Danny's SWB quasi low racer.

I enjoyed regular commuting and touring on my 10 speed 27” racing bike in my late teens and twenties. I desire to have that level of fitness again in my forties led me to dust off that old bike and tackle Bicycle Victoria’s ride to work day in 2002.

I couldn’t believe how I had forgotten the sore neck, arms and saddle from 20 years ago (or how I my body had adapted to get used to these effects in those days). There must be some better way I thought to myself! How appropriate that we call the DF crowd ‘wedgies’.

A quick search on the Internet and conversations with OZHPV members led me to my present design. I contacted Ken Houghton at Steve Nurse’s suggestion and had a test drive of his compact SWB. It handled OK when going straight and starting off was a big leap of faith, but my first corner took me by surprise. I wasn’t put off, just realised that SWB handling would take a bit of getting used to.

My sources of inspiration were Peter Heal’s Lizard low racers, Barnett Williams’ Optimild plans http://www.eng.uwaterloo.ca/~bkwillia/muffler.htm and Steve Nurse’s square tubing bike designs (HUFF Jan 199, P16).

Peter Heal, Ian Humphries, Steve Nurse and many others gave me valuable advice. Des Harvey helped with mechanical advice. Information on the web confused me, particularly some of the older things in cyberspace on recumbent stability! I now have a more pragmatic opinion on stability. Being able to ride no hands is not the measure of a good bike (but I guess it implies it is OK). A believe my SWB is pretty stable, at least for a two wheeler with such a low and inclined seat! So far only Steve Nurse, Ken Houghton and my 14 year old son have ridden it. Steve said it was OK and that was the early version with 69 degree head tube angle (my final version is better). My son could only just ride it and has declared recumbent trikes are the way to go after riding one of MR Component’s trikes at Broadford!

I had initially planned to have electric assist to my SWB right from the start to enable me to commute the 60 odd km from home at Hoppers Crossing to Melbourne where I work, but I’ve been having so much fun getting fit that I haven't bothered yet! That was why I originally had an intermediate gear on my SWB back in 2002 where I was going to power the other (left side) with a PM motor via a large angel grinder spiral bevel gear (low loss). This is also the reason the seat support consists of the 44mm square tubing. This was to be pivoted and a coil spring or elastomer suspension added to cope with the 25 odd kg of batteries and motor. The large vacant area between the seat and rear wheel was where the motor and gearbox was to be located.

My primary aim was to build a comfortable bike for long distance commuting/touring that had a sufficiently low drag coefficient to enable me to blow past the younger wedgies in their lycra and carbon fibre bikes. Well, I have achieved the first point as it doesn’t need a brain surgeon to make a seat more comfortable than the saddle on a DF bike! On the second point I concede a DF rider on a modern time trial bike can approach or even exceed the drag coefficient of a recumbent but the recumbent is so much more comfortable to ride!

My donor bike was a circa 1970s Repco 10 speed 27” racer. The head tube, rear stays, bottom bracket, chainrings and cranks, front calliper brakes (terrible, I’ll go with V brakes all around next time) and one hand-brake lever were all used in the bike at a total cost of $5! Various bits a pieces such as cable stops were also reused.

I rebuilt a second hand rear 20” Araya wheel with a new hub because the existing one had pitted cups. Unfortunately a miscalculation with the spoke lengths meant I needed to lace the wheel as a 4 cross! Something I had never done before and much harder than simply copying the pattern on a 3 cross wheel. Since I was building the frame out of 35mm x 1.6mm square tube, I decided to build the wheel without any dish for strength. In retrospect this created some additional problems in locating the braze-on V brake mounts on the chainstays. At a seat height of 35.5cm its not really a low-racer but still pretty aerodynamic.

front fork

The front fork is from the 27” donor bike, cut down and sleeved with a slotted 12.5mm diameter steel plug, 25mm long and mig welded to the original front dropouts, which were cut out, cleaned-up and reused. The forks were bent cold with the aid of a vice and a long tube used as a lever.

chain management

Chain management. A nightmare! Some interference with the front tyre occurs on turns, particularly with the smallest chainring. I’d prefer this not to occur as there are times when I would like to power-down during a turn for safety reasons – such as avoiding traffic. I have had to pedal and turn a few times and the wear on the irrigation tubing shows this!

How to straighten irrigation tubing? Tape the tube to a vertical wall or post. Seal the bottom and fill with boiling water and leave to cool. (see http://www.ihpva.org/com/PracticalInnovations/chain_mgmnt.htm )

low racer

Here is my first version circa 2002. Note the intermediate gear, double chainrings but no front derailleur, strange head tube (a bit tacked on to give me knee clearance), flat plywood back seat and bits of wood supporting the seat (that’s what’s known as a hybrid bike?)

Here is the SWB in early 2003 without the intermediate gear and a bit more refined and ready for touring. I now have triple chainrings installed. Fantastically comfortable ergonomically designed seat with lumbar and neck support. Gear range is 21.4 to 96.6 gear inches with a 14 to 34 rear cluster – a bit lacking in the top end but great for hill climbing!

With full corflute tailbox, triple and the original 69 degree head tube angle. I also experimented with wire heal supports and I concluded they are not as good as SPDs but better than nothing.

Just before the Round the Bay in a day in 2003, I got the idea to increase the head tube angle from 69 to 72 degrees to increase stability. I did this by opening up the angle in the bend of the main tube under the seat. This of course meant the bottom bracket would be lowered so I put an upward kink in the base of the front tube to the bottom bracket. I also took this opportunity to raise the bottom bracket from 47cm to a higher 52cm. A bit of grinding and ugly welding had the job done in a few hours and after a test run I concluded the change was an improvement. Not too sure about the higher bottom bracket though!

Here I am at Queenscliff after my half way Around the Bay in a day 2003 (Made 80 km!). This is the current version with tailbox and higher bottom bracket and 72 degree head tube angle.

I also added a more robust aluminium heal support system for this trip. It worked pretty well but SPDs are on the way.

Numb feet, but much more stable. Not sure why I’m smiling, the only part of me not soaking wet is the pale orange patch on my upper arm!