Some of you may be familiar with converting old road bikes to 650b, smaller rim, fatter tire, possibly more fun. I am working on an older Fuji for a friend at the moment and had to share this. It has and will have the original 27x1-1/4 tires for a bit due to budget constraints. But look at those perfect dimples, it could not get any better if you built it that way on purpose.
Frosting on the cake is the bottom bracket drop of 60m or so. If I had the money I would convert it and put Berthoud fenders on it just because it seems like the right thing to do. I took it for a test ride, and even with no front load, trail in the low 40s and the big hoops it handles great. Still, it begs for fatter rubber.
The bike is back on the market the owner decided it needs to go, not going to get the use it deserves, and needs a new home.
Not the usual fare here at O.A.C., but raising funds for another convert.
I have a 16 inch Niner Eat My Dirt in the garage that a friend asked me to help him move out. The build is super trick: Fox F29er fork, Sram XX, Stan's ZTR wheels, Ti Crank Bro's Pedals, Raceface Turbine headset and stem, etc. The pictures tell the whole story. It seems like everything on this is Carbon or Ti, I went over it with a magnet and no sticktion any where. It is the lightest mountain bike I have had in the garage, I wish I had a scale just out of curiosity's sake. I figured I would throw it out here before sending it off to eBay later this week. $
2500 $2300 (new lower price) gets it shipped anywhere in the continental US. You can use the Pay Pal button below, and please follow-up through the comments or contact page. Local sales, cash etc. will help to ease the price a bit
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Thanks for taking a look, hit me with any questions you might have - Happy Saturday
I took some pictures this morning of the bike I threw together over the weekend from parts in the garage. The Frame is an older Trek 400 sport bike converted to 650b. By using the smaller rim I could run a fatter cushier tire, and also bring the front end geometry into a range that will handle well with front biased loads.
I have a few Trek frames in my garage that I bought off of Craig's List and they have been hanging from the ceiling for almost 2 years now. All three have their dents, scratches and other marks of age. I decided it was high time to do something about it. The fringe benefit is the fun in building a bike up instead of stripping one down to sell. With a little planning and 30 minutes here and there I was able to put this together from parts in my bins of spares.
About a month ago I picked up a pair of NOS Weinmann 750 brakes, and they pushed me to get this done. The 750 calipers have just enough reach to get to the 650b rims. There is plenty of room for the 584x37 Col De La Vie tires, and fenders are in the works. The wheels are decidedly not S&S, Phils laced to Velocity Dyads, but they belong to my wife and i am "borrowing" them. I used an old MTB stem, bars and levers that span 20 years of age. The shifting is handled by a Shimano Deore DX in the rear, Suntour XC high normal front and NOS 105 clamp on DT shifters. The front rack is the Bruce Gordon (made in Oregon) rack that used to live on my Rawland. The saddle is an Avocet Touring in pretty good shape. All of the cables and housings are from my recycle bin.
Initial rides have been unloaded and it handles fantastic. This will become my around town bike for errands and such. There are only a few things I hope to change. The handlebars will be switched out with some Wald 867 bars that are on the way. I may do something about the saddle, but i tis OK for shortish trips. I have some newer brake shoes to put on, but the old black blocks have been slowing things down acceptably. As for fenders, I have an older set of the VO zeppelins that were bought on clearance 3 years ago, and will be re-shaped to work here.
Yes, new bikes are fun, but sometimes the best bike is what you have. At least for the moment.
Remember - Reduce - Reuse - Recycle
This has been an interesting week, and for some therapy I went through te garage to help a phoenix rise from the ashes. You may have heard of the Bridgstone Urban Bike or even Jan Hine's much more refined GBUB (Grand Bois Urban Bike), I now have my very own S&SUB:
As in Sanford and Son Urban Bike, finally bringing a beater Trek 400 back to life a sa 650B conversion with a fantastic spread of parts from all corners of my garage. With the Rawland on its way out the door soon as well as a couple of others it was time to press some of the lonely frames back into action.
Initial impressions are pretty good too, this is going to be a fun bike in the stable.
It is amazing how even the "simple things" like installing a basket can become a challenge with little bikes:
You do not really want to see how bad it was if I used the front struts from the factory. The factory mounting straps are obviously going to take a bit of work to fit appropriately.
My wife's bike is almost off to its new home now that she has fallen for the Sequoia. This bike has served her well and has many miles left in her. Originally a 700c bike that would barely fit 26mm tires, the conversion to 650b was transformational. It now fits 37mm panaracers with room for 45mm fenders. This being the smallest size it also sports a low trail front end geometry and handles like a dream with the load up front.
Last night I put 4 coats of garnet shellac on the yellow tape grips and the results are even better than I had expected. This weekend I will be running the new chain, cables and a few finishing touches.
Projects like this really are a lot of fun. A full write-up on the final build is soon to come.
Soliciting reader opinions on the pedal color, are the gold pedals too much or do they mesh well with the shades of brown throughout the bike? I like them, but am on the fence with a switch out to silver. Let me know what you think.
Signing off to get ready for our weekend in carmegedon as we head south into L.A. for our friends wedding. Have fun and get outside!!
As the next chapter in my life seems to be organically developing there has been a few bikes passing through my work stand. The common theme is small bikes for ladies that do not have wacked out geometry angles, more on this later
(just re-read that, it is the angles on the bikes, not the ladies). My wife is 5'3" and in the quest for champagne on a beer budget I have managed to keep a list of the bikes from the past that can be refurbished to suit. The latest bike in the stand is a near NOS 91 Bridgestone RB-T size 50cm, this one is for a friend:
All this one still needs is a touch-up on the wheels and it is ready to go. That, and I may switch out the tires to some wider Pasela rubber. unfortunately the original Avocet tires were not serviceable. Yes, I know the garage is a mess, as always a work in progress.
On other notes, I am hoping to pull this
ride off this weekend, time and heat wave conditions will tell the tale. Either way there should be some good pictures next week
Have a fun and safe holiday weekend. Play outside and enjoy your family!
The drop bars were not the setup of choice for my wife. I figured that was going to be the case and had a set of Nitto Albatross bars and NOS Specialized dirt drop stem on hand and ready to go. The grips and levers took a bit of time to get together, but the finished product looks pretty darn good in my opinion.
The only other thing swapped out so far was the pedals, as with the drops, clips and straps are not here thing at the moment. The luggage is in the design phases and fenders may show up before the next winter rains. I entertained the idea of a 650b conversion, not much to gain for her so we are going to hold off.
This is a fantastic bike, I wish you could still walk into a shop and buy something like this off of the rack for a reasonable price.
It has a few scratches here and there, but overall was taken care of quite well.
Reynolds 531 tube set, gobs of tire space and a decent drive train. This is going to be a fun one. The end target is 650b with Col De La Vie tires, Berthoud fenders, Albatross bars and we are still sussing out what the basket rack combo will be. Sourcing has commenced for the build and it will hopefully be done in a few weeks.
Stay tuned for details!
