P2 on My 'Bent Bike

[Itt]

This is a cradle I made to hold my P2 on the handlebars of my homebuilt recumbent ('Bent) bicycle. I made the cradle out of the tray that held the P2 in the box itt came in.

(If anyone is interested, there is an option to watch this in higher quality on YouTube. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ho5OHKVDkR8)
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[FURR]

that is just an awesome video! Very Creative.

[Itt]

Thank you FURR.

This actually was a lot harder to put together than I thought itt would be. I don't have a digital video camera, was using the wifes Kodak. Video mode is autofocus. When trying to shoot the P2 itt kept picking up itts own reflection and trying to focus on itself! I tried everything I could think of to get that shot. I finally had to cut a hole in a piece of black cardboard and shoot through that, which made it even more awkward than it already was to try to run the camera and operate the P2.

[cdjohnson2]

impressive for sure, just dont use iem's unless you don't like hearing cars that are behind you.

[Itt]

Originally Posted by cdjohnson2

impressive for sure, just dont use iem's unless you don't like hearing cars that are behind you.

yepp. I have a cheepy set of ear clips and put them on with the buds pretty loose on my ears.
I am thinking of getting some sort of small rechargable speakers. But will probably wait until I build me a tadpole trike.

[Xenodius]

Gosh, thats pretty nice work!

Now you got me thinking, though... For an ideal bike setup I would have a car battery --> power inverter --> laptop --> DAC --> desktop amp --> HD650's! Then I could roll around all over while browsing the ABi>>, and have my whole library accessible!

[Itt]

LOL

I don't think I want to try to pedal all of that around. Especially uphill!

[1.9 TDI]

thats awesome! im building a dock with the packaging from my p2 and an old biscuit box as we speak.

ps, appropriate music

[Itt]

Thanks! I had tried 2 or three things to make a cradle before I remembered the box. Itt works great for this sort of thing.

I had different music, then decided on this, so I had to reshoot part of it, and re-edit the whole thing!

[derf]

Nice player and nice bike!

[Itt]

Thanks Fred!

The bike really needs some serious work though. Replacing the ugly cheap orange plastic school desk chair that I used for a seat mostly. But, I mainly built it just to see if I could Also, to see if I could ride it, which I can. But so far at least, no one else that has tried has been successful

[derf]

It looks like a modified BMX frame. And it looks like you don't have any rear brakes! Did you do the welding yourself?

[Itt]

Originally Posted by derf

It looks like a modified BMX frame.

It is. With the back forks extended and modified to accept a larger rear wheel and lower the frame. And part of a ten speed racer frame and BB. And Front forks from a 16". And and extender for the handle bars. And parts from several abandoned bikes.
And an ugly orange plastic '70s school desk chair.
Almost everything is scavenged parts. The only thing I purchased was cables for the derailleurs and master links for the chains. Spent about ten dollars.

And it looks like you don't have any rear brakes!

There are. Because of the larger wheel and how the seat is mounted I was not able to put them at the top of the rear forks where they would normally be. There is only about 1.5 inches clearance between the seat and the wheel.
I already had the bike basically built by the time I discovered that they would not work there. For a while I thought I was going to have to start over or abandon the bike.
I was finally able to tuck them in just above the bottom arm of the rear fork. They are attached to the plate that holds the kickstand and are actually between the top and bottom of the rear chain. They barely fit. If you watch closely you can't really make them out, but can see where they are between 0:23 and 0:25.

Did you do the welding yourself?

Yes. Which wasn't easy on the thin metal of the frame for a blob and daub welder like me.
It is anything but perfect, but it works.

What I would really like to attempt is something based on this. But I need to make friends with a machinist.

[derf]

It is one of my dreams to build myself a bent. The brakes under the chainstays were popular in the early 90s. This type of tubing is around 1/32" of thickness, so it's not easy to weld. I had a very basic welding course in college, I don't think I could do it, but I could go to my old job, they have almost a dozen of welders that are specialized in welding thin sheet metal. Good idea for the chair, it's a quick solution for this. If I have time this year, I want to try to make a no-weld bent by converting a 20" kid's bike.

[Itt]

Well, the chair was a quick solution, it just wasn't a good one. It sits up to straight. On a bent, you really need to be in a slightly reclined position. When sitting up to straight, your knees come up higher than they should in relation to the rest of your body when the pedal comes back. This makes pedalling a little akward and harder than it should be. I couldn't just lean the chair back, because then the front of the bottom would be to high to allow my leg to straighten out on the forward stroke. I intended to make a sling seat, but I changed jobs and lost access to the welder I was using. I'll get it done eventually though.
Anyway, this is way off topic for ABI, If you want, send me a PM and we can continue off-line.

[ballincolin]

This is just plain awesome.