A new addition to the bicycling stable

[GS1150Pilot]

Still enjoying the fat bike. Never had a more fun mountain bike.

 

[850 Combat]

I've never stopped loving bicycles. I sold my last road bike a while ago. I've been collecting some Schwinn Homegrown hard tails. I love to upgrade them. Lately, I have been into buying a certain model of China Schwinn beach cruiser that has an aluminum frame, and a junk 7 speed freewheel hub. I've been putting on three piece franks. This is a cheap Truvative left over from putting an XT on GFs mountain bike, and some old XT Hubs /halfway decent Sun rims. (Take-Offs from a Schwinn Homegrown that got an XTR/Mavic upgrade) 9 speed SRAM X5, alloy stem, bars, seat post, etc. Cut down alloy bars. It has light tubes and 100 psi kevlar bead tires. It rolls fast. It rides like a brick. The seat is a high quality German one though, and it works. I use these for urban and bike path riding. I've built five or six. This isn't the best one, but its my favorite, and it is the only one I built for myself. I rarely use my mountain bikes any more, unless trails are in the plan. My Niece got a better one than this for Christmas, My brother got one for his birthday. My brother in law got the first one. It isn't as extreme, and still uses the 1 piece crank, and is running some wheels I removed from GFs Specialized MTB to put some higher zoot ones on it.

I have another one that I stuck a bike motor kit in. I think I'll remove that and build another like this. I know where there are two used women's I could build. There is a horde of smooth high pressure 26" tires in my garage. It is just so much fun. I still use my mountain bikes if trails are in order. We travel, so Vickie and I have bikes all over. I love upgrading forks and wheels and tires, and stupid stuff like stainless or alloy screws, carbon bars, and other stuff that really doesn't matter. I'm an old fat guy, but this bike with me on it has surprised a lot of younger people on what appeared to much better hardware. I'm using some kind of axle clamps that take a pentagon wrench to remove, so wheels tend to stay on them in front of the supermarket. I found two sets of NOS XT /Rinolite wheels for 80 bucks. A guy was building tandems for his wife and daughters, and he passed away before they were done. One set still remains!! They had been in the box for 20 years, and the grease was hard, and the cassettes were stiff, but it will be a blast to build more of these bikes. By using take-off parts from previous upgrades, I can rationalize that it really doesn't cost so much.

 

[steve murdoch]

A great look.
Pin-striping on the fenders?

 

[850 Combat]

A great look.
Pin-striping on the fenders?

Factory pinstriping off of a Raleigh. I bought the used fenders for $20. There is a Rat Fink sticker over the "Raleigh" name.

I've got at least 1 set of new chrome fenders left. The fenders are actually nice in urban riding. They help preserve the "sheep" look too. Most of these China Schwinns, if you are quiet, you can hear the rust eating the steel under the chrome. Those C&C pedals are neat. The lugs bite into sneakers pretty well. I usually ride with flip flops or Tevas. They are not cleats, but they work pretty well, and I think they look cool as heck. Stealth cleats, ha ha

 

[GS1150Pilot]

I'm having my adult-sized BMX bike (a Stolen Zeke) powdercoated in yellow to recapture the joy I had in the first BMX bicycle I built from a frame up. That yellow Mongoose was one of the best things I ever saved up for. The wonder of putting the frame and fork (anyone remember Tange forks?) on layaway and then buying each component with saved money made it the first perfect bike I ever owned.

 

[Nessism]

I'm a big bicycle fan too. I ride for fitness mostly, and for the pure joy of it. I'm almost exclusively a road rider these days but in years past there was a fair bit of mountain biking as well. Regarding my bikes, I build my own frames and then assemble from parts. Just finished the jobbie shown below. Two differences with this bike and my others is that the more modern components on this one allow a wider gear ratio, which is useful as age sets in, and wheels/tires are wider now, so the ride quality is nicer. There used to be a fallacy that skinny tires had less rolling resistance but that's been disproven now (to an extent anyway). At any rate, I can't wait for the days to get longer so I can start riding in the afternoons after work again.

