The Flatland Drifter

[Reegesc]

Did some upgrades and mods to the Flatland Drifter as prep for her second riding season.  Changed the seat, (again) , wrapped the handlebars, made new grips, changed the accent color to red., and added three tail lights.  Upgraded to a rechargeable lithium battery system and made leather boxes for the battery packs (not shown -- just imagine really cool leather boxes then back off that a couple notches).  Then I got real ambitous and repacked the hubs and ended up getting the tires all out of whack and had to have a bike mechanic fix it. But man she glides now....downhill and on flatland that is.  Thinking about converting her to an ebike to save my dogs the embarrassment of me walking her up hills at the local bike park. Underneath the 5oz leather wrap  is a portly steel tubing Huffy -- it weighs a frickin' ton.  

[TomWisc]

Holy cow! That is a work of art! I would be afraid to ride it worrying to get it dirty! 

In order to complete the package, the rider must be dressed in some outlandish garb!

[beltbuckles]

how did you do the seat?  what type of leather?

[mikesc]

Your bike is one of the coolest things that I have ever seen, puts a big smile on my face each time of seeing it..love it..
My hat is doffed to you.. :)

[bullmoosepaddles]

Beautiful work, great creativity and Imagination. Love this.

[Reegesc]

On 5/18/2019 at 3:25 AM, beltbuckles said:

how did you do the seat?  what type of leather?

I just recovered  a used seat.  Carefully remove the  the old covering so as to not remove the foam padding underneath.  Then wet form with a piece of 3-4 oz Veg Tan and glue it underneath  the plastic seat base.  I also applied saddle soap to get a waxy finish. While the seat looks terrific, it wasn't very comfortable.  So I swapped it out (again) with a wide butt seat that I recovered (again).   I think I'm slowly working my way up to something like this.  

 

:

[beltbuckles]

-thanks for reply

i tried to use chrome tanned leather maybe 2-3oz... i didn't skive it, did you have to skive it at all?>

Edited May 24, 2019 by beltbuckles

[Reegesc]

On 5/24/2019 at 12:58 PM, beltbuckles said:

-thanks for reply

i tried to use chrome tanned leather maybe 2-3oz... i didn't skive it, did you have to skive it at all?>

I did skive but not to taper or thin the leather to get it to form fit, rather, I skived off excess material underneath where it had gathered and wrinkled, the nose and the two rear corners.  I said earlier than I had glued it, but 20+ pneumatic staples suggest otherwise.  I did get it soaking wet and stretched the heck out of it to get it to form fit.  It was also a 2-3 oz and not 3-4 oz as stated earlier.    It helped A LOT that the saddle was the shape that it is.  The big triangle wide butt saddles that I settled on because they are more comfortable , there is no way I could have wet formed fit those dudes.  I didn't even try.  Just cut darts and let the rough end drag.  Just a guess, but Chrome tan is probably the cause of not getting a neat form fit. You can stretch the heck out of veg tan as all the hide pounders know all too well.

But after all the rigamarole of changing seats,  I changed the seat AGAIN just days ago and this time back to the original seat from a year ago. The infamous seat that started this whole project off as just going to recover a seat. 

 I loved the color of the seat in the photo so I just took a sander to the original seat and got it  back to a sort of veg tan look.  Problem solved.  And yes I did indeed make leather boxes for those battery packs AND added another light assembly to the front and that was leather boxed too. What does it look like with all those lights on?  Like this:

 

Edited May 28, 2019 by cseeger

[Tugadude]

Very, very cool.  One of my "other" hobbies is restoring and collecting vintage bicycles.  Mainly older 10 speeds such as Motobecane, Bianchi, etc.  I can appreciate your project due to my experiences.

I'll bet it is a real conversation starter!

 

[Reegesc]

5 hours ago, Tugadude said:

Very, very cool.  One of my "other" hobbies is restoring and collecting vintage bicycles.  Mainly older 10 speeds such as Motobecane, Bianchi, etc.  I can appreciate your project due to my experiences.

I'll bet it is a real conversation starter!

 

No kidding.  I can see where that would be a fun and rewarding hobby.   

Actually, hardly anyone has seen this bike  Probably no more than a dozen people other than neighbors.  I live in the Dallas area and the best time to ride is late late night.  It's much cooler, there's no traffic out or people so I let my dog off leash and we cruise around the churches and school parking lots.  The police get a big kick out of it though.  lol   Actually, i'd like to sell it and build another one..but this time .an ebike.  But how do you get in touch with those Silicon Valley rich boys?   I think they're my target market as its money they have and cool they lack and Burning Man is right around the corner.

Hey, maybe you can help with this idea.  What I would like rig up is a system where all the lights and battery packs tie back to an ignition switch with a key.  Any thoughts come to mind on something like that?

[beltbuckles]

21 hours ago, cseeger said:

I did skive but not to taper or thin the leather to get it to form fit, rather, I skived off excess material underneath where it had gathered and wrinkled, the nose and the two rear corners.  I said earlier than I had glued it, but 20+ pneumatic staples suggest otherwise.  I did get it soaking wet and stretched the heck out of it to get it to form fit.  It was also a 2-3 oz and not 3-4 oz as stated earlier.    It helped A LOT that the saddle was the shape that it is.  The big triangle wide butt saddles that I settled on because they are more comfortable , there is no way I could have wet formed fit those dudes.  I didn't even try.  Just cut darts and let the rough end drag.  Just a guess, but Chrome tan is probably the cause of not getting a neat form fit. You can stretch the heck out of veg tan as all the hide pounders know all too well.

But after all the rigamarole of changing seats,  I changed the seat AGAIN just days ago and this time back to the original seat from a year ago. The infamous seat that started this whole project off as just going to recover a seat. 

 I loved the color of the seat in the photo so I just took a sander to the original seat and got it  back to a sort of veg tan look.  Problem solved.  And yes I did indeed make leather boxes for those battery packs AND added another light assembly to the front and that was leather boxed too. What does it look like with all those lights on?

 

 

 

thanks for the reply your bike looks great.. i think my friend is going to take a heat gun and try to fix a few  rough spots.... hope it comes out okay

[Tugadude]

18 hours ago, cseeger said:

No kidding.  I can see where that would be a fun and rewarding hobby.   

Actually, hardly anyone has seen this bike  Probably no more than a dozen people other than neighbors.  I live in the Dallas area and the best time to ride is late late night.  It's much cooler, there's no traffic out or people so I let my dog off leash and we cruise around the churches and school parking lots.  The police get a big kick out of it though.  lol   Actually, i'd like to sell it and build another one..but this time .an ebike.  But how do you get in touch with those Silicon Valley rich boys?   I think they're my target market as its money they have and cool they lack and Burning Man is right around the corner.

Hey, maybe you can help with this idea.  What I would like rig up is a system where all the lights and battery packs tie back to an ignition switch with a key.  Any thoughts come to mind on something like that?

I'll think on that project awhile.  Funny you mention ebikes.  There are a lot of nervous folks out there thinking that we're in the midst of a paradigm shift where the "standard" bicycle will become obsolete.  I suppose we'll see.

I do enjoy fixing bikes, but have been too busy with other "stuff" to spend a lot of time on it.  There was a time I was restoring one a month.  I have more than a dozen bikes in the garage at the moment.  Most are finished but there are a few projects waiting for my attention.  One thing you might investigate is a dyna hub.  Dyna hubs (short for dynamo) generate electricity and eliminate the need for a battery.