I have been working on this rolling project incessantly for the past two-and-a-half years now, and I think it will fit in well around here. The bike is a mid 1980's Kabuki by Bridgestone. Bridgestone created Kabuki as a Japanese-named (although they were Japanese already) brand to generate more interest in their bicycles during the push for Japanese bicycles during the 1980's. They were best known for a couple of neat stainless steel frames that they made, but mine is not one of them. The frame that I have is a tig welded steel frame with aluminum caps over the tube intersections, made to look like lugs. A friend gave me the frame in October or November of 2009 because it was too small for him. The bike began its life as a ten speed, and I have converted it to fixed gear. The idea behind my build was a Hoodride themed, path racer style fixed gear that would be suitable for joyriding and commuting. The bike would have to be fast, functional, fat-tired, and of course, rusty. Here's what it has looked like over the years.
First iteration:
Drop bars, track grips, Weinnmann LP18's on Formula loose ball track hubs, 700X25C tires.
Then the 700X40C Kenda Komforts went on:
Then I trashed the drop bars in favor of a riser set, changed the seat, and swapped the LP18's for deeper Weinnmann DP18's.
Summer 2011 I changed out the saddle again, and grabbed a pair of Wald sweepers, flipped them, and wrapped them in Bontrager bar tape that matched my Specialized saddle. Also a rear rack was added and a crate was added to the rack. The rust is coming along nicely now.
After that, an ammo case replaced the wooden crate, but I sadly do not have any photos of the bike with that on.
The rack and ammo case came off, a Kia chainguard was added and the riser bars were put back on, and wheel discs added for bike polo.
I ended up swapping out the 700X40 Komforts for some 700X35 Vittoria Randonneurs because I was tired of catching flats with the cheap Kendas. And then I built a polo-specific bike, so the discs came off, sweepers went back on, and I tossed on a set of Wald Shorties which didn't fit. over my 700X40's.
These were taken yesterday.
Next addition will be a front-mounted transport basket, and I have a lighting idea all planned out.
Hope you guys like my Hoodride Kabuki, I know it's not what you normally play around with but I think it fits in well.
This is the source of inspiration, btw:
https://www.google.com/search?hl=en&sug ... 6gG-j6njCQ
First iteration:
Drop bars, track grips, Weinnmann LP18's on Formula loose ball track hubs, 700X25C tires.
Then the 700X40C Kenda Komforts went on:
Then I trashed the drop bars in favor of a riser set, changed the seat, and swapped the LP18's for deeper Weinnmann DP18's.
Summer 2011 I changed out the saddle again, and grabbed a pair of Wald sweepers, flipped them, and wrapped them in Bontrager bar tape that matched my Specialized saddle. Also a rear rack was added and a crate was added to the rack. The rust is coming along nicely now.
After that, an ammo case replaced the wooden crate, but I sadly do not have any photos of the bike with that on.
The rack and ammo case came off, a Kia chainguard was added and the riser bars were put back on, and wheel discs added for bike polo.
I ended up swapping out the 700X40 Komforts for some 700X35 Vittoria Randonneurs because I was tired of catching flats with the cheap Kendas. And then I built a polo-specific bike, so the discs came off, sweepers went back on, and I tossed on a set of Wald Shorties which didn't fit. over my 700X40's.
These were taken yesterday.
Next addition will be a front-mounted transport basket, and I have a lighting idea all planned out.
Hope you guys like my Hoodride Kabuki, I know it's not what you normally play around with but I think it fits in well.
This is the source of inspiration, btw:
https://www.google.com/search?hl=en&sug ... 6gG-j6njCQ
