Jim's home | HPV home | This bike's home
Custom dropouts. Actually these are just Shimano vertical dropouts taken from a Bianchi mountain bike. 3/16" steel tabs were welded onto the ends where the chainstay normally attaches, and then shaped into what you see here. Note how the seat stay tabs were turned into another set of eyelets. They'll be good for mounting a rear fender.
Here are the chainstays layed out to be brazed to the bushings on the main pivoting axle. I used a rear wheel axle with the cones adjusted to the same width as my rear wheel's axle to guage how far to spread the chainstays.
A closeup of the chainstays brazed to the axle bushings. The axle and bushings were taken from a Quickie wheelchair that I bought at Goodwill years ago. It was all aluminum and had sealed bearing hubs. I think I paid about $15 for it!
The rear dropouts jigged for brazing.
The swingarm assembled with the bridge.
A close up.
Close up of the dropout with the rear wheel in place.