How to Make a Trambike, Tips and Tricks

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How to Make a Trambike, Tips and Tricks
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flag frozenfire
Posted: Feb 1, 2008 at 23:17 Quote
Hi everyone, I get lot of pm's in pinkbike mail asking how to make trampbikes and the best ways to do it, so hopefully this helps everyone out! Waiver: I am not responsible for any damage to property, loss of property, injury or any other negative consequences caused by using the following instructions.

Making a trampbike is a great way to learn tricks and take your abilities to dirt jumps and freeriding. This article includes my way to make a trampbike plus some of my tricks and tips on how to do it.

Step one: Find an old bike
Any bike with a frame and a fork will do, suspension is not necessary. I'd advise using a hard tail or BMX. Make sure that using the bike won't anger anyone else (don't just go turning your sisters nice bike into a trampbike)

Step two: Strip it down
Remove all parts except fork, stem, bars, headset and grips. If you want, you can leave the brake levers on to practice catching no handed tricks with them. Keep all of the parts that you removed in a safe place so if you want to rebuild the bike you easily can.

By now, the bike should look like this:
photo

The only stripped frame I had lying around


Step three: Protect!!!
Since trampolines are easy to rip, you must take extreme caution that your tramp-bike is properly protected. The most important areas to protect are the bottom of the front fork and the rear end. For these parts, I recommend using a piece of old tire and zip ties.

photo

Tire is a great way to protect the front end

photo

Under the tire is some cardboard to prevent the frame from ripping through the tire


Anything that is durable and will not rip or wreck easily works. Heck, thick enough cardboard or foam does wonders! Use zip ties and duct tape (or electrical tape) over the zip ties to hold what ever you use in place and to prevent any possibility of sharp edges poking through. Taping and padding up the rest of the bike is also recommended to prevent injury, but make sure the fork spins freely.
The bike should look something like this:

photo

The overall bike; I ran out of tape and didn't have time to go to the store; the rest of the frame should be taped too.


Step four: Trampbike
Try new tricks, but don't go too big right away. Some tricks to try are no foot cans, bar spins and super seat-grabs
photo

Me doing a no-footed can on my friends's trampbike


Feel free to put any suggestions below for me to add to this article. I hope it helped you out!

Bobby
flag pedalpusher01
Posted: Feb 2, 2008 at 9:42 Quote
that looks great. i never thought about using tires for around the dropouts though. for mine i just used foam and duct tape...

photo

1571747
flag drifting-with-flow
Posted: Feb 2, 2008 at 9:56 Quote
pedalpusher01 wrote:
that looks great. i never thought about using tires for around the dropouts though. for mine i just used foam and duct tape...

photo

1571747


My gosh. That bike is decent! Why waste that on a tramp?!
flag pedalpusher01
Posted: Feb 2, 2008 at 10:00 Quote
drifting-with-flow wrote:
pedalpusher01 wrote:
that looks great. i never thought about using tires for around the dropouts though. for mine i just used foam and duct tape...

photo

1571747


My gosh. That bike is decent! Why waste that on a tramp?!
i cracked it half way around the head tube and snapped the arch and the fork.
flag jessrock17
Posted: Feb 15, 2008 at 22:14 Quote
ME and my friends just made sure the ends of the bars (if they were sarp) were covered, rapped old towels around the back and used that awesome RED tape (make sure you take the crankes and tires of LOL) LOTS of towles around were the sproket and the cranks WERE so you don't smash your ankles. and then we cut slits into tennis balls and put them on the end of the fork.Big Grin
flag frozenfire
Posted: Feb 15, 2008 at 22:15 Quote
jessrock17 wrote:
ME and my friends just made sure the ends of the bars (if they were sarp) were covered, rapped old towels around the back and used that awesome RED tape (make sure you take the crankes and tires of LOL) LOTS of towles around were the sproket and the cranks WERE so you don't smash your ankles. and then we cut slits into tennis balls and put them on the end of the fork.Big Grin
tennis balls are smart! never thought of that.
flag sorbet
Posted: Feb 15, 2008 at 22:19 Quote
Im wonderin about puttin like pegs in for like foot pedals, has anyone tryed that? but not sure how to get it to stay anyways heres the bike
photo

1748404
flag jessrock17
Posted: Feb 15, 2008 at 22:51 Quote
brodiebrat92 wrote:
Im wonderin about puttin like pegs in for like foot pedals, has anyone tryed that? but not sure how to get it to stay anyways heres the bike
photo

1748404

So much harder to use.
1 it hurts
2 IT HURTS
3 so hard to stay up
4 no control you bounce all over the placeWink
flag dmanhogg
Posted: Feb 15, 2008 at 23:15 Quote
Man. me and my buddies took off the chain ring and left the cranks on. just taped them up. its so much more fun for actually learning new tricks.
flag phyco666palmer
O+
Posted: Feb 19, 2008 at 13:24 Quote
my tramp bike is done to perfection atm! check my album to see!!
flag jimin
Posted: Feb 19, 2008 at 13:31 Quote
after we took out the cranks we welded a metal bar in there and covered and taped it with foam to. But it sticks out far enough so you can use it but u dont have to
flag phyco666palmer
O+
Posted: Feb 19, 2008 at 13:34 Quote
photo

1624962

here is mine and my favo trick on it Smile no footed can no handers Smile
flag pedalpusher01
Posted: Feb 19, 2008 at 13:40 Quote
^^^why wouldnt you just fill your fork with air..? in stead of wraping a shit load of tpe around it and make it look like shit.
flag phyco666palmer
O+
Posted: Feb 19, 2008 at 13:42 Quote
pedalpusher01 wrote:
^^^why wouldnt you just fill your fork with air..? in stead of wraping a shit load of tpe around it and make it look like shit.

lol well i kinda have a snap though the crown of the forks so shoved them on that, i have now removed the ducktape from the fork stantions and it looks better Smile haha
flag pedalpusher01
Posted: Feb 19, 2008 at 13:44 Quote
phyco666palmer wrote:
pedalpusher01 wrote:
^^^why wouldnt you just fill your fork with air..? in stead of wraping a shit load of tpe around it and make it look like shit.

lol well i kinda have a snap though the crown of the forks so shoved them on that, i have now removed the ducktape from the fork stantions and it looks better Smile haha
haha yea the fork i have on mine has a snapped arc and i just wraped duct tape around it like 3 or 4 times.
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