Remembering my first bike...

My first ever bike was a golden dragster with a tall chrome sissy bar, ape hanger handlebars, banana saddle and single speed with a coaster brake. I spent many a happy hour bombing around the local neighbourhood and school netball court on that bike. I could wheelstand it the length of the court, and ride no hands for a complete lap. I loved that bike. As far as I know it still resides underneath my mother's house where it was placed when I got my next bike - a BMX (couldn't wheelstand that one, but I learned to bunny hop on it - but I digress)

Cut forward many years to around about now. I managed to acquire a Madison cruiser-type bike with 22" wheels from the local market for $25 (actually my wife found it). This formed the basis for a semi-recumbent dragster very much inspired by that first bike. I found an old track bike frame for $2, and a banana saddle, also for $2, and the stage was set.

A few hours of cutting and (admittedly piss-poor) brazing later I had this.

On assembly, I discovered that I hadn't left enough clearance to permit the use of the 44t chainring I had intended to use. However, I threw on a 34t ring, sat the seat on a set of chainstays from the track frame and tried it out. Of course wee Dougal had to join in...

It actually handled pretty well, once I got used to keeping the pedals oriented away from the wheel when turning the handlebars. Even so I wanted that bigger gear. It was several months before I could make the changes I wanted, but finally this April I managed to get back into my mate's workshop and get some stuff done.

The thing is, now it handles like a pig. The changes to the head angle resulted in excessive trail, and therefore some serious fork flop. It's a real effort to hold it up at low speed, and while it's better at speed it's by no means perfect. However, I've got much better crank clearance now, and there's plenty of room for that 44 toother. I also got the sissy bar made up. All it really needs now is a gold paint job, padding for the seat (and probably for the lower part of the sissy bar - it really digs in), and perhaps some refinement of the saddle attachments to allow a bit more leg room. It's a little short in the above configuration. I did have the saddle higher, which gave a better leg length, but it just looked wrong.

I still might chop the fork to reduce the fork flop, but it's not a big priority. It's rideable, and it was only ever intended to be a waterfront cruiser anyway. I like it, and for a first effort in building a bike I think it's turned out reasonably well.