BFB Part 3 (Swamp Yankee Special)

Here's how my BFB (Big F'ing Bike) is looking these days. Yeah.. it's ugly, but it's made from used parts that I had lying around. Functionally it's really coming along. I've been messing around with the Stokemonkey temporary setup on the BFB since August and have been anxious to make some improvements.



One key item that I wasn't a big fan of was the stock motor/chain tensioner with the cable on one side. I'm sure it works very well as intended, and admittedly, I'm not using the kit as intended.

I made a new tensioner that is totally overkill. It's got threaded rod on each side, tighten to tweak chain tension. So far so good... It's pretty rugged and is easy to make small adjustments.

Short background on the project..the Stokemonkey is meant to be an assist to an XtraCycle equiped bike. Not one to take the easy route on projects, I decided to build my own load hauler bike. I brazed up a sturdy rear rack:


Then rigged up a swamp yankee special rubbermaid tub add-on:


I have some extensions so I can carry two more tubs, but thats kindof overkill. By the time things thaw out around here I'm going to have a surfboard mount on one side instead of a tub, and of course, and iBucket mount on top.

Yes, I can put a seat on the back seatpost, so far I've just been testing the bike alone. I could probably put a second set of cranks on it, not sure if I could ever get Mrs 40 on the back of this... but my niece and nephew can't wait to ride on it!

To Do list:
-Figure out best place to carry the battery.. I've had it on the top of the rear rack, in one of the haulers, zip tied to the rear top tube... so far i'm not happy with any of those. It really should be down really low, and in the middle of the bike. This weekend I might get to experiment a bit.
-BRAKES. I've got some old V-brakes on this and really really really should have disks.
-Controller mount.. I've been using the stock bag strapped to the seat tube... really, pretty ugly(and again *not* how it's intended)

Anyhow... If you can't tell, the load hauler bike concept is something I'm pretty excited about. While my first attempt is wicked crude, XtraCycle equipped bikes are taking off all over the place. Check out Surly...they're getting into the act with the Big Dummy. This frame looks *awesome*! Check out the closeup of frame rev2 over at CleverChimp's blog...One thing i noticed in the picture is the braze-ons on the rear 'downtube'.. I'm wondering if that's going to be the integrated Stokemonkey mounting location? Hrmm. I hope so. :)

As you know, I'm a pretty huge big fan of my Karate Monkey so I'm expecting the Big Dummy to be equally well designed. Surly has been testing the Big Dummy with a Stokemonkey all winter (...in Minnesota no less) so i'm guessing the combination of the two in practice will be pretty slick. Here are some pictures of Big Dummy rev 1 hauling Big Dummy rev 2. Picture 1 Picture 2

My original plan was to mess with this homebrew BFB for a while, then build my own one piece BFB frame to use the XtraCycle Freeloaders. Depending on my work/financial situation when they launch this I might just going to get on the waiting list for the Big Dummy. (Like in the recumbent days... Got $=buy a frame, No $=build a frame)... I really need to post pictures of all the recumbents someday.... I've been eyeballing the recumbent tandem frame as something to put the Stokemonkey on... Maybe someday.

If I were going to do this again... I probably wouldn't. For what an Xtracycle costs vs the time I spent making the rear rack etc I would have been way better off... Its been fun but lately my time is getting tight. Not good...

Well, I should wrap this up. Go check out Xtracycle, Cleverchimp, and Surly, to read more about the inspiration for the BFB.

-40