Old barn find I breathed new life in because gravel bikes are too expensive so fuck it I’ll make my own.
Just waiting for the last parts since i lost some plastic thingamabobs I need for the STIs.
Sometimes I think I should keep my bike shop like surgically clean so I don’t lose the small, crucially important plastic bits in the mess of parts and old boxes but alas, if your personal shop doesn’t look like you could outfit a frame with parts you find on the ground, is it even a shop?
It never occured to me that we can talk about bikes here without bougie assholes being like “If you don’t spend $10,000, that’s not a bike”
One time I asked a bike forum for suggestions for some inexpensive disc brakes for my Shimano frame. Nothing but dunks. Its all I could afford at the time, and that’s still true. It’s a decent 29er for what I paid, and it has spots to attach after market stuff. I even found a free $150 salsa rim sitting by a garbage can in a rich neighborhood, so I put it on. I’m not above a frankenbike, and nobody should talk down to anyone just because they can’t afford a $1,000 Specialized.
A part of me wishes I had enough space to mess around with bikes. But alas, I don’t. I do have a folding bike that I bought new around the summer of 2020.
I used to just wrench on gym mats in my old flat, 1-2 bicycles never really took up too much storage for me to worry about and it protected the floor, easy to lay out but also easy to stow away, maybe that’s something for you if you wanna tinker with your bike? A folding bike is still a bike in the end and much of tinkering with bikes doesn’t require you to turn your living room into a workshop, imo
Just got an electric bike recently, been really enjoying it so far, although I managed to bend the back rim a bit somehow :/ planning to take it to a bike shop to have the wheel trued sometime this week, and maybe get fenders installed too.
I’ve been thinking about doing one of those e-bike conversion kit thingies on an old classic dutch-style bike that’s been sitting for a while. Got that common three gear internal shifting thingy going on, so I’m wondering whether that’s possible (it probably is, right?) and whether it’s a good idea (it probably isn’t, right?)
Possible? Yes, just gotta be a front hub motor probably.
Good idea? Sure, why not.
I genuinely like E-Bikes a lot, they’re very, very good vehicles.
I’ve had the luck of borrowing an old pedelec from a friend for a few rides recently, it’s honestly just great fun to get around on, real zippy out of the hole and a lot less exhausting overall (there be hills)
I’m worrying a front hub might be a bit questionable on the structural integrity side of things, that fork is real thin-looking and probably not made for being pulled on? On the other hand, I might just risk it and see how it shakes out…
I’m not gonna post a picture of my frankenbike for doxxing reasons but I found a bunch of discarded bikes at the dump (friend works there and let me take them) and I cobbled together a hideous looking but reliable bike.
It’s got a road frame, mountain fork, hybrid tires, riser bars, none of the derailleurs were any good so I just shortened the chain to make it effectively single speed, v brake in the back and disc brake in the front, mirrors and lights for added safety, and a cargo rack.
Basically every part of it is from a different bike so it’s a technicolor monstrosity also.
But it’s mine!
