D
DougC
Guest
I bought a 20" Worksman bicycle for use with a motor kit, but the frame turned out to be too small overall and I didn't quite like the design much, so I decided to build a stretched board-track style frame from scratch.
The question then was if I should cut up the Worksman frame for its head tube and bottom bracket, or if I should just go buy raw parts and sell the frame (I had successfully bent the rear end to accomodate a Golden Eagle drive ring). I felt like it was a waste of money to cut up a good frame when I knew that bike parts could be bought for just a few dollars each.
When I measured the Worksman tubes and began comparing them to what I could turn up online, I found that the Worksman tubes were considerably thicker than anything else I could find. The Worksman head tube outer diameter is 38.5mm, and most 1-inch head tubes I found online were between 31.7mm and 33mm. The Worksman BB tube (a BMX type) was 58.5mm O.D., and I didn't find any that were bigger than 56.5mm. The bottom bracket doesn't really need to be stronger than usual but it's a good idea if the head tube is, seeing as this bike is going to cruise at twice what it would normally do if pedaled.
If you had a bicycle framebuilding business nearby maybe you could easily get some thicker tubing and take it to them and have them finish it for you, but I have seen in the past that typical automotive shops don't know anything about making bicycle parts and don't want to be bothered. So it looks like the brand-new shiny Worksman frame is headed for the butcher block.
...Another thing I found was that many of the places that sell framebuilding parts are oriented towards building conventional upright road and MTB bikes, so they don't sell loose parts, they only sell entire tubesets for building a whole frame. The tubing is butted so you can't very well cut it up and use the smaller pieces, because it's thinner along the middle lengths than on the ends. And most of the tubesets are for lugged fittings, which makes things much easier but rules out any sort of unconventional frame geometry.
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The question then was if I should cut up the Worksman frame for its head tube and bottom bracket, or if I should just go buy raw parts and sell the frame (I had successfully bent the rear end to accomodate a Golden Eagle drive ring). I felt like it was a waste of money to cut up a good frame when I knew that bike parts could be bought for just a few dollars each.
When I measured the Worksman tubes and began comparing them to what I could turn up online, I found that the Worksman tubes were considerably thicker than anything else I could find. The Worksman head tube outer diameter is 38.5mm, and most 1-inch head tubes I found online were between 31.7mm and 33mm. The Worksman BB tube (a BMX type) was 58.5mm O.D., and I didn't find any that were bigger than 56.5mm. The bottom bracket doesn't really need to be stronger than usual but it's a good idea if the head tube is, seeing as this bike is going to cruise at twice what it would normally do if pedaled.
If you had a bicycle framebuilding business nearby maybe you could easily get some thicker tubing and take it to them and have them finish it for you, but I have seen in the past that typical automotive shops don't know anything about making bicycle parts and don't want to be bothered. So it looks like the brand-new shiny Worksman frame is headed for the butcher block.
...Another thing I found was that many of the places that sell framebuilding parts are oriented towards building conventional upright road and MTB bikes, so they don't sell loose parts, they only sell entire tubesets for building a whole frame. The tubing is butted so you can't very well cut it up and use the smaller pieces, because it's thinner along the middle lengths than on the ends. And most of the tubesets are for lugged fittings, which makes things much easier but rules out any sort of unconventional frame geometry.
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