Thursday, July 31, 2008

2008 Fixedgear Gallery Build Contest

Well, another build is finished and submitted. The theme for this years contest was an "Open Build", meaning that you could put together any kind of bike you like as long as it is a conversion of an existing bike. The spending limit was much higher this year, but I decided to take a different tack and see just how little I could spend. I was very happy with the result!

Here's my my write up, as submitted to the judges. Enjoy!





With this year’s contest being an open build, I had some trouble narrowing down my theme. I had grand plans of doing something completely over the top (I won’t say what my plan was, as I might still use it in a future contest) but after weighing all of my options, I decided to take a little different approach, go back to my roots and build a rolling tribute to my Dad.

To understand this approach, you need to first understand my father. He was the king of making something from nothing, taking whatever he had on hand and fabricating whatever it was he needed. The man was the consummate junk collector, never throwing anything away that might have a future use. He was the living embodiment of “one man’s junk is another man’s treasure”… and he had acres of treasure! He would re-cycle his treasure into all kinds of interesting vehicles and machines; he was green before it was cool. In my case the apple didn’t fall far from the tree; I also collect ‘treasure’, but in the form of bikes. There are bikes in my living room, bikes in my office and no cars in my garage because the space is taken up by, you guessed it… bikes!

With the second anniversary of my father’s passing on the horizon, I came up with the idea of putting together a bike in the fashion he would have chosen. I wanted to build something using bits and pieces from my treasure trove, spending as little money as possible. I decided to build a “Re-Cycle”…

The first order of business was to find my donor bike. I settled on an old Diamondback mountain bike that was given to me just to get it out of the way. I figured starting with a free bike was a great foundation for a cheap-as-possible build. I had already done some work on the bike with the intension of dumping it on Craigslist so it was in pretty nice shape and sported a lot of usable parts. I dug through the garage to see what else I had that I could use to cut the budget. My search yielded cranks, pedals and a nice seat… score!

After stripping the bike down to the bare frame, I surveyed the pile of parts growing in front of me and formed a plan. I knew I needed to do something special to set the bike apart, but what? The first things to jump out at me were the wheels; why not try a different spoke pattern? I poked around the web and found something that caught my eye. It was a 3-leading, 3-trailing pattern that formed a 3 point star in the center. Being a wheel builder I had the tools, and with any luck the skills, so I took up the challenge.

I deconstructed the wheel and recalculated the spokes for the new pattern. Reusing the old spokes required that they be clipped and rethreaded. After spending an evening reworking spokes and re-spacing the rear hub to the new chain line, the wheels went together without a fight… and man did they look cool!

Next on the list was the frame prep. Using stripper left over from last year’s path racer build, I took the frame and fork down to the bare metal to get a clean slate for the paint. I considered removing the braze-on for the brakes and shifting, but decided to keep them. I wanted to keep brakes on the bike and, in the spirit of future recycling, leave the option for the next owner to restore gears if he so desired.

Next was the color choice. Again I went back to last years build; I had left over almond spray paint that screamed to be used. This did help to keep the cost down, but in the end I had to spend five bucks on one more can of paint to get good coverage… the first cash spent on the project. For the decals, I decided to again draw inspiration from the path racer and use the same red. I figured this kind of tied the two bikes together, making them family. Using my father’s “J-bird” trademark, I designed and printed up a set of waterslide decals to complete the look.

With paint done and wheels at the ready, all that remained was assembly. The bike went together quickly and easily. There were a couple of things that required some creative thinking; the grips and the seat post. Lacking a set of grips for the bars (and not wanting to spend any money), I again drew from last year and hand wrapped them with left over bar tape. The look was pleasing and to tell you the truth, I like the feel better than the rubber ones. The second problem took a little more thinking.

The bars and stem were black and looked nice, but the seat post was bare steel… it stood out like a sore thumb. Anyone who’s ever painted a seat post and then shoved it down into the frame knows that just ends up getting scraped up and looking like crap, so that was not an option. I needed to find a cheap way to stain the post (note: black sharpie doesn’t work!). The solution was found in my shooting supplies; a tube of gun bluing paste I use for touching the finish on old guns. Gun barrels are steel, the seat post was steel… should work, right? I cleaned and prepped the post, then applied the paste; worked like a charm. With the last detail taken care of, the build was complete. The total cost of this year’s bike… $9.00 ($5.00 for paint, $4.00 for decal paper).

Now that the bike is done, the pictures have been taken, and this submission finished, there remains only one more task; giving the bike away. With this bike being inspired by my father, I feel like the proper way to complete the circle is to pass it. So, in the spirit of my father I have chosen a deserving recipient.

I work with a young man who is trying hard to build a life for his family, sometimes at the expense of his own sanity. One of his outlets is riding, a passion he hopes to someday share with his now infant son. He has been looking for a bike he can use to pull a child trailer around the neighborhood, and this one fits the bill nicely. My treasure trove also includes a trailer (again, given to me for nothing) that, after a little refurbishing, will complete the set.

I really think my father would be proud…



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Here are a few more shots of the bike:

The donor bike


De-constructed wheel


My spoke cutting and threading station


Threading a spoke


The finished front wheel


Home made Re-Cycle decal


Dad's trademark


Hand wrapped grips


3-leading, 3-trailing spoke pattern


The finished beast



2 comments:

Emmet said...

where did you find the equipment to build your spoke cutting and threading station I would like to build one myself and I could not find the same gear.

UglyBob said...

The saw, grinder and vise came from Harbor Freight... cheap but effective. The spoke treader is a Hozan C-700 that I picked up from Alfred E Bike {aebike.com). It takes a little tinkering to figure out how to effectively use the threader, but once you master it, it rocks!