Chris Burbank's Aluminum Big Wheel SWB


Chris brought in a Bacchetta-style large wheel recumbent he just completed, which is his third bike. He is still working on getting the steering the way he likes it, and asked for suggestions from the group. It has a cute Busch and Mueller handlebar mirror from Calhoun Cycle. He did some of this work at his workplace and some in his basement shop, which apparently is something to see. The seat is an old low back BikeE with added extensions, which are absolutely necessary considering how far back the seat is angled.



He built his own front brake arms from raw chunks of aluminum in order to get a cable pull from below and a low profile to clear the bottom of the main tube. Also the arms are moved to the left side to avoid interference with the chain! He used Shimano hardware, but everthing is in a different place. See the brake in the next picture to see a stock Shimano Dual Pivot sidepull.

My pictures don't do these pieces justice. The finish is such that I assumed they were high end Shimano or Campi, but in a configuration I had never seen before. Even when he told me the brakes were made from a couple of chunks of aluminum, I didn't understand he could be talking about the arms. Turns out he's a toolmaker, which probably explains a lot. Mark



He used rectangular tubes for the rear stays, and custom dropouts. He created a die for bending the stays into a gentle "S" curve.



It has an aluminum frame, made from a section of a special extrusion used for sailboat masts (!) The extrusion is a short teardrop shape, much like the Bacchetta. There is a groove originally intended to hold sail mounting clips, but it also works nicely for tucking cables out of the way. The handmade seat brackets integrate nicely with the BikeE seat mounting plates.

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