I’m just about to start building a tallbike this afternoon.
I have 2 steel frames, one in good working order(ish) the other with just about everything seized into it. So the bad one is going on top.
My idea is to have a chain goijg from the big ring on the top frame to the big ring on the bottom, then from the middle ring to the cassette.
Then to drill the stem on the bottom and remove the bars and feed the skewer from the top forks through the hole, rather than welding tubes onto steerers and all that, as one is 1 1/8 and the other 1″, plus as I said it’s all seized up.
Anyone got any handy tips from experience? I’ll be using a tig welder with mild steel rods.

won’t you need to get the headtubes perfectly aligned to be able to steer?

I think the offset on the top set of forks will mean you won’t be able to turn them if they’re attached the way you suggest.

I would if i was welding tubes through the headtubes, but the rake of the fork should allow the steerer to turn in the top headtube

http://classiccopenhagen.blogspot.co.uk/2010/06/tallbike-trumps-burning-witch.html
This is the kind of idea

go for it,I hope it’s gona be SS tho 😉

P.S. you have inspired me,I may build one myself later…. 😉

Plenty of ideas on Atomic Zombie website.

http://forum.atomiczombie.com/gallery/browseimages.php?c=8

Rat Patrol is also good for a look (all old stuff so don’t know if he is still building bikes. Met him once with some of his creations in Keswick – nice but slightly bonkers guy!)

http://rat-patrol.org/RPUK/RatPatrolUK.html

On closer inspection the bottom frame is reynolds 531 too, nice!

Pics to follow hopefully this afternoon

Not that this will stop you :-)…..

You should really be brazing not welding 531 – the manganese content is too high. Acts a bit like welding a very high carbon steel (i.e. might go brittle).

Hmmmmm good point, I had welded a brace onto the frame too see how tough it would be and now can’t remove it even by hammering it so it’s pretty strong. here’s a pic of what i got done today

So all the welding done today.

Welded a brace(chainstay) to take weight off the skewer doing the steering

And the cat disapproved of me welding in a wooden shed and hid in his castle

Now being sprayed matt black and will be built up when I’m next off work

looking good ! slight delay on mine,as off to Swanage for the wknd 😉

Looks like your weight is going to be pretty far back – should be easy to wheelie 😯 – or is it just the angle of the pic?

Good point, might be an issue keeping the front down… Or just be really fun and easy to wheelie!
Or better still might put stress in the wrong areas and cause the welds to fail…
Showed the pic to some colleagues this morning and they described it as ‘an accident waiting to happen’.

they described it as ‘an accident waiting to happen’.

A successful tallbike build then!

Doesn’t a qr skewer normally only provide tension. Weight taken off it with the brace, but won’t it bend when you try to steer?

Good observation, I have drilled the dropouts so the qr is going through a 5mm hole rather than the actual dropout and regarding tension my idea was to pack out between the stem and dropputs with washers.
However i have noticed that when turning the bars the skewers slides through the stem so i’ll trial it as is, failing all that ill just get a nice big bolt to bolt through and some plates to weld onto the dropouts..
More worried about getting the drivetrain and brakes working for the moment…

right,all cutting and welding of forks done,cutting and welding of frame(s) done,bit of grinding and filing to do,then assembly,pics to follow…..

so all finishedish….

here not sure if this will work,but hey.

I couldn’t see the photo 🙁

sorry,bit of a techno **** here… go over to onecog on fb,it’s all there 😉

So my fork steering didn’t work so I took it all apart and did it properly from scratch, here it is:

I have taken it round the garden and it all works fine. aligning the headtubes was a bit of a job without jigs. But it was fun to build and even funner to ride!
Here’s a video:
http://s1124.photobucket.com/user/chrishc777/media/10334178_580686495383362_1249567795_n.mp4.html

Can I have first dibs on the Transition when it goes wrong?

bigyinn all yours if you ride the tall bike from your house to pick up the Covert. and Macavity that’s awesome! Learning to ride a tallbike like that must really boost normal riding skills, balance and all that! Might need a gnarlier tallbike though…

Deal, drop it round this eve. What could possibly go wrong?

Obviously only in the event of my sudden tallbike induced death…

Here’s one we had made a couple of years ago. Called Camilla Parker Rolls.

Make sure you give it a snazzy paint job OP 😉

Now that is a very sazzy paint job! I’m thinking matte black with retro ‘splashes’ of fluo yellow or green, 90’s style