 

[850 Combat]

I'm a big bicycle fan too. I ride for fitness mostly, and for the pure joy of it. I'm almost exclusively a road rider these days but in years past there was a fair bit of mountain biking as well. Regarding my bikes, I build my own frames and then assemble from parts. Just finished the jobbie shown below. Two differences with this bike and my others is that the more modern components on this one allow a wider gear ratio, which is useful as age sets in, and wheels/tires are wider now, so the ride quality is nicer. There used to be a fallacy that skinny tires had less rolling resistance but that's been disproven now (to an extent anyway). At any rate, I can't wait for the days to get longer so I can start riding in the afternoons after work again.

View attachment 57291

Your own frames. I must say that is very impressive. I'm curious, after living in and working out of Alaska for 37 years, Why Kenai? It looks like a carbon fork, but you made the frame? That is incredible to me, I must say. What are the gigs like? I've no idea.

As to a Tange fork, my first and only custom frame was an early 80s Sutter, a French bike. I used Mallard hubs and all that french stuff, Campy had the only French thread bottom bracket I could find. I broke a lug between the seat tube and bottom bracket on a ride to and from the hot air balloon field above Denver, and my rental in Aurora CO. The frame was swinging and the chain was dragging. I stopped at a blacksmith near Downtown Denver. I reminded him that it was Reynolds 531. He reminded me that he was a Blacksmith. He SMAW welded it. It never failed again, but later on, I hit a speed bump on the Sutter, which I used for touring (it was unstable with panniers, but had frame lugs). The bent forks were replaced with generally available Tange forks. They were designed for a lot more rake than the frame and original forks, and improved things very little in the stability when loaded department. Still, I have some very fond memories of riding into state parks on tours on that mismatched POS. I made the mistake of having 27" wheels built instead of 700C, in 1981, and finding that tire companies had stopped making kevlar bead high pressure 27" light tires, which they have subsequently done with 26" tired bikes, and also my 13" rim old cars.

 

[GS1150Pilot]

Ah, so glad this thread is buzzing! Wow, Ed: You build frames?!? Amazing!

Speaking of NON-skinny tires, I'm ordering a set of fatty slicks (4") for the fat bike to use on the road for grins.

 

[Nessism]

Your own frames. I must say that is very impressive. I'm curious, after living in and working out of Alaska for 37 years, Why Kenai? It looks like a carbon fork, but you made the frame? That is incredible to me, I must say. What are the gigs like? I've no idea.

My dad grew up in Kenai and there is still some family in the area. The logo and head badge was designed by a friend some years back and I finally was able to fabricate a proper badge this year using an acid etching process. In case it's not apparent it's a totem figure and the outer chainring outline is supposed to look like a parka. Anyway, it's lugged steel with as you noted, a carbon fork. I like the fork because it damps vibration better than a steel fork can. I've got more/better photos that I'll try to get up later.

Edit: a couple more head badges I made...

P1040241 by nessism, on Flickr

 

[posplayr]

This is my 1988 Klein Pinnacle I bought new back then. Rather than buy something newer which would have me diving right into a $2-3K bike, I decided to upgrade this one.

I got a little heavier (32 lbs), but I put the biggest wheels and tires on it that I could fit (2.2" and 2.1" back on with relaced 29mm ID rims).
New Deore XT hubs, brakes, shifters, derailleurs (F and B). Everything is 1993 XT top of the line to replace the Deore 1987 vintage stuff.
Drop seat tube through internally routed cable.
Hydraulic 75mm forks to replace the pogo rock shox installed in 93. Good for dirt trails and around the neighborhood. This took a little scrounging to find something that would work. Probably the last hydraulic fork on earth and It required another brand new doner fork for the 1" threaded stem.
Found replacement Decals and added some new electrics lights and Cateye computer
I even found an original KLEIN bottom bracket remove kit. The sealed bearing bottom bracket is a little rough, but passable after a thorough cleaning and repacking.

