12/05 - 4/06
RIP
The Toad hath created, and the Toad shall destroy.
Once a rare but impressive sight on the CSU campus, Squeaky on 'Roids! is no more. First, I shall tell the story of the creation of SOR! on the orginal SOR! page.
This
is the the successor to Squeaky, the tallbike that I rode for almost an
entire semester. Good times they were, but I was growing tired of
Squeaky. It was slow, and with at least 3 CSU based tallbikes and one
Fort Collins based tall bike, I was about to be crowded out of my own
niche. There was but one option left for me. Build higher.
I ripped Squeaky apart, and tried to shove a single gas pipe though the head tube of the blue bike so that I could connect the top, middle, and bottom bikes with one unbroken pipe. My reasoning was that the fewer welds there were, the better. I also figured that the bike would be straight with out the heavy steering that plagued Squeaky.
Right away, I found the pipe would not fit though the left over fork neck. Even a bigger problem, it was jammed into the neck and would not come loose. I plugged in the grinder, and cut the tube off. Not only was there breaks in the pipe now, but there was an extra weld needed. Work continued, but I had to rip off the blue frame.
I welded the green frame to the bottom frame, and welded it with lots of filler. I figured there might be a stress point there. I welded the mid frame in, and then welded the top frame on. It was a challenge, as it didn't want to sit on there. I had to rapidly tack weld the frame on, then go back and make it permanent. I think it ended up pretty straight. I welded some braces onto the bike, tried to fit a brake, and then scrounged up 3 complete chains to run the bike. The old chopper was long ago chopped up for the cargo trike, but now the chain is gone as well. How sad.
I tried to skip along, but finally I had to concede that I had no idea how to get on the bike. I needed to weld an extra handle on the bike (silver tube on top bike's forks) and then I still couldn't figure out how to get on the bike. I wheeled it to a telephone pole, and then proceeded to try to climb up the bike. Adding to the difficulty was the fact that I had picked a telephone pole next to a tree, and the tree was quite prickly at that.
Once I felt I had devised the optimal way to mount the bike, I again tried to mount it freestanding. I timidly ran halfway down the block to make sure the bike was going fast enough. The brake had only one setting: dragging. A few attempts failed, and then finally I swung a leg over. The single gas pipe made for a poor steering shaft: it flexed. Quite badly in fact. The whole bike felt like it was about to fall apart. Suddenly it occurred to me that I had no idea of how to get down.
I rode around the block, trying to decide what to do. On one hand, I could roll up to a parked SUV and simply use the roof to dismount. However, owner might object, and I might damage the SUV. I then thought about the Police station a few blocks away. But that wasn't a very good option either. There might not be any police around. It would also make me look pretty silly. Then the chain fell off, forcing me to decide in a matter of seconds the proper way to dismount. I used the side step on the bike, and then jumped down.
The next ride also ended in a chain failure, and the ride after that was just long enough for my friend to snap the photos. The bike still felt like it was going to fall apart, and I ended the fall semester with a 7 foot tall bike sitting in Karen's garage. I needed chain work, brake work, and needed to figure out how to make the bike stiffer. However, owing to the rapid increase of "Squeaky's" size, I dubbed the new version of Squeaky, "Squeaky on 'Roids!" It is also known as SOR!
The solution was to remove the front brake off my usual ride, a fairly regular bike at that, and install it on the tall bike. This gave a SOR! a nice working brake. That taken care off, I rerouted the chain somewhat, and then welded a couple of nearly 4 foot lengths of bed frame to the front fork. This was both in case the steering shaft failed (that happened on Squeaky, and I don't ever want that to happen again) and also to stiffen the bike up. The bike is much stiffer now. The final mod ended up a few days after completion, when the chain fell off yet again. I added a derailler to the chain run to keep the tension constant.
So far, the tall bike is fairly easy to ride when on top, but requires constant vigilance while riding it. I looked back at a driver who was shouting approval, and found myself about to ride into a curb, which is what took Squeaky out on its maiden voyage. However, the problem that was immediately pressing was a branch that I rode into. I was getting beat up pretty badly by it, but I had to work to avoid the curve. Free of both branch and curve, I realized that branches may be a bigger problem than in the past. The other problem is that dismounts take time, as well as mounts, so I pretty much avoid areas with lots of cars or red lights. Stop signs I can deal with.
I ripped Squeaky apart, and tried to shove a single gas pipe though the head tube of the blue bike so that I could connect the top, middle, and bottom bikes with one unbroken pipe. My reasoning was that the fewer welds there were, the better. I also figured that the bike would be straight with out the heavy steering that plagued Squeaky.
