June 15, 2012 - AtomicZombie - DIY Plans for Recumbent Bikes

“Hello from Missouri. Love your stuff. Keep up
the great work. ”
~ Bruce Y., Missouri
June 15, 2012
NEWS
Simple short wheel base recumbent
By Brad Graham
AZTV
H
ere is a very simple 20 inch wheel short wheelbase
recumbent bike that you can build in a few hours
using nothing more than a kid's bike and a few
lengths of round tubing.
This project makes a good starter recumbent and is a good
experimenter’s platform for those who want to try out various
seating positions and angles. The completed bike doesn't weigh
much more than the bike used as parts, and can be stored in the
same space as a regular bicycle. Of course, this simple project
lacks many of the more advanced features offered in our DIY
Plans, but you could always add your own modifications to
expand on this project.
You can build a 20 inched wheel short wheelbase recumbent out
of just about any kid's bike or BMX bike. You will need to start with
a working cycle or at least one that has functioning wheels, cranks,
and a transmission system. The rear wheel should have a multispeed freewheel so that you can have multiple gears, but you could
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and just make your bike
single speed. If you want to climb a hill or reach any decent top
speed, then you will need a rear wheel that has at least a 5 speed
freehub.
Besides a working 20 inch bike, you will also need a few feet of round tubing. You can cut up another
bike frame for the tubing, or just use some thin walled electrical conduit (EMT) for this project. Basically
any square or round tubing with an approximate 1.25 inch diameter and a wall thickness similar to
bicycle frame tubing will work. The other part shown in the photo is the bottom bracket and crankset
that will be placed ahead of the front wheel. You can cut the bottom bracket from another frame since
the original bottom bracket will be unused and left on the frame. For more information on bottom
bracket sizes and assembly, see the tutorials on our main page.
This simple recumbent bike is made to fit the rider, so it has no adjustable seat or bottom bracket. For
this reason, we will make the seat first so that you can later use your body as a measuring system in to
determine the optimal placement of the cranks for your leg length. Chop off the top of the seat tube as
shown in the photo and then find another 12 inch long tube that can be welded over the top of the cut-off
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1
“Thank you for having this amazing
community for all of us to enjoy!”
~ Troy W., Arkansas
NEWS
June 15, 2012
(Continued from page 1)
AZTV
seat tube. This tube will become your seat back tube, and it will
support the back of the seat as well as set the recumbent angle of
your seat.
The angle of the seat is completely up to you, and anything from 25
degrees to 35 degrees (taken from the horizontal ground) will work.
If you lean your seat back too much, you will have to hold up your
head, and if you set your seat to far forward, your knees will have to
bend a lot while pedaling. Try a 30 degree angle and make only tack
welds on the seat support
tubing until you can sit on the frame and see if you like the angle.
On a project like this, it is easy to make adjustments, and since your
frame parts will differ from the ones shown here, you will need to
experiment.
To support the seat, the 12 inch long seat tube is welded to the top
of the cut-off seat tube and then braces with any small tubing such
as a seat of seat stays cut from another old frame. When you are
testing your seat angle, you can get away without the bracing as long
as you don't put any hard pressure against the back of the seat. For
riding though, you will definitely need the seat tube bracing.
The seat will be held to the frame by a set of tabs that have holes
drilled for woodscrews. Any 1 inch wide 1/8 inch or similar flatbar
can be used to make the seat mounting tabs, and they are made 6
inches long so that there is about 3 inches of material on each side of
the frame tubing to mount the seat. Weld the seat mounting tabs to
the frame so that the woodscrews will fasten each part of the seat in
the approximate center of each board.
The seat mounting tabs are shown here welded to the frame so that
each seat board will be held to the frame by a set of woodscrews. If
you are not yet sure of your final seat angle, then leave out the seat back support tubing until you have had
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“I read about that massive flooding in your area. I
hope everyone will come out of it ok and can get
back to some sense of normalcy.”
~ Paul H., Ireland
NEWS
June 15, 2012
(Continued from page 2)
AZTV
a chance to sit on the frame and see if your seat angle is comfortable. You could also make an adjustable
seat back by hinging the seat back support tube and installing some kind of clamp that will allow the seat
back support tubing to be moved along the frame and then locked
into position.
