# Brewing up my Big Dummy



## rkt88edmo (Mar 28, 2004)

Bought the frame in late December. Grand plan was to try and source used or free parts as much as possible to do an inexpensive build and save towards a Rohloff purchase.

By late March I'd done no part sourcing (outside of what I already owned) and realized that spring was here, I would be released from my seasonal work prison soon and I wanted to have my BD ready to ride.

I had contacted Neal @ cyclemonkey in January and discussed the possibility of him installing the Rohloff. When the itch became overwhelming I decided to do the whole build through him and scrimp and save elsewhere to spec as much of it as possible with the critical parts that I (in my big dummy rohloff dreams) would hope to have on the final bike.

This is the 7th bicycle I will have owned (starting from age 4), the first frame I've had built up for myself, and only the second 'new' bicycle I've bought myself. Current stable was one Marin steel rigid mtb with a dented top tube that I planned to cannibalize for the big dummy build and a circa 1999 lightspeed hardtail. Big Dummy will replace the marin as my touring, road riding, 2 kid hauling, do it all ride.

Neil did a great job answering all my questions and gave me his thoughtful input.

In the end the buildout looks like this:
18" Black Big Dumy
Black Rohloff Speedhub (Rohloff Chain Tensioner, 203mm rotor, tandem cables)
Shimano Deore disc front hub
WTB LaserDisc DH hubs
Sapim 2.3/2mm strong spokes & brass nipples
Dimension 125mm Adjustable stem
Titec J-Bar
Xtracycle longtail kit
Surly 36t stainless chainring
Schwalbe Big Apple tires
Chris King headset
Avid BB7s (203mm Avid rotor in front)

Take off/scavenged parts:
LX v-brake levers
seat
seatpost
square taper XT crank & BB
Shimano platform/SPD combo pedals

Pics to follow later.

I'm still working out the placement of the shifter on the bars. Right now I am running it at the end of the right hand on the j-bar. I wanted to run the bar end extension with the shifter upside down (gripshift facing in) on the end of the bar but the adaptor isn't J-bar friendly off the shelf. I also wanted to try the ergons as well. So I am not quite sure what combo of bar tape, ergons, DIY shifter extensions, etc I will exactly end up with yet. Really liking the J-Bar so far and am considering leaving it accessory free for more hand positions, but will need to think about odometer, bell, light, placement.

Thanks to cyclemonkey for the ideas and builds, and also to everyone here and on the internet in general that has posted their experince, tips and hacks for big dummy's, xtracycles, and rohloffs. !Devo, Vik, SpeedubNate, RootsRadicals, and others!

Other than tinkering with the cockpit setup I'll probably be looking at SKS fenders from Rivendell and seeing if I can convert a rear rack to a front rack for the dummy. Hopefully will get together with my woodshop equipped brother in law next weekend for the custom snapdeck w/2 kid seats build. (Thanks to all those 2-kid snapdeck builders who have posted pics as well!)


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## Sizzler (Sep 24, 2009)

Sounds awesome, can't wait to see some pics! I'm sure you will have a blast riding it, mine has become my vehicle of choice over my car and other bikes. As far as shifter placement, I have titec h-bars and finding a good place to mount the shifters was a serious issue. I ended up going with top mounted thumbies on the 'bar ends' which has worked out very well, though if I had the monies I would be rollin the rohloff. Congrads and enjoy!


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## Plim (Dec 8, 2004)

Cool. Be sure to post pics of your kid seats. I ended up going with an xtracycle branded rear seat and putting a wee-ride that I already had up front for kid #2.


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## benwitt11 (May 1, 2005)

For the Rohloff shifter placement, I have set some up one a secondary ultra short stem in lieu of spacers under the stem. I cut a section of handlebar down, made shims to fit the 25.4mm clamp diameter, and mounted the shifter on the right side just under the J Bar. This allows for the J Bars to be set up as a SS, and the shifter is still in a very use able position. If you don't care about seeing what gear you are in, you can orient the shifter cables to run straight back to the hub. It's a slick set up.


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## rkt88edmo (Mar 28, 2004)

Haven't gotten pics up of the build, but the bike can be seen in the set below. Added SKB fender from Rivendell as well as a Nitto Dove bar in the rear.

