Alternative to a project car?

Any chance you could get away with a bicycle with a 2-stroke add on engine? Or, if you want a chance to get some good electrical skills, build a home brew electric bike?

Or, you could build a drift trike...

I'm still voting for a straight-up bicycle build. Build it, ride it, and have fun. Plus you'll quickly taste success, which is always a good thing.

I stumbled upon this page last night. While Moosegoose frames are now wicked expensive, you can apply the same creativity to a standard BMX frame.

David S. Wallens wrote: I'm still voting for a straight-up bicycle build. Build it, ride it, and have fun. Plus you'll quickly taste success, which is always a good thing. I stumbled upon this page last night. While Moosegoose frames are now wicked expensive, you can apply the same creativity to a standard BMX frame.

taking this idea a bit further... I want to buy one of these ($350), and add dual ~1kw hub motors to it (~$500)...

and solder together my own battery pack from cells, buy a cheap controller, etc.

Autolex wrote:

David S. Wallens wrote: I'm still voting for a straight-up bicycle build. Build it, ride it, and have fun. Plus you'll quickly taste success, which is always a good thing. I stumbled upon this page last night. While Moosegoose frames are now wicked expensive, you can apply the same creativity to a standard BMX frame.

taking this idea a bit further... I want to buy one of these ($350), and add dual ~1kw hub motors to it (~$500)... and solder together my own battery pack from cells, buy a cheap controller, etc.

Do it.

Can't argue with a free Ridgeline. Change the oil, tires, gas and it will go forever. My vote is for a bicycle. They will definitely fit in a Ridgeline.

skierd wrote: It won't be at your current high school, likely you'd have to go to a magnet school or another facility part time. In my county, tech courses were offered at the Center for Applied Technology and you either went there in the morning and finished your day at your home high school or vice versa. Ask your guidance counselor or if you have a shop class offered ask that teacher if something exists in your district. These programs weren't advertised to college track students in my district. Ask and if you get rebuffed make noise about it, push back when they tell you those kinds of programs aren't for "college bound" students.

NoPermitNeeded wrote: In reply to skierd: Sadly, my highschool doesn't offer anything like that; it wouldn't appeal to enough kids. I'm just going to have to find someone who needs an understudy this summer.

"We want our college kids to be as useless as possible."

In reply to David S. Wallens:

I am all for a bike build, I need a new one anyways. My current one, that I ride extremely often, is looking a little haggard. I'm torn between BMX, which is just undeniably cool; and mountain biking, which is also very cool. I have some experience with mountain biking so I understand what that entails.

Also digging the idea of an electric bike or using a tiny 30cc kit. What do y'all think would be the best bang for my buck way to have a fun bike project.

In reply to chiodos:

I will have to work out transportation and getting it here with my parents, but count me in.

In reply to NoPermitNeeded:

Sweet digity. She'll be here waiting. Good to know it will go to a good home, was starting to worry because d day to move is coming soon. Well seems soon to me, 3 months.

In the mean time, I've done some research and I've become completely on board with a BMX build. Now the question is which one to look into? There are so many options and I honestly don't know where to start.

troll Craigslist for a used redline, free agent, diamandback, trex, whatever and then cruise over to danscomp.com and outfit it how youd like. It can get expensive though if your not careful. Heck i still have my old bmx race bike, a trex ti1 but no ones getting that thing from me.

In reply to chiodos:

Trolling craigslist is a specialty of mine, I'll see what I can drum up.

I'd say find a cheap mountain bike frame and build it up. Have a set of mtb wheels/tires and road wheels/tires.

For a BMX bike, try to find a pro-sized frame. It will have more room than something aimed at kids.

Also, I buy my parts from planetbmx.com.

Also, an old Schwinn can make a great project. They built zillions of them. Choose your poison: 20-inch Stingray, 26-inch cruiser or something else. I have seen neat builds based on their 10-speeds, too.

Take something like this and modify to your tastes: http://daytona.craigslist.org/bik/5543502323.html

In reply to David S. Wallens:

Are there any good bike build threads on GRM?

NoPermitNeeded wrote: In reply to David S. Wallens: Are there any good bike build threads on GRM?

Honestly, I have never looked. Maybe?

Picture something in your head and then build it. I'm currently juggling a few different builds in my head right now. I have the wheels and two of the three needed frames. We'll see how this all comes together.

My last build used all new parts, but I'm very happy with it. It's an S&M ATF frame (for 22-inch wheels) done in kind of a retro color scheme--well, with a chrome fork at least.

Or you need to build one like this:

Bikes are fun, but R/C cars are way faster and closer to cars, and slot cars are cheaper yet and still loads of fun.

I have a brand-new Skyway T/A frame set plus Graphite Tuff Wheels at home, so something like this might be next:

Also, a related thought about all of this: What do you like to do?

Personally, I like planning and then enjoying a project. I don't have a ton of garage time. So with bikes, I like planning the parts needed, and then once I have everything I can build the thing in an hour or so. Later that day, I'm riding it. Your mileage may totally vary, of course.

Autolex wrote:

David S. Wallens wrote: I'm still voting for a straight-up bicycle build. Build it, ride it, and have fun. Plus you'll quickly taste success, which is always a good thing. I stumbled upon this page last night. While Moosegoose frames are now wicked expensive, you can apply the same creativity to a standard BMX frame.

taking this idea a bit further... I want to buy one of these ($350), and add dual ~1kw hub motors to it (~$500)... and solder together my own battery pack from cells, buy a cheap controller, etc.

When I was researching electric vehicles I was struck by how inexpensive bicycle-sized components were. Electric bikes are much more popular in other parts of the world, so Asia is pumping out cheap controllers, motors and such like nobody's business. What I'm getting at is this: Do a cool bike conversion. Show it off, sell it, rinse, lather, repeat. Could be a nice business for a young lad.

Throughout college I bought beater craigslist road bikes and eBay junk, and built them into hipster urban assault fixed gear bikes. I would sand and paint the frame, build it up at the local bike co-op, ride it to class for a while, and sell it to finance the next one. City hipsters love that stuff. I know because I was one.

Example of "fixie". Basically the dumbest least comfortable way to get around on two wheels, but they look cool. Like the rat rods of cycling.

In reply to David S. Wallens:

I have more build ideas in my head than I can count, I just never put them to paper, which is what I should do. I also love building stuff. Right now I'm in the process of slamming my skateboard to the ground simply because I wanted to build something one afternoon. Me and my neighborhood friends spend countless hours riding our bikes on the weekends, so I put in plenty of miles. Overall I just enjoy every step of the process.

You have definitely sold me on building a bike, I need a new one anyways so it's the perfect excuse.

In reply to maschinenbau:

I like this... a lot

In reply to tuna55:

Personally, I'd rather have a go-kart than an RC car. It's the same concepts, just more fun imo.