O.H.E.Orhun Habib Erdogan

B-01 · Aug–Sept 2022

Tallbike

Two bikes, one on top of the other. It works. Getting on is the hard part.

B-01 · Inspection
A finished tallbike, two black bike frames welded on top of each other, standing in a university hallway

I wanted to see the world from about two metres up, and a ladder seemed boring.

So I took two donor frames and welded one on top of the other in the metal workshop at uni. The bottom bike keeps its wheels on the ground. The top bike puts the saddle and handlebars somewhere up near the ceiling. Everything in between is cutting, tacking, checking and welding.

What was actually hard

  • Getting the geometry right. Stack two frames slightly wrong and the steering goes from “quirky” to “hospital”. Lots of measuring, tacking, checking, then welding properly.
  • Steering through two frames. The bars are up top, the front wheel is down below, and they still have to agree with each other.
  • Getting on. Still unsolved. Best method so far: lean against a lamp post and commit.

Result

It rides. Properly, not just “for a photo”. I posted it on Reddit and 7.6k people agreed that this was a reasonable thing to build.

Fig. 5 — Test ride. No incidents. That we filmed.
Cut tubes and a chainring clamped to a welding table
Fig. 2 — Donor parts on the jig
Orhun grinning in a welding helmet next to the half-built frame
Fig. 3 — Operator, shown with PPE
The stacked frame hanging on a workshop wall before wheels went on
Fig. 4 — Frame, no wheels yet
Next drawingB-02 Iron Man helmet