon...stay tuned