These are the modern paint shop facilities at the "Tom Swaim Bike Shop".
These "state of the art " facilities include an anvil with moss growing on it and a swimming pool ladder in case a swimming pool comes along. The tri-pod is from a trampoline that flew in Hurricane Gustav. It was not stable in flight. After a spectacular lift off it crashed into the storage shed.The can of paint on the anvil is the cheapest that can be bought at Wal-Mart. Twice now I've tried upgrading the paint and both times the higher priced cans just would not work or sputtered all over the place. I have used dozens of cans of this cheap stuff and never had a failure. The red I am painting over is this same paint and was put on in 2004. It has had hard use.
This bicycle was given to me by a bicycle shop here that is now defunct. The man at the shop said the frame was bent and the shifters could not be adjusted. I took it home adjusted the shifters and started riding it. I wonder why that shop went out of business. I bet he sold the poor bastard that brought this bike in a new one. I appreciate the gift. It is not trash to me.
When I started riding my 1975 Schwinn I used this as a spare for a while. Then it became a donor for the front wheel drive recumbent experiment which ultimately became a trike and was wrecked by an idiot fat kid.
For a bent frame give away it looks pretty straight to me and is the heart of the "Long Tail Cargo Bike" project.
The part hanging on the hook on the oak tree is the rear triangle from a Huffy 24 inch full suspension mountain bike, made in China I'm sure, but what isn't. The best part is it's really stout. Since I plan to overload it that's a good thing. I've already cussed it into submission in slurred American and it seems to understand.
The drying room. 
The assembly room. Now that I gotten this far I'm not sure I want to use this frame. I have nice 24 inch cruiser frame that I am contemplating using. I think it would fit me better and it is a strong frame.I think I'll contemplate that in my nice warm hovel as it is cold, rainy and my hands keep rejecting the cold wrenches.
Why Red? So the blood won't show.
4 comments:
Nice job on the frame! It looks great in red.
Some candies sold at Walgreens and Dollar stores (to name a few) are made in China. Candies?
Wow.
Any welding involved? The rear rear triangle seems to be bolted to the place where the rear wheel would normally go, but what's that non-red diagonal bar? Does it contain any suspension mechanism, and how is it joined to the crank housing?
I occasionally buy a candle at the thrift store because it's too cheap to pass up. I seem to need a flame of some sort in the winter to satisfy some primeval need. If they are marked they are made in china. Mostly I melt down what ever paraffin wax I have and make my own.
No welding involved. There was none on the front wheel drive bike either. The non red diagonal bar is in place of the spring for the rear suspension on the original donor bike rear triangle. It is, in this case, a heavy wall aluminum pipe from an old rowing machine bolted top and bottom. It is under compression unless you are pulling negative G's and is wedged against the main frame bottom bracket then bolted to the kick stand bracket. It's bolted at the top to the spring bracket. There is a view of the rear triangle in original form on my post of Nov. 23, 2009.
I would like to add that this in not an original idea and you will find plenty of examples at this url:
http://www.bikeforums.net/showthread.php?377128-home-built-xtracycle
I believe that a 16 year old from New Orleans came up with it first. "Roughrider" in the bike forums.
I used the same idea in my build of a long bike using two BMX frames that can be seen in my post of Feb. 20, 2008.
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