Hi Bob. I don’t know if you have been able to ride both versions of the swing bike. If not you might be interested in how they differ. Anyway, I built another swing bike, and have been riding it for about two weeks . I built this one like the original design with the forks in the rear, and the rear head stock angle reversed. There is a tremendous difference in the way they perform. The first one is a real "pussy cat" compared to the second one. The first one takes a lot of pressure to hold in a wide crossed up position for any length of time, and it wants to return to center when you relax the pressure on the bars. It really feels quite stable after you have ridden it for a short time. The second one can be ridden all day in a very wide crossed up position with virtually no pressure on the bars, and it has no desire to return to center This of course makes it a little more tricky to ride, and at first I rode it with out the spring.

This left me with the impression that I was balancing on a razor blade. After a few days I added a spring and it became a lot more user friendly. Although after riding it for a while I have decided that it is more fun to ride without the spring. It is a lot more of a challenge, and you can do a lot of real tight maneuvers and turns with it. It also has a much wider wheel spread so you can really straddle any thing in the road.This one has 20" wheels fore and aft, a banana seat, and is quite cute.My weird bike building has now reached the point were the neighborhood kids come to the door and ask my wife if I can come out and ride bikes with them I am flattered!!

These last two bikes depleted our used bike stock some what so my friend and I had to make a trip to the flea mart to restock. We are now looking for another weird bicycle to build. Any ideas??

I want to thank you for the page showing the original design, I would of never known what it looked with out your pictures. Also thanks again for the page with my bike on it, my friends have had a great time looking it up.

Carl Hoots
chtz@shasta.com

Webmaster's Note: The photo at the bottom is of a recumbant (sp?) that Carl built prior to the Swing Bikes. Thanks again Carl for the story and pics!

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