last week i had a moment, one where i got to play the role of the bike messenger. with t minus time, i needed to get to city hall to get an RFP into the city. it reminded me of being in copenhagen - oh to be a messenger in that city, on a real bullitt, what a rush that would be. i received a couple nice remarks on my way as i flew down the curve after brady and down onto water.
i walked out of city hall to my bicycle, which sat in storefront windows for several years. quite a shame, because this white knight rides like a dream and is a better mobile billboard for what so many of us do here in the city. we reCYCLE. kids love this bike, and adults wonder what it is.
its an american made trek, born in wisconsin sometime in the 80's. i found it on craigslist some time back: the frame was crashed and thus has a small bit of bend at the top tube and down tubes where it meets the head tube. it had a few components that were worth the asking price, so i picked it up. it sat around for sometime until one day i needed one more frame to get a deal on a batch of frames getting powdercoated. at some point i decided to bend the fork to match. mark and i manuevered it under the front tires of a '99 oldsmobile intrigue a couple years back (after it has already been powdercoated) and got some pretty nice results. we were going for a straight blade fork to raise the geometry on the front end of the bike since the rear wheel is 27" and the front is a 700c. with the fork installed backwards, you get a nice result, and surprisingly, the powder was flexible enough not to crack. thank goodness for lugged steel tubing.
going with this white blanket asthetic, i painted the aerospoke white that i'd got for like $150 (which had seen many different paint jobs) and pas well. to achieve the disc wheel look, i looked up a tutorial on line. for this disc wheel i bought some thinner acrylic at home depot, followed a youtube tutorial, and created the pie shapes with the cut out for the hub. i wanted a frosted look for a bit of contrast so i lightly dusted the inside of the acrylic with a sea foam spray paint. to preserve a cleaner look than the common zip tie method, i installed industrial strange velcro on the inside of both discs, which still holds strong (surprisingly). the vinyl decal was an obvious choice for a recyclery - i picked this up somewhere on ebay.
she's just a single speed, geared lightly at 42/16 for lots of spinning, as the wheels are incredibly sturdy, but not terribly light. i have a radius lever tied to a radius caliper in the front which is strong enough to stop me. chopped steel bars with oury grips, and another amazing fizik saddle complete this restoration. and at closer look, some butterfly who wants to test out the aerospoke.
and in case the referenced subject is not ringing a bell, let billy corrigan do it for you, a native of the great Midwest:
The Smashing Pumpkins - Bullet with Butterfly... by TheSmashingPumpkins-Official
i walked out of city hall to my bicycle, which sat in storefront windows for several years. quite a shame, because this white knight rides like a dream and is a better mobile billboard for what so many of us do here in the city. we reCYCLE. kids love this bike, and adults wonder what it is.
its an american made trek, born in wisconsin sometime in the 80's. i found it on craigslist some time back: the frame was crashed and thus has a small bit of bend at the top tube and down tubes where it meets the head tube. it had a few components that were worth the asking price, so i picked it up. it sat around for sometime until one day i needed one more frame to get a deal on a batch of frames getting powdercoated. at some point i decided to bend the fork to match. mark and i manuevered it under the front tires of a '99 oldsmobile intrigue a couple years back (after it has already been powdercoated) and got some pretty nice results. we were going for a straight blade fork to raise the geometry on the front end of the bike since the rear wheel is 27" and the front is a 700c. with the fork installed backwards, you get a nice result, and surprisingly, the powder was flexible enough not to crack. thank goodness for lugged steel tubing.
going with this white blanket asthetic, i painted the aerospoke white that i'd got for like $150 (which had seen many different paint jobs) and pas well. to achieve the disc wheel look, i looked up a tutorial on line. for this disc wheel i bought some thinner acrylic at home depot, followed a youtube tutorial, and created the pie shapes with the cut out for the hub. i wanted a frosted look for a bit of contrast so i lightly dusted the inside of the acrylic with a sea foam spray paint. to preserve a cleaner look than the common zip tie method, i installed industrial strange velcro on the inside of both discs, which still holds strong (surprisingly). the vinyl decal was an obvious choice for a recyclery - i picked this up somewhere on ebay.
this post is for my new friends in sweden that i met at pista malmo a few weeks ago. we found ourselves in great company on a thursday night in sweden, racing with a pack of track nuts. soon i will post images from our whole tour. for the moment, i want to dedicate this next image as a sort of inside joke to our friend, baranya janos:
and in case the referenced subject is not ringing a bell, let billy corrigan do it for you, a native of the great Midwest:
The Smashing Pumpkins - Bullet with Butterfly... by TheSmashingPumpkins-Official
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