whats up guys. just finished and rode my first ever bike project. the steel frame feels really tough though. would you suggest changing the fork or handlebar connection. front tire is probably isn’t the best either.
by notrested
whats up guys. just finished and rode my first ever bike project. the steel frame feels really tough though. would you suggest changing the fork or handlebar connection. front tire is probably isn’t the best either.
by notrested
10 Comments
That bike has a huge wheelbase, looks like a touring frame. You could get a fork with less rake, which will make it more agile in front. But to be honest, I have no idea what that will feel like on that bike.
It’s just the nature of the frame you’re using. This bike has a huge wheelbase and a reasonable amount of rake on the fork, I mean look at how far the rear wheel is from the seat tube, you could almost fit your head through there!
Shorter stem and wider bars might make the steering feel a little snappier as you’ll have more leverage over the steering, I personally wouldn’t bother with a new fork as you’re still going to have those huge chainstays to contend with, I feel like you’d run the risk of making the bike feel weirder rather than straight up improving things.
If it were mine I’d slap some cruiser bars on this bad boy and ride it as is.
WHEELBASE
s t r e t c h l i m o
He’ll yeah!
Handling will sharpen up a bit if you swap to a lower offset fork, but you’re not going to make that bike snappy even then. The rear chainstays are so long that it puts the rear wheel WAY out to the rear for a super long wheelbase. You may shave 2-3 cm off the front, but you’ll still have a massive length out back with limited ability to shorten it. Bike frame is what it is. On the upside, short wheelbase bikes don’t absorb/dissipate road shocks and buzz as well as long wheelbase bikes like this do, so this one surely has to be a cush ride.
I have a conversion build similar to yours. The wheelbase is huge and the frame is steel, but predates yours by 20-30 years. Any attempt to ride that bike aggressively just sucks the energy straight out of you. But with a light ratio and some fat tires, it makes for a comfy cruiser around town.
cheers for all the answers and ideas guys. will see what i can do to turn this baby into a proper cruiser and possibly update once i made progress again!
https://preview.redd.it/tbrqrjw2n5cd1.png?width=302&format=png&auto=webp&s=711eba0fc43216a8b969abcbb2d815de1c93c8ba
lookin ass
Just make this the tourer it was designed to be. Not worth trying to force it to be a snappy, agile city fixed gear