Making the forks part 1

okay so i have made progress this week in starting to get together the forks. I found an old bike frame and cut the frame so that the forks, stem, and head tube were left:

 I then cut the forks just above the suspension to create a gap to insert the fork tube lengths:

I also filed out the holes so that the tube forks fit in well and are seated correctly so that i can align the top plate and the dropouts for the front. they are 37 inches long and some of this will overhang the dropouts. once done you can see the basic fork shape coming together:

I am now waiting upon a front caliper so i can mark out the front dropouts and weld them in place. Meanwhile i have filed the excess frame material on the head tube and taken all the paint off so it is ready to be welded to the frame:

I have also had the rear cassette come and is now in place, considering a new front tyre but unsure which one. should hopefully mark out the dropouts and weld them in place this weekend, and should also get the top plate cut and shaped to support the top of the forks when fitted to the frame when completed.

Making the rear dropouts

First thing is to use the cardboard templates to mark onto the steel I'm going to make the dropouts from. like so:

The marker is rough but when being cut it is marked out square and cut square to so both pieces match. Once the two pieces are cut they should look like this:

Note the gap for the caliper. To make sure this is right line up the caliper and keep filing until it fits to ensure a nice fit with no scraping or altering the caliper height so that it grasps most of the disc and flats round the disc easily and effectively:

Don't worry about the peach paint or rusty calipers as this will all be sanded down and resprayed when completed. It also helps to stops cuts if you file all corners down as well as you can like i have.
Next is the making of the long forks and dropouts for the front to mount the caliper and wheel to the forks.

Fitting the new parts

Got the Brand new brake disc rotors and huge back tire and tube in the post. Before fitting them i had to convert the old wheels to a bolt axle as the old ones were quick release and not very practical. This involved stripping down the hubs and changing axles over and greasing up. A quick and easy job.

Now to fit the new parts. Back tire slid on easy and looked great and the new rotors looked the business as the look slick. I used a semi slick Kenda Flame rear tyre which is 3" wide (Huge). You can just see how big they are in comparison to a normal 1.95" tire.

 The next part in building was making the rear dropouts for the frame. I first marked then out with cardboard to make sure they fit right with the caliper:

This is pretty much how it was left for a week until it rained. Then i started to make the real dropouts from steel

The dream

I've had all sorts of pedal bikes from big downhill bikes to bmx's, cross country bikes to jump bikes but i haven't yet had a chopper. I plan to change that and get my hands on a chopper and ride it as fast as i can.

So after seeing a friend with a chopper years ago i wanted to try and build my own chopper. Most chopper bicycles have one gear and only V-brakes. I wanted to change that. I want a Chopper bicycle with Disc brakes and Gears. So one night i began thinking how could i build it and come up with a design:

Now i had the drawing it was time to get some parts so i got online and ordered two big 203mm disc rotors and one big fat rear cruiser tyre. I got some second hand wheels of a friend of mine and also some brake calipers. While waiting for the post i marked out my chopper on a piece of cardboard to scale up and stuff. The wheels were 26" which are bigger that the usuall chopper bike sizes. This is what it looked like:

Next thing is start to fit the rotors to the wheels and fit the big tyre and find a tyre for the front wheel