I saw the super nice “Omnium-style” mod the other day (https://www.reddit.com/r/xbiking/comments/1fpga4o/i_was_told_xbiking_would_love_this/) and thought you might like this one as well. Below is some information about this build, because it is actually not super duper hard to make a cargo bike from a 90th steel frame and would like to encourage you to try yourself!
My DIY Long John. Loving it and allowed me to abandon my car. During Covid times i went down the cargo bike rabbit hole and i realized that they are quite overpriced in my opinion. So i decided to give it a shot to build my own in the garage, without even know how to weld. Since everything was closed and i could not get info by more experienced people, i learned the skills (first and foremost welding, then how you actually build the cargo bike) by youtube videos and good old trial and error on old steel tubes.
Got a Giant Track as a donor frame which i stripped and had it sandblasted.
I prepared a frame “holder” to get all tubes in place and welded the whole thing together.
Afterwards did some test rides and i painted everything.
The bike now has a mileage of 2000 kilometers and apart from some wear in the steering mechanism no problems occured yet. I loaded up to 80 kg to the bike (not really fun to ride) but the frame can hold that load.
If you consider building your own, here is a very good video to start off with this long john build (https://youtu.be/SDlnDEXlfm8?si=bIxiOp7H2BkWb-T8). Awesome video, also check out this channel for other bike mods (Mini Omnium Style, Bigger Omnium). However, some things are a bit overengineered, you can save a lot of time when you set up the steering a bit more simple.
humanskullbong on
dude, sweet
chvezin on
You could sell some hot tamales in this one.
timotimotimotimotimo on
Adore seeing people MAKE things
Imtherealmax on
Nice job! I built one myself a couple of years ago. Yours looks sturdy! How much does it weigh?
5 Comments
I saw the super nice “Omnium-style” mod the other day (https://www.reddit.com/r/xbiking/comments/1fpga4o/i_was_told_xbiking_would_love_this/) and thought you might like this one as well. Below is some information about this build, because it is actually not super duper hard to make a cargo bike from a 90th steel frame and would like to encourage you to try yourself!
My DIY Long John. Loving it and allowed me to abandon my car. During Covid times i went down the cargo bike rabbit hole and i realized that they are quite overpriced in my opinion. So i decided to give it a shot to build my own in the garage, without even know how to weld. Since everything was closed and i could not get info by more experienced people, i learned the skills (first and foremost welding, then how you actually build the cargo bike) by youtube videos and good old trial and error on old steel tubes.
Got a Giant Track as a donor frame which i stripped and had it sandblasted.
I prepared a frame “holder” to get all tubes in place and welded the whole thing together.
Afterwards did some test rides and i painted everything.
The bike now has a mileage of 2000 kilometers and apart from some wear in the steering mechanism no problems occured yet. I loaded up to 80 kg to the bike (not really fun to ride) but the frame can hold that load.
If you consider building your own, here is a very good video to start off with this long john build (https://youtu.be/SDlnDEXlfm8?si=bIxiOp7H2BkWb-T8). Awesome video, also check out this channel for other bike mods (Mini Omnium Style, Bigger Omnium). However, some things are a bit overengineered, you can save a lot of time when you set up the steering a bit more simple.
dude, sweet
You could sell some hot tamales in this one.
Adore seeing people MAKE things
Nice job! I built one myself a couple of years ago. Yours looks sturdy! How much does it weigh?