Right away, I found the pipe would not fit though the left over fork neck. Even a bigger problem, it was jammed into the neck and would not come loose. I plugged in the grinder, and cut the tube off. Not only was there breaks in the pipe now, but there was an extra weld needed. Work continued, but I had to rip off the blue frame.
I welded the green frame to the bottom frame, and welded it with lots of filler. I figured there might be a stress point there. I welded the mid frame in, and then welded the top frame on. It was a challenge, as it didn't want to sit on there. I had to rapidly tack weld the frame on, then go back and make it permanent. I think it ended up pretty straight. I welded some braces onto the bike, tried to fit a brake, and then scrounged up 3 complete chains to run the bike. The old chopper was long ago chopped up for the cargo trike, but now the chain is gone as well. How sad.
I tried to skip along, but finally I had to concede that I had no idea how to get on the bike. I needed to weld an extra handle on the bike (silver tube on top bike's forks) and then I still couldn't figure out how to get on the bike. I wheeled it to a telephone pole, and then proceeded to try to climb up the bike. Adding to the difficulty was the fact that I had picked a telephone pole next to a tree, and the tree was quite prickly at that.
Once I felt I had devised the optimal way to mount the bike, I again tried to mount it freestanding. I timidly ran halfway down the block to make sure the bike was going fast enough. The brake had only one setting: dragging. A few attempts failed, and then finally I swung a leg over. The single gas pipe made for a poor steering shaft: it flexed. Quite badly in fact. The whole bike felt like it was about to fall apart. Suddenly it occurred to me that I had no idea of how to get down.
I rode around the block, trying to decide what to do. On one hand, I could roll up to a parked SUV and simply use the roof to dismount. However, owner might object, and I might damage the SUV. I then thought about the Police station a few blocks away. But that wasn't a very good option either. There might not be any police around. It would also make me look pretty silly. Then the chain fell off, forcing me to decide in a matter of seconds the proper way to dismount. I used the side step on the bike, and then jumped down.
The next ride also ended in a chain failure, and the ride after that was just long enough for my friend to snap the photos. The bike still felt like it was going to fall apart, and I ended the fall semester with a 7 foot tall bike sitting in Karen's garage. I needed chain work, brake work, and needed to figure out how to make the bike stiffer. However, owing to the rapid increase of "Squeaky's" size, I dubbed the new version of Squeaky, "Squeaky on 'Roids!" It is also known as SOR!
The solution was to remove the front brake off my usual ride, a fairly regular bike at that, and install it on the tall bike. This gave a SOR! a nice working brake. That taken care off, I rerouted the chain somewhat, and then welded a couple of nearly 4 foot lengths of bed frame to the front fork. This was both in case the steering shaft failed (that happened on Squeaky, and I don't ever want that to happen again) and also to stiffen the bike up. The bike is much stiffer now. The final mod ended up a few days after completion, when the chain fell off yet again. I added a derailler to the chain run to keep the tension constant.
So far, the tall bike is fairly easy to ride when on top, but requires constant vigilance while riding it. I looked back at a driver who was shouting approval, and found myself about to ride into a curb, which is what took Squeaky out on its maiden voyage. However, the problem that was immediately pressing was a branch that I rode into. I was getting beat up pretty badly by it, but I had to work to avoid the curve. Free of both branch and curve, I realized that branches may be a bigger problem than in the past. The other problem is that dismounts take time, as well as mounts, so I pretty much avoid areas with lots of cars or red lights. Stop signs I can deal with.
And now, the story of the destruction of SOR!
After riding SOR! around a bit, I decided that it was just too tall. It took forever to get on, and a long time to get off, which meant that I could really only ride it on routes where emergency stops were unlikely. Another factor was that stop lights were a real pain. Finally, I had sated my appetite for tall bikes for the time being. I'll probably make a double decker in the future, but for now, I'm working on trikes. So I decided to build a side car and use the old parts off of SOR! to build it. SOR! was to be decomissioned on Wednesday, March 29, 2006, but I wanted to let my friend Taylor ride it once before it was chopped. He couldn't do that on Wednesday, so SOR! got a short stay of the execution. Taylor was able to ride it then on Friday, March 31. Then it was off to Karen's to be chopped and destroyed. Less than an hour after arrival, I had removed most parts, and chopped up the rest to build my side car. So SOR! will live on, though one third of its former height.
Photos of it before being hacked.
Click to see Taylor's ride!
And while being hacked.
