This was a test of the Emergency Beater Bike System.
The cellist wanted me to have a bike in Delaware, so that we could ride when I visit her during the school year. Each of the bikes I already built has a specific profile. Even if I haven’t used a particular one in a while, I might. And the least used is the hardest to replace. I needed another bike, and quickly. We were heading south in about a week.
Any good bike mechanic has a bike’s worth of pieces around. This is true whether you’re a professional or just an enthusiast. If you’ve gotten very far into doing your own work, you’ve collected parts, and perhaps frames, and wheels.
The first frame I pulled out was a sporty little Univega road bike from the early 1980s. I’d used it in 1994-‘95 when my primary road frame needed repairs. I inventoried parts on hand and brought home the ones I needed. But at the beginning of assembly I discovered that the 700x28 tires would never fit. The 28s were barely wide enough for an urban exploration bike. I needed a different frame.
Of course not. Maybe building a complete gruppo on a perfect new frame designed for it, but not in the gritty world of junk-box custom.
The frame was designed for 27-inch wheels. I had a set left over from a touring build in 1980, complete with 6-speed 13-28 freewheel. The drop bars were coming off, in favor of flat bars. Drop bars are better for longer distance, but then I’d need primary and interrupter brake levers, and lots of other refinements that would take too much time. I was retaining a lot of things on the bike that I would have discarded for a fixed gear build. A fixed gear conversion is more of an unbuild.
Accepting the 42-52 steel cottered crank, the low gear is 42-28. Delaware is flat, right? I should be able to run those chainrings with a 13-18 corncob. But that’s poor gearing for leisurely exploring.
Wilmington is in the mountains of northern Delaware. That 42-28 is none too low.
Thinking I was home free, I put 1 1/8 tires on the wheels and slapped them in. That’s when I discovered that the fork was a little bent, and the front brake for some reason didn’t quite reach the rim. I was out of time, so I needed to solve this with parts on hand.
I had a long reach side pull brake, but it had a rear center bolt. However, center bolts are easy to swap on center pull brakes, so I moved the original rear center pull to the front and put the side pull on the rear. I’d straightened the fork ends adequately, so the wheel sat straight. The bike was ready to ride with 18 hours before we hit the road.
"...return to the lab in the winter" - fits the Frankenbike narrative perfectly!
ReplyDeleteLast time I thought I could build a bike from parts on hand, most of the parts on hand didn't fit the frame or turned out to be broken in some way. So I had to get some other parts to complete it. This is some kind of natural law, that no matter how many bikes you build, the number of parts in your inventory remains constant. Also, the eventual cost of what was supposed to be a cheap way to use up parts on hand turned out to be close to what a complete bike would have cost, which would have had better parts. This is also some kind of natural law, I think.
ReplyDeleteI have the advantage of working in a bike shop. It brings me a steadier flow of good cast-off parts and an irresistible price break on new stuff. That has been an integral part of my entrapment in the job. It makes a low-income lifestyle more livable, while guaranteeing that I will remain in a low income bracket. Back when I thought I would combine income from enjoyable creative endeavors, the low base pay didn't alarm me. And the job still allows me to promote aspects of cycling that I believe are being foolishly cast aside.
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