Makin' 'andlebars,advice ?

[BlackPig]

Pipe...........check (filled wi' sand an' bunged up )
Pipe benders........check(big hydraulic jobbies)


Problem,what I want to make is not as easy as it appears !! :(

I'll try an' explain,basically I need to bend 2 bits of said pipe into a sort of open "C" shape (no prob so far).However the the top of the "C" needs to come away at an angle ,as opposed to parallel,to the bottom part !! :confused:

Any ideas ???

(walks off into garage with spliff an' trys t' do it anyroad !!!)

[Blackjack]

First piece of advice would be use tube not pipe.

Second piece would be use a tube bender not a pipe bender.

I've bent quite a lot of tube in the course of my attempts to earn a living and handle bars are a bit of a bitch.

Getting the rotation between the planes of the bends right is tricky, and unless you have a bender that will accurately reproduce bends every time you're going to find it difficult to get a good result.

Here's a post that makes an attempt to explain some of the basics...

http://www.chopperweb.net/forum/showthread.php?s=&threadid=4165

[BlackPig]

OK, OK!! So it's tube not pipe (FFS) :rolleyes:

Looks like I'll do 'em flat and then put in the angle afterwards.

Worth a try, thanks Blackjack. :)

[dracken1]

i take it by an open "c" you are after the beach bars look.
a bender is not the best tool for the job.
the tube really needs to go through a roller.
quite a few blacksmiths have one of these gems.

and most are quite capable of doing tight radius curves.

but as bj stated its always best to use tube than pipe.

plus be carefull how much of a curve you have if you intend clamping them with the clamps you had off me.

[BlackPig]

Hopefully there's a photo here abouts off the mock-up (muck-up ?)that I made out of hosepipe (hosetube ? :p ).
This should go someway to making myself clearer,p'rhaps !!!

[Blacksword]

NO advice,but just wanna say i like the idea of those!....Different!

[BlackPig]

NO advice,but just wanna say i like the idea of those!....Different!

Thanks !! (I think !!)

Not quite as different as they'll look when finnished !! :D

If only I could project mental images onto the screen...........




............ :eek: P'rhaps not !!!!!!!!!

[dracken1]

very nice.i really like that design.
but i think you'll find that the radius you got there will be almost impossible to achieve with a hydrailic pipe bender, even packed and plugged.

but i could be wrong...i am quite often :D

[BlackPig]

I'm starting to have some serious doubts here !! :(

It's just that they'll look the part,and that's what I'd pictured in my mind.

HMMMMMMMMMM...........;


S'pose drawingboard to back,eh ?????!!!!!! :D :eek:

[Blackjack]

Question.

Do you want a/. the bit of the bars that's clamped in the riser to be straight and the bars swept back, or b/. you planning on angling the risers?

Cause if its a/. you need a bender that can do spirals.

Where exactly do you live? Cause I actually have rather a nice tube bender.........

P.S. It's a hosepipe as pipe is for carrying fluids or gases from one place to another, and tube is a structural material. :)

[BlackPig]

The answer "a",and I have tube and hosepipe ..........

Unfortunatly :rolleyes: , I live in Brittany ( an annexe of France ).

Thanks for the help Blackjack,just one small question though,who in their line of would use a spiral bender?
That way I may be able to find someone over here..........

..................................or there's allways "plan b" !!!! :D :eek:

[Blackjack]

Well I've bent things for companies in Essex, and I'm in Bristol. And that's only single plane stuff.

So it's not exactly common place stuff.

And not every body with a bender capable of it realises it'll do it.

I can tell another way of doing it, but it means compromising your design slightly by putting a straight bit in the sweep.

Hmmmmmmmm. What about using six bends instead of two? From the risers going inwards a 45 (ish) degree bend, then a straight bit, then a 90 (ish) bend then another staight bit and then another 45 (ish) for the handle? More of a capital X sort of thing? If you did it that way you could internally sleeve and weld the 6 bends together without any weird ass bending. The fatter the tube is the larger the radius of the "standard" bend is going to be.So if you used 1.125" O/D tube with a .125" wall then you could sleeve it with 7/8" on the joins and the ends so standard controls and risers would fit. 1.25" O/D, .125" wall with 1" sleeves and ends works to, and gives a slightly larger radius again. The center radius is something like 2.5 times the O/D of the tube usually, so going from 7/8" tube to 1 1/4" tube means that a 180 bend in the fatter tube is 6 times the difference in O/D wider (if you see what I mean). So going up 3/8" in diameter will make the bends "stand" something like 18/8" (2 1/4") higher in your case if you were to use one piece of tube for each half.

[BlackPig]

Cheers Blackjack that's given me something to think about.

Wouldn't 4 bends work ?
As in making 2 identical curves,and then puting in the angle on the top straight (if you get my drift ) .

Think I'm going to have a cuppa an' a smoke,and get the grey matter in gear.

That was interesting info.Thanks.

[Blackjack]

I thought of four originally, but it means you end up with two straight tubes welded side by side at the contact point. Which is.............. well, crap looking.

By using 6 you get a bend at the contact point, which I thought was more in keeping with your original concept,

[BlackPig]

Agreed ,after a lot of thought ,it looks like some small changes will have to be made.

More evenings spent in the garage smokin' an' drinkin',BUGGER :D

Thanks .

[Peirre]

for an idea of whats possible with tube bending see a mates web site http://www.mkengineering.co.uk/ (this isn`t a blatent atempt at advertising)
and click on the tube bending link to give you an idea of whats possible, hes looking at building trike frames too

[BlackPig]

Po'B , you're a star !! :eek:

I've seen one o' those machines before ,in a place that makes fixtures and fittings for yachts,I wonder..................

.................kinda spoils the idea though,'specialy when you see their prices.They only work alu or ss ,and I wanted t' paint the bogger ............


..................still now I know it's there, and me who wanted t' do it on the cheap !!! :rolleyes:

[Peirre]

the guys been making caterham style race cars, very sucessfully too, till a change of direction tempted him to look at bikes, the last time I knew he`d built a trikeshop stylee rolling chassis for around £1500 wi all the bitz.
but hes very very reluctant to take on extra work due to the high demand right now, but it might be worth asking :rolleyes:

[Blackjack]

errr,

it is possible that I might actually know what I'm talking about you know..........

http://groups.msn.com/HondaChoppers/blackjacksprojects.msnw?action=ShowPhoto&PhotoID=34

[BlackPig]

errr,

it is possible that I might actually know what I'm talking about you know..........

http://groups.msn.com/HondaChoppers/blackjacksprojects.msnw?action=ShowPhoto&PhotoID=34

Hey Blackjack,I didn't doubt that for one minute mate !! :confused:

In fact I was thinking of having a chat with you on the subject,if your up for it ?

BTW that is a seriously awesome looking frame,sir !! :cool: