G-Bar Fabrication - Phase 1

While we are waiting for Burd Phillips' folding mountain bike frame to get here, he and I are discussing how to build it up. I lean toward the flip-flop hub, 26" rim setup, myself.

Yesterday Burd (he is the computer genius behind the look of GrinderBikes.com) sent me a drawing of what he thinks would be the ultimate handlebar for this bike. His drawing showed a straight bar 18" wide, with two parallel extensions extending 5" fore and aft of the bar.

So, I sat down with two alloy MTB bars, and the Dremel, and went to work. This is the result, mounted on my Triumph fixie for testing purposes.

Using the cutting wheel on the Dremel, and some grinding stones, I mitered the ends of the bar to accept the straight sections. I then drilled holes through the center of the straight sections, and ran the bolt of an expanding connector though them. Once the ends were bolted in place, and aligned pretty well, I welded them in place with some low-temp alloy welding rod.

The Grinder "G-Bar" is born.

I'm not real sure how strong the welds are, so I will leave the bolts in place. I had planned on recessing them, but that won't be possible now that everything is welded together.

So, for now, I will ride the Triumph, with them on it, and make sure they hold together. If all goes well, they can go on Burd's bike when it comes in.