The seat is made of 3/4 inch thick plywood and foam as shown
here. Feel free to make your seat any width and height you like, but
for a reference, I like to make my seat base 10 inches wide at the
back, 8 inches wide at the front, and 10 inches in length.
I usually make the seat back 10 inches wide at the back, 8 inches
wide at the top, and 12 inches in length. To further enhance the seat,
another top section can be added to support your upper back, but
for now, this basic seat will get you started. For seat padding, I use a firm 1.5 inch thick foam that has
been cut to fit onto the plywood seat boards. You will need to install your seat padding before moving on
with the frame design.
Fasten the two seat boards together where they meet using a pair
of bent L-shaped shelf brackets so that your seat becomes one
single assembly. You can then glue the foam to the plywood using
some spray adhesive. The shelf brackets will be strong enough to
hold your seat boards together yet still allow some give if you want
to force the seat into another angle later as you make modifications
to your bike. Once your seat is made, fasten it to the frame by using
the four woodscrews through the seat mounting tabs installed on
the frame.
The main difference between this bike and a regular upright bicycle is the fact that the cranks are
placed ahead of the front wheel rather than between the wheels. This recumbent position lets you push
your full energy into the cranks and offers both a comfort and aerodynamic advantage over a regular
bicycle seating position. To get your cranks in front of the frame, you will need a set of tubes to create a
triangulated boom and a bottom bracket to weld to the end of these boom tubes. Unfortunately, you can't
easily remove the unused bottom bracket from your frame and transplant it here since it is holding all of
your frame tubes together, so you will have to salvage one from another frame.
If you have to choose between a bottom bracket for a single piece cranks set and a 3-piece crankset, then
choose the threaded bottom bracket for a 3-piece crankset as these will offer the most selection when
choosing a cranks et (see out crank and bottom bracket tutorials on the main page for more information).
Clean up your bottom bracket shell with a grinder and then make a fishmouth cut on one of your boom
tubes to conform to the bottom bracket as shown here. Before cutting the boom tube length, read ahead
(Continued on page 6)
3
“Bravo! I just got your 6-pack special. I must
say these are excellent projects. Kudos to you!”
~ Manfred N., UK
NEWS
June 15, 2012
(Continued from page 3)
to see how the length of the boom tubing will be determined.
AZTV
The goal is to position the cranks over the front wheel in
such a way so they there is no pedal or crank arm
interference with the front wheel as it turns. If the crank arm
were to hit the front wheel, the steering would lock up,
resulting in a loss of control.
So, basically, you want to position the bottom bracket as far
ahead and as low as possible, while at the same time ensuring
that the cranks do not interfere with the front wheel and so
that they are placed the optimal distance from the seat for
your leg length. To be continued in next week’s newsletter.
Jr. StreetFox tadpole trike
"Brad’s plans made it easy to adapt the Street Fox to fit
my ten year old. I enjoyed teaching him how to use the
tools to make his new ride."
Built by postalflunki and son.
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“Thanks for having the builders gallery. I love
looking at all the pics from around the world.”
~ Arthur S., UK
NEWS
June 15, 2012
From the Builders Gallery
Larry Janzen, Canada
AZTV
Wisco Rat, USA
Json’s Chopper
Philippines
Kingston Custom,
Canada
Wisco Rat, USA
You can now upload your own bike pictures
to the gallery!
Go to the AZ forum and join us.
5
“Hi Kat and Brad. Glad to hear that you two are
OK. No apology necessary for the late
newsletter last week. We understand.”
~ Norman F., Los Angeles
NEWS
June 15, 2012
AZTV
Coming soon!
W
e have been working with our local machine shop in an effort to get our parts ready to
sell, and things are coming along nicely. We have the first aluminum freewheel adapter
prototypes now and they look great! We still have to do some testing on the parts and
decide on the final colors, but progress is being made.
