Surly Big Dummy

I've wanted a Dummy for ages, and found a good reason to take the plunge;

Boy. Isn"t he a sweetie. He's now nearly eight & needs to get to school, with his bike, across Battersea Bridge, in the rush hour.
He can ride his bike with no hands. He would do too, and the combination fills me with dread.
A Big Dummy means that I can carry him and drag his 20"er without too much harm being done.

The donor bike's this;

A perfectly reasonable hardtail that I just didn't like. The clue is in the description, "mountain" bike. Too much up hill, not enough forward progress.
It also just pissed me off. It had been built by some one who had no idea what a grease gun is for, and the wheels had been laced so that the hub logo didn't line up with the valve,
and black spokes had been used, and the rims were too thin, and just 'meh' all round. I never felt 'at one' with it. It's got some nice parts though, Hope hubs, Shimano SLX bits and some average cranks.
I thought I'd get a Surly frame and just swap parts over. I'd need a long gear cable and a bit of hydraulic hose and some olives. And some chain links. And it could all be really cheap. Yeah right.

I took pity on this;

An 18" frame that has been propping up the glass in Brixton Cycles' window for a while. 18" is not a frame size I'd normally look for,
but the bigger ones are on special order, and would take 8 weeks to arrive. More seat post and spacers required.

Wheels needed rebuilding to suit the faaat tyres that Big Dummy's always sport.
Nothing to delicate going on here, Rigida Big Bulls, and DT Swiss Alpine 3s. 32 spoke count is not ideal, but we'll see what happens.
Schwalbe Super Motos are the new Big Apples.

And then I tried to do this;

Fail, but it looked well butch. The Surly small print says the frame's been designed with 80-100mm forks in mind, if you really must.
These are 150mm and put the bottom bracket 4 inches north of where I want it if I'm to have any hope of touching the ground.
To say nothing about what it would do to the steering.
So the idea was to use the headset with the Surly forks.
Double fail. The design of the fork crown and race mean not even a razor blade can get any purchase to lever the bugger off.

Thank you Cycle Surgery in Camden for some lovelydaft bling.
Somewhere I have the very special CK headset press cups. But I couldn't find them. Usual inventiveness worked ok.

I love Chris King stuff, but need to sleep at night so I'm not lashing out on BBs and hubs.
Using the Surly forks meant I needed some 9mm front axle caps, and seeing as the aluminium freehub looked unlikely to want cargo bike duty -

I spent some of my credit card with UK Bike Store for something steel. Upstanding gen'nermen:

Hope kit is excellent. It all comes apart with a tug. And goes back together with a lubed push.

And pretty soon it all started looking like a bike.
I looked at it and couldn't believe that the two meter hose kits Avid sell, for a massive £40ish, would fit,
but mocking up the rear hose route with some cable outer showed that about 1750mm should be fine.
Brake pipe is on order, and impatience means it's wearing a V-brake at the back for now.

Maiden voyage, the 'what's falling off' run, was down to Homebase. I've just moved, and some of the bed didn't get out of the van.
Carried four 1.8m planks back without any hassle.

I got a bit sweaty though, so second trip was to John Lewis for a laundry rack, big but not heavy;

So far so good. First school run is planned for Thursday. Could be amusing.

A bit of sorting needs to be done. The front rotor needs a true, the rear brake will become hydraubollick soon enough,
and the bars may get swapped for something else. Some On-One Fleegles are looking good, with a bit of a sweep back, but I need a stem the right size. I'm planning to 'tubeless' the tyres, a puncture on this thing seems more daunting than normal.
I'll need to forget the last time I tried before doing so.

And the bottom bracket drop is still too small. 40mm. With the seat height set where you can readily get your feet down, the pedals are too close to make riding nice.
I'm having thoughts about what to do about it. Hub gearing and a brazing torch may be involved.

Wish I got to be taken to school on a Big Dummy. Looks, dare I say it, fun!

Jesus, I want one of those soooo badly now...

Great write up!

I've wanted a Big Dummy for ages too. :[

Darn, you beat me to it ;)

Looks great!

I have everything bar a stem adaptor in the post though. I never knew Avid did a long hose kit. I went with the upgrade cable disc set Yuba sell, to save money, and garantee long enough cables. I think I can see my first upgrade aready :(

I plan to do a nusery run, followed by a school run, followed by a short commute.

