Another . . . Bike update!

So . . . last week before leaving for my trip I went to visit the local big box store where I had requested some prices for chromoly metal tubing to be used for the bike I want to build. It turns out that they cannot get a hold of the tubing.

I am going to have to find a local metal shop and find out if they can get a hold of some for me. I don't need much, but chromoly is mainly used for bicycles and for airplane building. Not that many homebuilders in this part of the world apparently. But I hear that some people use the chromoly to make roll bars for cars. There are plenty of car homebuilders in the area so I still may be lucky enough to find a shop.

For now though, I will be building an original GroundHugger (look it up). It's a pretty neat lookin' bike. It's what originally got me interested in building my own recumbent! I finally got ahold of some of the original plans from the Popular Mechanics magazine (Build PM's GroundHugger, April 1969). Not a lot of info, but the dimensions are on there and so is some of the important information needed on what parts to get. Boy that was a pain to find because a lot of the local libraries don't carry magazines that far back. I had to have them photocopied from the Naval Post-Graduate School here in Monterey.

In the article it says you can build your own rear wheel stays but it also says if you have access to an old bike, use those. So I started shopping around for beat up cruiser style bikes all over the place.

No luck!

That is until yesterday! My cousin needed a computer moniter for his pc because the one he had been using up and died on him. Well I happen to have access to a bunch that will never be used again, but still work. I grabbed a couple of them and took them to his place. He lives with his fiancee and her dad. Once there I find out that her dad is an avid bicycle collector (sort of). I told him my dilemma and he said we could trade! I had already brought the moniter over so he let me have a cruiser frame he had sitting around! KICK-ASS!!!

I now have my rear wheel stays for the GroundHugger and I believe I have the main tubing sitting in my back-yard right now from one of those attach-a-tandem kid bike thingies you can get so you can take a kid around on a half-a-bike attached to yours. I think it'll be perfect. All I gotta do is bend it. I'll have access to a torch this weekend. I'll bend it then and thus, the building will begin!

GD