Tall bike (because 2 frames are better than one)

A while ago I decided to build a tall bike, this venture was partially fuelled by watching the documentary Be Inclusive Kill Exclusivity and also wanting to ride around central London shouting about how the apocalypse is coming or something. And being high up is fun.
After sourcing the first frame:

Which was ridden by a friend when he was hit by a car and all of the components bar the frame were royally fucked, I searched for another and found this lovely Raleigh with a broken dropout for free on the classifieds forum (thanks mrgumby!):

So with 2 frames (for free!) I tried to go about getting some tubing. Turns out that is fucking hard. Luckily my friend had a tall bike fork already, unfortunately it's 700c and I plan to have a 26" front wheel in the hope of preventing wheelies, so we're going to chop the steerer off of the old tall cork and weld it onto my 26" fork.
(old tall fork pictured)

I finally started work on it yesterday, just basic stuff, chopping the stays off of the top frame, as thus:

In my infinite incompetence I managed to gouge the seat tube slightly with the angle grinder, but it will be fine. Must be more careful.

And then looking at how it all lines up with a broom. Brooms are good tools.

Hopefully doing the welding this Sunday, then putting the bike together shortly after.
All of the parts were acquired due to being cheap or free and as a result of that I have some fun stuff. Highlights include Brompton cranks and a f.u.n.n mountain bike stem.

Will update as stuff is done!

wicked

Very nice! It will be interesting to see how this turns out !!

Love it :-)

I think you should turn the broom round, make an interesting handle bar lol

Actually, don't listen to me, I have stupid ideas and have a habit of carrying them out :-)

this is very interesting...have you worked out the gear ratio on this??...also, is there a ladder to get on it???

Did a bit of work on Sunday but not as much as I'd have liked, partially due to transporting the welding kit via bike trailer. Hopefully finishing it tomorrow.
Photo of the work done on Sunday. We got the tube for the extended head tube by cutting up a fucked frame and squeezing the tapered tubing so it became round in a vice.
http://www.lfgss.com/attachment.php?attachmentid=72788&stc=1&d=1378145646
(stupid sideways photo...)
The weld is pretty fucking ugly cause I only learned to weld about a week ago, it is however strong as fuck, and that's what matters.
Also chopped up and welded the fork but forgot to take a photo so will take one tomorrow.

Re gear ratio it's basically going to be pretty normal, well, the actual chainring/sprockets are huge due to Brompton cranks, but the ratio is just going to be around low 70s I guess.
As for getting on, you just put your right foot on the right pedal when it's at its lowest, hold onto the handle bars, push a little with your left foot until you have enough momentum, and then push up on the pedal to lift yourself onto the bike.

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this is awesome. i need to build one of these

Ta da! After much fretting and faffing and welding and grinding, here is the frame with the fork!

The next job is grinding down the weld on the fork so that it turns smoothly in the head tube.
The lining up and cutting down if the head tube so everything was right took ages, it was good in the end though.
After I'm finished I'm going to put it together on Thursday, and then I'll see you on Sunday at London calling for tall bike jousting ;)
My progress will be documented here!

having two gentlemens frames, rather than a womens frame on top of a mans frame, can make it considerably harder to get on and off said tall bike......

looking forward to seeing how this turns out....

Just pop my leg over the back and not over the top tube, all is well!

Ace! " I love the smell of angle grinder first thing in the morning. It smells of. .......victory!"

And it's finally finished! Really stoked on this. I didn't get as many in progress photos as I would have liked as I was really just trying to get it done as soon as possible! These were taken before the chain tension was sorted out, we thought it would be okay being hella slack but the chain fell off on the test rides, which is bad enough on a normal bike, let alone this one. We sorted it by swapping the 24t sprocket on the back for a 21t and taking a link out of the chain. Now it's tight (probably a little too tight) but that's certainly better than too loose!
Here's the picture!

And here's me with the bike. (for reference I'm about 6ft 2in.) picture of a Polaroid. I am become cliché.

Was scared riding it in traffic at first, but rode dalston to Camden totally fine!
Thanks to everyone at London bike kitchen who helped make this happen, especially Peter for teaching me to weld and helping me a fuck load.

If you spot me on this feel free to stop me and ask to have a go. Hoping to take it on a social forum ride soon!

did i meet you at the bike kitchen on friday? i had the light blue concorde.

Very probably. I'm there pretty much every day! Nice to have met you if so :)

so you made it to camden on sunday for the london calling tings?

Took it to Camden for the London calling jousting, sadly I was a bit late and it was raining, people were still there but we had nothing to joust with, bit of a balls up but oh well! I'm hoping to try to sort out some tall bike jousting in the next couple of months. Will obvs keep the forum posted.

Also luckyskull just remembered you and definitely did meet you! Really nice concorde and it was ace meeting you.

i used to ride tall bikes, that's how petor and i met.

Ah rad! This is my first, very excited about it/enjoying it so far!

traveled all over the place through the tall bike/art/circus scene. Kopi bike squat in Berlin is quite an amazing place, chicken hut in New York(black label) is a must see and New Orleans is out of this world for the outsider bike community.... tall bikes and a nice smile can open some interesting doors.

I'd love to make it to some of those places. Hopefully my smile is nice enough to be able to get me in!

Can you stick a vid on youtube on how you get on/off n generally ride it? Im intrigued!

Id shit myself coming up to traffic lights

that looks so good...i actually like that each part of the frame is a different colour as well...proper franken-bike!

Superb job, done really quick too!! Well done you. And yes, I'd love a go

and another good thing about this bike is I bet no one is going to steal it (feeling the pain as my regular-sized bike was nicked today)