Working out the logistics of shipping and the additional coding needed for our store is also coming
along, and we hope to have the system ready to take orders in early June if all goes well. At this point,
we are only looking at shipping to North America due to inflated shipping rates, but will be working on
a solution for global distributions once we get this project off the ground. Another shop is working on
our weld-ready head tubes and bottom brackets as well, and as soon as those parts come back from the
shop, we will adding them to our available parts inventory as well.
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“G’day from Australia. I love being an Atomic
Zombie!”
~ Sheldon H., Australia
June 15, 2012
NEWS
Atomic Zombie head tubes & bottom
AZTV
brackets for your bike projects
A
ttention DIY bike builders - we hear
you loud and clear!
Since we originally stated our intention to
manufacture some of our trike parts, you’ve
told us that you also want the basic building
blocks needed for practically any human
powered vehicle.
A salvaged bottom bracket
Of these basic building blocks, the two that
are most often used are the bottom bracket
and the head tube. In fact, you can build
many of our DIY bikes and trikes without
requiring any other frame parts besides a
head tube and bottom bracket.
We understand that in some parts of the world it may be difficult to salvage several frames for
chopping when taking on a project that requires several similar head tubes or bottom brackets such as
a trike or quad, so we are actively pursuing the manufacture of these raw components.
If you intend to pedal your creation, then without a doubt you will require one or more bottom
brackets, as they are necessary for holding the crankset and bearing hardware to the frame. It's easy
to simply chop one out of a steel parts frame and then grind it clean as long as you have a frame. A
tandem bike or trike requires two bottom brackets, and often matching crank hardware, so the
process of salvaging these components can take some time.
(Continued on page 8)
You can now upload your own bike pictures to the gallery!
Go to the AZ forum and join us.
7
“Very impressive projects. Thanks for your
dedication to this craft.”
~ Petr R., Germany
NEWS
June 15, 2012
(Continued from page 7)
As we were looking at the technical
drawings for some other parts we intend to
manufacture, I realized how simple a part a
bottom bracket really was and took a drawing
to our local shops for pricing. Thanks to those
who chimed in regarding our intent to
manufacture in our recent newsletters, we
have decided to push ahead on making
bottom bracket and head tubes available to
our community and possibly bearing
hardware in the near future as well.
AZTV
A complete bottom bracket and hardware
Our bottom bracket shells will be mild steel
and take standard threaded bearing cups or a
complete bottom bracket cartridge. These
shells will be unpainted and ready for
welding, so you will not need to spend the
time cleaning or salvaging these parts. If we
can locate a reliable supplier for the bearing
hardware, we will also offer complete sets so
you won't have to remove them from a donor
cycle or wait to order them from your local
bike shop.
With a length of metal tubing and the parts
shown here, you can carve out practically any
kind of human powered vehicle. Our goal is to
supply as many building blocks as we can so
that you can spend more time building cool
bikes and less time digging scavenging and
digging through scrap piles for donor parts.
A salvaged head tube, bottom bracket, and
supporting hardware
(Continued on page 10)
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“We gotta get you two here for our club rides. You’d love
Amsterdam.”
~ Franz N., Netherlands
NEWS
From bonny Scotland
Another builder getting started
“Hi. New, but older fan of AZ just got
AZTV
June 15, 2012
myself 6 plans for my birthday. It’s
been a dream of mine to build my own
pedal or motor trike for a while now so
saw these plans and thought, "Yay,
summer project.”
More>>
“Not really any progress since last
update, will be moving forward this
week and next, looking forward to
riding.
Showed our 7 year old daughter various
pics of completed Warriors, the design I
will build for my self and one for my
wife, she says she really wants a trike
like that. ”
More>>
Downhill racer/velomobile?
Silent Speedster rolling frame
“So, I finished my rolling frame this
evening... Next is the seat, foot pegs
and battery mounting plate.
I'm going to go with a 20" front hub
motor. It'll be powered by 48V 18ah
Lipos. (6ea. 6s 6000mah from
www.hobbyking.com)
Thanks for a great design/plans!
-Tim .”
“Zombie builders, the burning question
Colorado
is what is it, a downhill gravity derby
racer or Velemobile? How about both.
