Adrian Hensen's Homebuilt Wood-framed Recumbent - 5/2003 (Updated)
June, 2003 - Adrian Hensen has built a nice compact-long-wheelbase bike
Updated Nov. 2003 - Child-sitting solution...
 Adrian's solution to the child-sitting problem... (11/2003) |
 Fork/Dropout Detail |
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Note the interesting method of attaching the steering tube on this bike. Cool, eh? Also, unlike 'Woody' and 'Treebike', The steering arrangement eliminates the tiller effect (lateral swinging of handlebars). Nice job, overall on this bike! ss
Adrian wrote:
"I contemplated this bike for about a month and built it in about a week
and a half. The frame is laminated poplar. I chose laminated
wood because of the problem you had with warping. The other parts
were scavenged from two mountain bikes, a ten speed, a child's bike and
a scooter. I only have about $150.00 invested, and that's with new
road tires and new chains. The bike weighs about 58 pounds, but I
did build it for exercise. I will eventually paint and varnish it
but I can't live with out it long enough to do it. I regularly ride it
on a 26 mile trip form my house to my mom's place on Sunday morning."
I asked about the little gizmo on the front of the bike, and
gearing...
"To answer your first question, that is an LED light. I think it is
called a bill-lite (see picture below).
It was made to fit on the brim of your hat. It works pretty well, but
the batteries are expensive. I have considered retro-fitting AAs, or a
wind powered generator. Second answer, Ten. The middle sprocket was a
three sprocket set, the front chain is on the small sprocket and the
rear chain can shift between the two larger sprockets. The clearance is
tight but it works. the rear sprocket shifts normally through 5
sprockets.
The main issues that I have had with this bike were with the front chain
and the length of the brake cables. The front chain was so long that it
would swing back an forth on the bottom and come off. To stop this I
made a tensioner from an old derailleur as shown in the old picture.
This tensioner was mounted solid and did move with the chain. After 20
or thirty miles it would work its way loose and the chain would come
off. I later came up with the idea to add an external spring to the
derailleur, which would cause the tensioner to follow and keep pressure
on the chain (see
photo). This configuration has worked flawlessly for months now. The
brake cable issue mostly applies to the rear break The length of this
cable is somewhere between 7 and 9 feet with a splice in it. I just
recycled cables from the old bikes I was using. This causes allot
stretch so that not much force gets to the wheel. I replaced the front
caliper with one of a better design (see photo) to compensate. This
works well, plus if all else fails there is always the Flintstone
Braking System not available on regular bikes."
LED
Bill-Lite