Still running a Biopace on a triple ring up front.

 

[850 Combat]

My dad grew up in Kenai and there is still some family in the area. The logo and head badge was designed by a friend some years back and I finally was able to fabricate a proper badge this year using an acid etching process. In case it's not apparent it's a totem figure and the outer chainring outline is supposed to look like a parka. Anyway, it's lugged steel with as you noted, a carbon fork. I like the fork because it damps vibration better than a steel fork can. I've got more/better photos that I'll try to get up later.

Edit: a couple more head badges I made...

P1040241 by nessism, on Flickr

Thanks for that, sir. I love every bit of it. Congratulations on your skills. Do you make the lugs? Are they commercially available? The badges are terrific too.

 

[Guest]

How did I miss this thread before? Anyhow, I was thinking of refurbishing my old Varsity. I,m shocked to read that 27" tires aren't made any more.

 

[Nessism]

The lugs are made by Darrell McCulloch in Australia. They are pretty unique since they are designed for a sloping top tube and XL oversized tubing. Pretty much the only such lugs on the market. I could make lugs myself but it would take me a long time and I doubt they would be as nice as these. I did reshape them a little and bend the angles, but overall they are stock.

 

[850 Combat]

You can buy 27" tires, just not light high pressure fast rolling ones. A light strong fast rolling wheel set is the best upgrade you can give your bike, especially with high pressure kevlar bead tires. Low rotating mass and low rolling resistance are more beneficial than overall light weight. Original varsities never came with a light wheel set that I know of. I had a Continental in the early 70s. I think it was 40lbs. A Varsity with alloy stem and handlebars pretty much.

https://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_...prefix=27"+bicycle+,aps,384&crid=3JYM9F9975SW

They probably have 27" tires at WalMart. I just couldn't find what I was looking for in that size any more, folding kevlar bead 1" to 1-1/8" wide tires rated for over 100psi. Light high pressure tires are tires with a quiet fast rolling tread are hard to find now too. tire sizes go from 650C, 26", 700C, 27", 27.5", 28", 29". Its crazy now how many sizes there are.

 

[GS1150Pilot]

Pretty easy to swap out 27" for 700C. Wheels are cheap and a great way to update/upgrade your ride.

 

[Guest]

Thanks for the info, guys. I'm jonesing for a mtn bike but, holy chit they're not cheap!

 

[GS1150Pilot]

Thanks for the info, guys. I'm jonesing for a mtn bike but, holy chit they're not cheap!

They sure aren't, but you can get a lot for a moderate amount if you shop sensibly.

I probably have about $2K in the fat bike, so, while that's not exactly cheap, it's a far cry from a friend's Moots, which ran him about $4K, and that's not much compared to some wild exotic stuff out there.

 

[Jedz123]

I recently just got back into the pedal bike realm! But this a power assisted model and it's pretty awesome! Makes mince meat of hills! Really nice bike, far better then what I've had in my past, the hydraulic disc brakes are AWESOME. Range isn't so great in the cold but I usually just keep it in eco mode, I was definitely feeling it today on the hills. Put it to full power and it's kinda crazy how quick you spin up to 20 mph. The assist falls off around 22mph which is fine, it was nice to see I could push the bike (on my own power) to 30mph sprints.
I really love being on a pedal bike, it just is a great way to stay in shape and the pedal assist is nice to have after you wind yourself on a hill. I can do 20 miles in about an hour, with the assist it's the same but I'm not soaked in sweat.

 

[Guest]

How far are you from Kingdom Trails? I want to go there next fall, probably.

off topic, when does that flag date to?

 

[Jedz123]

The flag is the Centennial flag. It was the flag that flew when my house was built.

Where is Kingdom Trails bud? If I get a town name I'll let you know!