FYI As i wanted a hub gear, I'm doing 36 spoke wheels. The rear will have straight gauge spokes. But I still dont think it'll be far off the strength of your rear wheel. The reduction in load capacity is not that big according to Joes-bikes.

Well played!

SF, yours has been considered in every way, and the attention to detail will show. I've just thrown mine together with what was at hand. And it shows.
But I'm loving it so far. Today I had six wooden blinds on board, Oxford Street to SW4.

It felt a bit marginal. When they arrived on a sack trolley my heart sank a little, but the only problem was actually getting them on the bike, which kept trying to fall over every which way.
A spare strap to lash the frame to something solid will be useful.

And then the school run road-train;

We had to stop for ice cream in the park, and the big ring was untroubled all the way, but it's just what I hoped for.
Hauling a bike will need a bit more thought to make it less worrying in corners.
A front hub mounted to the back of the Dummy somehow to which you clamp the trailed bike may work better.

I'll stop posting 'what I carried' pics and get on with the BB height ranting.

I've ordered a massive two legged kick stand for my long bike. Mainly for when I'm strapping in the toddler.

You can buy fork clamps, designed for car roof, or van deck, transport of bikes. Would be a pretty easy mod I guess, and you can put the front wheel on the other side. Plus it would'nt take up much cargo spce when you're not using it. I'm also thinking that the bike would 'steer' better behind you with the front end so high.

Also. I personnally love the 'look what I carried pics'.

Want, but this would piss off my housemates something rotten!

Want, but that would be 3 cargo bikes which is silly.

this is so awesome.

Want, but that would be 3 cargo bikes which would be too much awesome.

.

Richard

After our chat last night about this, and the requirement for it to have such a high BB so that it can go over bumps but how this affects your ability to get your feet to the ground.

You were contemplating having a BB shell brazed on to the bottom of the current BB shell to lower this.

What I did not think of until this morning is how long are your cranks? Could you get longer ones to enable you to lower your saddle and get your feet closer to the ground? Given the upright position of the bike I do not imagine the extra length of the cranks will bring your knee/thigh up to an uncomfortable height.

I saw this in the flesh this week, and I really was smitten. I think one of these is in my future eventually, a long way off when I have done some procreating.

Is there anyone on here that has a Big Dummy whose expertise I could pick ? I've been after one for a while and have just put deposit down on the frame with a view to building it up soon. I'm intending to use it for nursery run/commuting and general hauling as well as plotting a big trip or two. Typically I'm going to be hauling groceries, climbing gear, daughter and firewood and I like the idea of running some fatter tyres such as the Surly ET. I have had a look at the Big Fat Dummy but think that is a bit too fat and won't be available until March/April here. Thanks in advance.

I run mine with a big apple on the rear and a marathon mondial on the front (both 2.0) with guards, could go a bit bigger -I'll check tonight
Mines great, but with two on the back any hills are a killer

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Thanks for that - nice photos. How old are the kids ? Mine is nearly 4.
What handlebars are you running ? Is that a Hooptie you have? I'll need to get one of those I think as was planning on using Yepp Maxi for the little un.
The original idea was to run Big Apples front and back but am drawn to the ETs I think.

in that photo, 2 and 3 1/2 (plus we have another one at 8 months!)

they are ti jones loop bars and yes a hooptie, i've used a Yepp mini on the front (crap on your knees) and a had Yepp Maxi on the rear till I got the hooptie. I think the ETs will be more substantial but I think the big apples are a 'nicer' tyre

Are you ferrying all 3 at the same time? Chapeau ! One is enough for me !
Are you using the Hooptie instead of the Yepp Maxi then or as well - I've not seen the Hooptie so am a bit vague on the detail. It's a great seat.

Only 2 on the back at the moment, little one is too young for the mini, but will try in spring, I'm secretly looking at electric assists.
Just the hooptie, but only go on quiet country lanes and cycle paths though

Yes I can see the case for electric although I need to wreck my knees for a bit before I can justify it. Will the Maxi fit inside the Hooptie ? I'll need the seat as will be in town sadly.

yes, it should fit (I still have one Yepp Maxi) in the garage so can check

If you wouldn't mind that would be grand, thanks.

We use two big dumny's for work, the tools and spares weigh at least 50kg, I'd love a bit of electric assist some days.

50 kg ? What's the work ?

Fixing normal sized bikes on our giant bikes. Here's an old pic of one of them that was on my phone.

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