My homemade Straight shaft what do ya think?

[drewan29]

I've been wanting a Straight shaft for a while but just couldn't justify paying 119.00 for one so I made one cost me a total of 27.00.
22.00 for the Alum. tubing and nuts and bolts
5.00 for the bike handel bar uprights (used)
some black stove pipe spray paint.
There is some wobble were the lower shaft goes into the upper shaft but was told to try some elect.tape from another forum.Also may have to drill another hole to shorten it a bit.
What do ya think?

 

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[Can Slaw]

Looks good. A couple of additions that might help. A foam grip for your bike handle, I bought mine on ebay, 2 for $2.00. Your hand will get tired gripping a hard handle for hours at a time. Also Plugger Straight Shafts makes a shaft lock that will stop your shaft wiggle and you can easily shorten or lengthen your shaft with just a twist of a thumb screw. Order direct from his site and they are $100. delivered, ebay price $16.00. I travel a lot and being able to shorten the shaft quickly is important to me.

Nice savings on your shaft.

 

[FloridaBill]

Great job and I would get a strap for that cuff I don't know how anyone could use one without a strap..........

 

[Terry Soloman]

Looks really good! Have you ever thought about writing titles for Triple-X films, or Weiner tweets?

 

[drewan29]

Looks really good! Have you ever thought about writing titles for Triple-X films, or Weiner tweets?

Thank you Bill, Terry, and canslaw.
To Terry I think I would make even those folks blush with some of the titles I could come with.

 

[OBN]

Great Job, again..think I may have comment over on friendly....one little secret on the bike handle is most come offset from the bike shops due to the angle on the handle bars of the bike. But they are at a weird angle on the strait shafts when in place. Not sure if yours was like the ones I've used but you can heat them with a propane touch at the base and twist them to the correct angle so your lined up with the shaft instead of off to the side. (they used the plastic glue like for hot glue guns to keep them in place) I have even pulled them off and used a piece of the 7/8 tubing for a strait handle.....used epoxy to replace it

pic of the lower clamp that the curved handle glues too, and two different handles

 

[Can Slaw]

Easy strap for the arm cup is a 1.5 inch web belt with plastic buckles in the sporting goods section of Walmart, 2 foot $2.00 I cut the slot in the arm cup with a die grinder, but a drumel tool will work too. Cut the strap to fit your arm, leave enough room to slide your arm out comfortably, then burn the edges of the strap so the don't fray.

 

[drewan29]

Re: OBN I am going to see if I can should beable to. It's like you discribed off to the side at a weird angle.
Re: Canslaw I'm going to rob the strap off of my White's Prizm II and put it on the excal cuff.
Thank You again for all the tips.
drewan

 

[magjm]

I use the standard straight shaft on my 1000 and still use the controls on the waist. I have a problem with handle placement and my elbow hitting the shaft end and didn't want to shorten the shaft. One of these days I do plan to make a shorter shaft (I like yours), but until then got some plumbing foam sheathing and placed that around the end of the shaft. Would work as a grip on the handle also.

Maggie

 

[drewan29]

I use the standard straight shaft on my 1000 and still use the controls on the waist. I have a problem with handle placement and my elbow hitting the shaft end and didn't want to shorten the shaft. One of these days I do plan to make a shorter shaft (I like yours), but until then got some plumbing foam sheathing and placed that around the end of the shaft. Would work as a grip on the handle also.

Maggie

Hello Maggie,
Thank you the SS I made is a little bit longer then the factory shaft. 36'' w/o lower shaft. I wish I would have done this when I first bought the machine like every said to do. I was always slumped to one side because it was short and I'm not real tall 5'10. I was thinking about hip mounting it but after reading about wire problems (the more things that move the more the chances of something breaking) I didn't want to take the chance. The nice is you can adjust the handle to a point. I'm hoping to give it a good work out this weekend.
drewan