TheJ Posted July 20, 2016 Share Has anyone else out there ever made their own "Frankenstein" bike parts to accomplish a certain goal or need? In the mid 90's I did downhill racing on provincial and national level. I didn't attend all the nationals, but maybe 1-2 every year or two. I had won a very basic full suspension bike at the Knysna Oyster Festical in a lucky draw, but it came with a very sucky 3" travel RST triple clamp fork. Side note, the next day was the Gavin Ragsdale memorial downhill race. I won the Junior category on the bike I won the previous day I wanted more suspension, and proper Bombers and the such back them was way too expensive. My dad and I went to a local motorcycle scrap yard as he knew the owner. There we found two "legs" from a DT50 motorcycle suspension fork along with the bottom and top crown. I ordered a loose steerer tube from my LBS and gave the lot to a machine shop who back then specialised in making bike parts. He soldered on brake bosses (this was before disc brakes existed), and drilled out the dropouts to convert the thru-axles to regular dropouts. Again, modern day MTB thru-axles wouldn't be invented for another 15 odd years. The hub did secure with allen key screws though, not levers. He gave me a custom hub which fit into everything and I had an old (single wall as well) Bontrager rim build onto it. The steerer tube was welded onto the bottom crown and we were good to go. The monster was incredibly heavy but it was the smoothest 5.5" of suspension you could imagine. Coil/oil. With this Frankenstein fork on, with my massive Tioga DH saddle and with riser bars, my old Giant Warp DS2 looked very bad ass. I still have the fork and the wheel that goes with it, will post pictures tonight. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mongoose! Posted July 20, 2016 Share Pictures please, or it is not true... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BaGearA Posted July 20, 2016 Share Picking up a frankenpart from a fellow hubber tonight , will post pics and the story that goes along a little later on Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hairy Posted July 20, 2016 Share just posting here so that I can follow this thread!!!!!! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
fanievb Posted July 20, 2016 Share Boer maak 'n plan eksê Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mongoose! Posted July 20, 2016 Share Wow!!!!!!DT 50 nogals Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BaGearA Posted July 20, 2016 Share Ok so what you are looking at here is a extension piece for the airshaft of my fork made by a fellow hubber (won't mention his name to avoid spam) Basically rather than having to order a new shaft to get more travel I just screw the grub screw into the existing airshaft and then screw the piece into that , put the lowers back on and install the foot nuts BAM!! custom airshaft created Thanks again to the Hubber for helping me out! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BrandonF_ Posted July 20, 2016 Share ...i was lost at 15:32 .....i am sadly still lost at 19:49 .......#TechRetard#MyHumbleApologies???? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
popcorn_skollie Posted July 20, 2016 Share Told ya 20160720_165551.jpg 20160720_165606.jpg 20160720_165620.jpg 20160720_165635.jpg That's pretty cool. Any pics of the bike?Those bikes also had pretty long stems beck then.Yours looks direct mount. Would love to see a bar slotted in there. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TheJ Posted July 20, 2016 Share That's pretty cool. Any pics of the bike?Those bikes also had pretty long stems beck then.Yours looks direct mount. Would love to see a bar slotted in there. No pictures of the actual bike (still own it), but it was this one... The top crown is direct mount, but I used it with a stem. The top crown slides down a bit allowing for the steerer to stick through. I also made an adapter for the rear of the bike allowing the rear of the shock to mount closer to the crankset. That allowed me to get lots more travel out of the rear for the same amount of shock stroke. The shocks weren't geared to be compressed that much so they didn't last too long. 6" out of a bike that came out with 2.5" wasn't bad Bobbed like a summab1tch though, hahaha. Good times Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Halfdoesyn Posted July 21, 2016 Share DT50... Takes me back. Love the smell of 2-stroke in the morning. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jimmy hardtail Posted July 24, 2016 Share Wow, where to begin. Ive made many chain devices for my dh bikes, ive extended old 680mm bars to 780. Ive grafted raleigh marathon swingarms onto my old Marin B17 frame. Ive modified several marzocchi forks for more travel, better travel, less travel. Ive made my own frames. Ive made my own v brakes before they were invented to run front brakes on my freestyle bmx back in the early nineties. Ditto lay back seat posts. I recovered a bmx saddle with a carling black label beer dish towel ( looked rad!). Resprayed almost every bike ive ever owned. Also all sorts of small mcgyver moves to get mismatched parts to fit together. I guess its all part of growin up a poor bmx/mtb rider. If i wanted it to work i had to make it work, no asking mommy or daddy for a new bike or parts... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PhilipV Posted July 25, 2016 Share I've stripped and cannibalised deraileurs to make broken ones work again, made home made mudguards, rebuild a brake lever that broke at the handlebar with huge screws and epoxy (fugly solution,) had a carbon repair done on a frame and recovered a saddle with off cut leather I got from woodheads. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TheJ Posted July 26, 2016 Share If i wanted it to work i had to make it work, no asking mommy or daddy for a new bike or parts... Know what you mean. As mentioned I raced a few SAMBA nationals in the 90's and early 2000's. By that stage I had won the bike I mentioned above. But, there wasn't money to keep both the XC bike and "DH" bike in top condition. So some nationals I'd be a DH rider and some a XC rider, depending which bike was in a better condition. Still, very grateful that I had the opportunity to get to nationals to begin with. I remember during the same era there was a guy, Dirk Lourens if I remember correctly, that built a massive travel downhill bike by using two Giant ATX suspension frames. What a time to be alive. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Spoke101 Posted July 26, 2016 Share Created my own bike rack for the bin of a bukkie.Re-did my freehub with different pawls and a custom spring to improve durability.Converted 10spd shifters to 11spd.Converted a set of RockShox lower legs to take a Fox thru axle.Converted my Fork to take air reducers.Defiantly done a few more over the years that have escaped my memory. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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