Still running the rohloff shifter off the end of the grip, and I like it there, easy to access and when shifting that hand is still connected to the steering handlebar. I still want to get a handlebar extension like the hubbub made.

Ergon grips seem to give me pain in the hand due to the non-round shape. I like the flared section under the heel of my palm but its the portion of the grip under my hand by the fore and middle fingers that seems to bother me.

J-bar works great so far, really like it. May still run a secondary accessory handlebar below for lights odometer and such. Fenders could use mudflaps, but that may not happen until it gets rainy again.

Short trips can be made with the wife+2.5yr old+5.5 yr old, which is pretty hilarious.

Thanks to everyone who posted their seat designs anywhere on the web. I've been stalking you all! If you see similarities to your design, you have my thanks, I don't think there is much in my design that is original.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/[email protected]/sets/72157624432615656/

My seat design is for two kids currently 2.5 and 5.5 years old.

Mainly I want the seat so I can do intermediate and longer trips without worrying about the kids falling off. Final steps to finish the seats will be:

Attach straps (5 point system)
Fill, sand, and varnish all wood
Glue and screw permanently affixed parts together.

Straps will be made of tubular 1" webbing and buckles and plastic hardware will be fastex types made by ITW nexus. Straps will be mounted with machine screws and washers. There will also be straps used to keep the V-racks under tension as well as to strap the vracks and snapdeck together.

The snapdeck is extended about 4-5 inches longer than stock and squared in the rear, and is made from 0.5" birch faced plywood. This leaves the front of the snapdeck in the same place but extends the rear to almost flush with rear of my big dummy frame. The general contours of the snapdeck otherwise replicate the OEM design.

Rather than make the seats integral with the snapdeck, the seats and snapdeck are separate pieces that bolt together. This allows for multiple positions to be accomodated to find optimal positioning of the seats based on the passengers over time and to also run one seat or no seats in the future. As pictured the front seat is in the frontmost of four positions, and can move backward up to 3"s in one inch increments. I think I may drill one more forward set of holes for a 5" range of seat mounting. The rear seat is mounted in the middle of 3 positions with 3/4" of adjustment either way.

The seats are very wide to accomodate lots of room for the riders while keeping their arms inside the side panels. I decided to keep the seatback lower for increased field of view of both passengers. I am hoping it ends up being comfortable when they ineveitably fall asleep and that their heads don't flop backwards, but I may incorporate head neck pillow support of some sort based on rider feedback  The seat bottoms and back are the same 1/2" plywood as the deck and the sides and back brace are 1" poplar. The thicker poplar is used for screwing into (definitely stole that idea from someone here).

When I do the sanding and finishing I will take pictures of all the pieces laid out.

I was attempting to make 2-3 sets of these as I know there are always folks interested who don't have the tools or time to make them themselves. I am strictly an amateur woodworker and this seat took a great deal of time and energy with tons of help from my brother-in-law who had the tools and more woodworking experience. I have the pieces for another 2 sets of seats, but they are far far from finished. Just getting this one set done took us about 18 hours of working together after I had mocked up all the design and layout pieces in cardboard. I do have 4 more long snapdeck blanks that have been cut, 95% shaped, holes drilled for hooks only, and need only to be filled, sanded and finished. The long snapdecks are a piece of cake compared to all the pieces of the seats coming together.

I am considering using the 2 superhooks and 2 regular snapdeck hooks. I would either mount the two super hooks on one side, or diagonally from eachother, anyone else use 2 and 2?

I'll post again when the seats are finished or when I get my other build pics up.


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## rkt88edmo (Mar 28, 2004)

http://www.flickr.com/photos/rkt88edmo/sets/72157624508372491/with/4914963339/









Got a custom hubbub adaptor via [email protected] for the rohloff shifter. Also finally finished the kids seats, they are done!

Pulled off the ergons and wrapped bars in a double layer of bar tape.

Future considerations:
odometer/cyclometer thingy
bell
fender flaps
accessory handlebar for lights, odometer, etc.
stainless bottle cages
top tube bag
rear triangle bag
painting frame and seats


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