My brother lives in Vader, WA, and his
town in getting ready to have a downhill
derby day in Vader. My brother thought
that maybe I didn't already have enough
projects going already and suggested
that we (meaning me) put a derby car
together for us to run at their derby
day.”
More>>
More>>
From our Facebook Fan Page:
“Hello to my bike building buds out there. I’m having a
blast.” ~ Bryan J., Oklahoma
Advertise in the weekly
AtomicZombie newsletter.
Affordable rates, high visibility.
Contact KoolKat for more information.
9
“Bonjour mes amis! Thank you for the good plans.
Merci”
~ Jean-Louis G., France
NEWS
June 15, 2012
(Continued from page 8)
AZTV
Head tube and bottom bracket shells are at the top of our inventory list, and we hope to add more as we
move along on this new venture. We are also going to make our head tube shells slightly thicker than
normal so that there will be less distortion in the round tube after welding it to your frame.
Parts manufacturing is a new adventure for us, so we have to work out many things such as shipping
and packaging, but we are working hard to get these parts ready to deliver. Our local machine shops are
working out a price for large quantities of head tube and bottom bracket shells and we will be taking
preorders as soon as we have a firm price for the first run.
Please let us know if you want to be on the list for these parts as this will help us determine how
many to manufacture at a time, with prices being lower for larger
quantities. Thanks to everyone for the feedback!
Greets Atomic Zombies.
This is a general message to anyone who has shown
an interest in the manufactured parts.
We don’t have details on costs and shipping yet. To
make things cost-effective, we are gathering interest so
do a fairly large order at the machine shop.
We hope that if all goes well, we will be shipping parts
later this month. However, much depends on demand.
We will keep you posted as soon as we get some firm
prices, timelines and shipping information.
Radical Brad and KoolKat
Feedback
“Hey! Just dropped by to say hi from sunny Florida. Love following your site and all the cool
stuff you do. I don’t check in every day, but when I do, it’s for several hours. What a great
world we live in where complete strangers can get together and help each other. Love it!” ~
Quincy K., Fort Lauderdale, Florida
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“Hi! Your web site is very good. Thanks for the tutorials.
They help me very much.”
~ Niko L., Finland
NEWS
AZTV
June 15, 2012
Building custom bicycles is a great hobby that
can be learned by anyone with a desire to
create. The skills needed to dismantle, alter and
repair bicycle components can be easily
learned, and the parts and tools you will need
are quite inexpensive.
o
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i
g
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i
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i
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Discarded or worn out bicycles offer many good
parts and can often be found at local scrap
yards, city dumps, or yard sales for a few
dollars.
Even if you plan to build a custom creation
using all new parts, this hobby will seem inexpensive compared to many, as you can purchase
a brand new bicycle at a store for less than a hundred dollars.
The great thing about hacking and welding bicycles is that you will be working with all steel
components, which are much stronger, more common, and much less expensive than high
grade aluminum or carbon fiber bicycle parts. If you have never torn a bicycle apart before,
then this basic introduction will show you all you need to complete a total bicycle autopsy in
minutes, stripping an entire cycle down to the individual parts using only a few basic hand
tools.
You can build your own recumbent bike, tadpole trike, chopper, velomobile, electric
scooter, delta trike, quadcycle or tandem trike from our easy to follow plans. All of our plans
are easily modified to suit your own needs and you can work with the materials you have on
hand.
Combine the ideas presented in several plans into a unique home built recumbent bike, or
create your own racing trike based on one of our DIY plans. The possibilities are endless!
Join the Atomic Zombie family of bike builders
Send us a picture of your completed handmade bike.
Each picture less than 2MB in size, please. JPG preferred.
>> [email protected] <<
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“Hi Brad and Kat. It’s been awhile. I’ve been away
from bike building, but got the itch to get started
again. Will keep you posted.”
~ Michael L., Nova Scotia
NEWS
June 15, 2012
Atomic Zombie manufactured
AZTV
parts for your bike projects
By Brad Graham, AtomicZombie.com
D
ue many, many requests, we will be
manufacturing some parts that are used on
our delta trikes and quads.
