My son had ordered one of those fancy new schwinn choppers (me, not happy about it having more, way more than enough bikes in garage) He saw his first up-close rat-rod at Brian's meet ... at our bike run yesterday there were many slick choppers (we even had a shop set up a booth showing new 35k choppers) but the bike that grabbed the most attention was the 1940's rusted rat-bike with a tractor seat.
When my parents sold thier house a few years back they were going to throw away all the old rusted bikes from our childhood, so I stuck the junk in my shed. Today we ripped a few of them apart and built him a rat-ride.
What'da'ya' mean fix it up ... it took years to get the rust just right hahahahaha He thinks it's the coolest piece of crap on the planet hahaha
[ July 18, 2004, 10:49 PM: Message edited by: Mark Matyjakowski ]
Posted by James Donahue (Member # 3624) on :
I saw the title and couldn't figure out what a 'rat ride' was. Now I get it. Brings back memories. Guys I saw try that never got the 'rake' right, the bikes were hard to handle.
That one looks like it'll ride better. Is it two sets of forks connected?
Rat ride... I'm reminded of an Italian movie I saw when I was a kid. These two guys come up with a scheme to break into a jewelry store. They trained rats to crawl through sewer pipes, then strapped dynamite onto the rats, blew out the back wall of the store.
Yes, the ol' memory does cross reference some strange things.
Posted by Mike Pipes (Member # 1573) on :
My buddy up in Detroit took an old bike, chopped the frame to lower the seat, moved the crank forward then angled the front swivel back and extended the front fork about 5ft!
Another guy I know from my years of doing lots of organized bike rides used to chop up bikes and make some really wild ones. I remember the BMX bike he did where the seat was 6 feet up off the ground and it had a ladder built in that you climbed up *after* getting it rolling (so it would balance). He also built a bike that had a cargo platform. He cut a bike in half and built a 6ft long platform section to fit between the two sections, then fabricated a rod system to maintain steering up front.
Posted by Deb Fowler (Member # 1039) on :
Paint it green and put a ratfink license plate on the back!
Posted by Jillbeans (Member # 1912) on :
My 8-yr-old kid would be drooling over that, too. He must have 5 bikes between garage sales and his dad's dumpster-diving. He modifies em all the time. The last one he added this bar thru the middle of the back tire part so he can stand and ride. I'd rather see a dad and a kid work together to fix up something out of nothing than a kid that gets handed $$ to buy whatever. You seem like a "fun" dad! Love...Jill
Posted by Tyler Malinky (Member # 4693) on :
Here is a like to a photo gallery of my triumph chopper, 2 years in progress so far, almost done now! pictures from a couple days ago are at the bottom of the 2nd page
Just need to run wiring, oil and gas lines, a couple other odds and ends and it is done.. oh yeah, and make a shifter handle for the suicide shifter
Posted by old paint (Member # 549) on :
terminologies change greatly dependint o whom you are speaking....RAT RIDES, can also mean big block chevy(rat motor) or an old crappy looking vehicle. also where i came from the "bikers" did one they called a "ROACH RIDE". this was a harley that you never wash, clean or paint...and if you did paint(over the chrome also) it it was usually all flat black or gray primer and then left to the weather and dirt.
Posted by Greg McRoberts (Member # 3501) on :
That's a mighty cool Turnip, Tyler.
I'd sure like to see some more pics as it goes along.
I've been thinking about building a bobber myself, and just might get started next year Posted by Mark Matyjakowski (Member # 294) on :
NICE BIKE Tyler. Please let us know as you get more progress pics up.
![[Cool]](cool.gif)
hahaha![[Roll Eyes]](rolleyes.gif)