I’ve been checking all the rad rods for a long time and have tinkered with a few in the meantime. Finally decided to join the forum and post my current daily driver. I love all bikes and I especially like what's here because it's creative and not plug and play. Lots of people taking what they have and making their new and better something out of it. It's inspiring and I dig the DIY spirit.
So here's my new ride. Not very original yet but its super dialled in and rides great. I love stylee bikes but I like them more if they ride well with no squeaks, creaks, wobbles of shimmies. I started off with the blue Raleigh. My wife's bike but the gear was too big for her and well she's just not a huge cyclist. Then a couple of weeks ago the annual police bike auction went down behind our house and I scored this Super Cycle frame from the dumpster. Super Cycle is the brand that Canadian Tire carries -Canadian Tire is a hardware/department store.
The frame is a cantilever frame with horizontal dropouts but it seems to have mountain bike geometry and cable guides for gears and brake, plus canti brake bosses. Also has an American bottom bracket and 1” threaded fork.
I stripped the old bent and rusty cranks as well as the gears and brakes and got rid of the junk. The frame has a chrome finish that has seen better days but it gives it the rat patina. Added the wheels, seat, bar and stem from the blue bike. I love these old 3-speed bars. They are narrow for easy lane splitting in city traffic and yet they have a little bit of style. So far I've only spent $18 bucks on crank and bottom bracket to replace the old salt rusted one.
You can see that I flipped them to see how it would look as a flat track/ cafe racer. I like it but riding it like that sucks for any period of time.
The other thing I changed is the gear ratio. For some reason cruisers always come with a big gear. I lived on the beach on Florida for while. It's flat there but any sort of headwind and suddenly you feel like your gonna bust out your knee caps. I'd rather have an easy spin and low top speed and we have some hills in Halifax. So I have 42:20 -a little bigger than 2:1 which is what I usually use on my SS mountain bike for trails.
As you can see it’s more a standard cruiser than a rat rod but that will soon change. First thing I’m planning on doing is grinding off all of the cable guides. Any tips? I also want to change the tires and like the red brick tires but may also go with some big fat street tires like the Maxxis hookworm or holy roller. I also plan on adding a Brooks saddle but not a sprung one. Not sure if I’ll paint it after grinding off the cable guides –I may just paint it with primer and leave it.
I’d like to make the bike look older but still keep it simple and functional. There’s not a lot I can do when part of the plan is to keep it stripped down. I would love to get one of those 30’s truss forks.
Suggestions for styling are welcome as this is a blank slate at the moment.
So here's my new ride. Not very original yet but its super dialled in and rides great. I love stylee bikes but I like them more if they ride well with no squeaks, creaks, wobbles of shimmies. I started off with the blue Raleigh. My wife's bike but the gear was too big for her and well she's just not a huge cyclist. Then a couple of weeks ago the annual police bike auction went down behind our house and I scored this Super Cycle frame from the dumpster. Super Cycle is the brand that Canadian Tire carries -Canadian Tire is a hardware/department store.
The frame is a cantilever frame with horizontal dropouts but it seems to have mountain bike geometry and cable guides for gears and brake, plus canti brake bosses. Also has an American bottom bracket and 1” threaded fork.
I stripped the old bent and rusty cranks as well as the gears and brakes and got rid of the junk. The frame has a chrome finish that has seen better days but it gives it the rat patina. Added the wheels, seat, bar and stem from the blue bike. I love these old 3-speed bars. They are narrow for easy lane splitting in city traffic and yet they have a little bit of style. So far I've only spent $18 bucks on crank and bottom bracket to replace the old salt rusted one.
You can see that I flipped them to see how it would look as a flat track/ cafe racer. I like it but riding it like that sucks for any period of time.
The other thing I changed is the gear ratio. For some reason cruisers always come with a big gear. I lived on the beach on Florida for while. It's flat there but any sort of headwind and suddenly you feel like your gonna bust out your knee caps. I'd rather have an easy spin and low top speed and we have some hills in Halifax. So I have 42:20 -a little bigger than 2:1 which is what I usually use on my SS mountain bike for trails.
As you can see it’s more a standard cruiser than a rat rod but that will soon change. First thing I’m planning on doing is grinding off all of the cable guides. Any tips? I also want to change the tires and like the red brick tires but may also go with some big fat street tires like the Maxxis hookworm or holy roller. I also plan on adding a Brooks saddle but not a sprung one. Not sure if I’ll paint it after grinding off the cable guides –I may just paint it with primer and leave it.
I’d like to make the bike look older but still keep it simple and functional. There’s not a lot I can do when part of the plan is to keep it stripped down. I would love to get one of those 30’s truss forks.
Suggestions for styling are welcome as this is a blank slate at the moment.