We will be starting with the wheel and
transmission parts, and hope to add more to our
inventory in response to the demand. We may even
offer spokes, bearings, chains, and many other
common bicycle parts that are used on practically
every project.
Here is a description of the parts we intend to offer
and which plans they belong to.
Some of the Delta Trike parts we will offer:
Part (A) is a disc brake axle adapter, and it will allow you to install a standard bicycle disc brake
onto a 5/8 or 3/4 inch diameter steel axle. The part will be drilled and tapped for standard disc brake
rotor mounting and will include a set screw for connection to the axle.
Part (B) is a threaded freewheel axle adapter that will allow a Shimano type screw-on freewheel
to be affixed to a 5/8 or 3/4 inch diameter steel axle. This part will include a set screw for connection to
the axle.
Part (C) is a threaded freewheel axle adapter that also includes a disc brake mounting flange.
This part is basically a combination of Part (A) and Part (B) so both a free hub and disc brake can be
affixed in the same place using a single part.
Part (D) is a hub flange that will allow a wheel to be laced directly to a 5/8 or 3/4 inch diameter steel
(Continued on page 13)
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“Just a quick thanks for all that you do.”
~ Jacob K., England
June 15, 2012
NEWS
(Continued from page 12)
Projects that require axle adapters and
flanges.
AZTV
axle. These parts are sold in pairs and will
include 18 or 24 drilled spoke holes for 36 or
48 hole rims.
All of our DIY trike and quadcycle plans use
one or more of these parts, and you certainly
use these parts to design your own unique
vehicles based on our plans or from scratch.
Having these parts available means that you
can shave days off your build time or possibly
weeks if you have to wait in line at the
machine shop for your parts to be made.
Because we will be making these in
quantities, we can manufacture them for less
than what a machine shop would charge for a
single unit.
All of our parts are tested to fit on the axle
and freewheel, so there will be no guesswork
or problems when it comes time to install
them.
Our freewheel and brake adapter will allow
standard bicycle components to be adapted to
any 5/8 or 3/4 axle so that transmission and
braking can be included. A threaded freewheel
will screw on to the adapter and a standard
bicycle disc brake rotor will bolt onto the
included flange.
With these two components mounted to the
axle, you can use a standard bicycle rear
(Continued on page 14)
13
“That OverKill (chopper) is wicked! I’m gonna build
one, too.”
~ Samuel M., Arizona
NEWS
June 15, 2012
(Continued from page 13)
AZTV
derailleur to add speeds and a standard mechanical bicycle disc brake to offer solid stopping power.
All of our plans that include two rear wheels make use of one or more of these freewheel and disc
brake adapters. With our freewheel and disc brake adapters, you can add a pedal transmission to
practically anything with an axle.
If you are interested in purchasing any of the parts we intend to offer, please let us know! We will
start off with a small batch of parts and then base our inventory from the response.
Here’s the list of possible custom manufactured parts again:
A.
Disc brake axle adapter, and it will allow you to install a standard bicycle disc brake onto
a 5/8 or 3/4 inch diameter steel axle. The part will be drilled and tapped for standard disc
brake rotor mounting and will include a set screw for connection to the axle.
B.
Threaded freewheel axle adapter that will allow a Shimano type screw-on freewheel to
be affixed to a 5/8 or 3/4 inch diameter steel axle. This part will include a set screw for
connection to the axle.
C.
Threaded freewheel axle adapter that also includes a disc brake mounting flange.
D.
Hub flange that will allow a wheel to be laced directly to a 5/8 or 3/4 inch diameter steel
axle. These parts are sold in pairs and will include 18 or 24 drilled spoke holes for 36 or 48
hole rims.
We are currently collecting names so that we can tell the machine shop how many parts to make in
one run. That number will dictate the unit price, so the more people who are interested, the lower the
price per unit will be and we can pass those savings along to you.
In terms of shipping costs, those will be determined once we have the prototypes back from the
shop, (within a couple of weeks). Once we have tested the prototypes, we will determine packaging
and shipping costs.
Stay tuned to the forum, newsletter , Facebook and AZ site for announcements.
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