Hi All,
When I was a kid my life was bikes, and although I've used a bike for transport ever since, it's only recently that I've been bitten by the bug of building / modifying again. It's all thanks to my girlfriend and 7 year old, who ride SOOOO SLOOOOOWLY that I simply had to get a bike for cruising with them, and it all started there.
I'm a car guy, and it's so nice to be able to achieve something so quickly and cheaply with a bike that takes so much work (and money) with a car. I've gone from having one bike to 3 in 2 weeks thanks to Craigslist ;-)
My absolute dream bike is an authentically aged old bike with rust and muted colors, but the first thing I picked up was a used XYZ stretched cruiser for $120 and I'm very much into the feel of it. The goal is to use parts, paint and some basic metal work and wood skills to end up with a bike that someone will look at and think that it's old, but in very good shape for it's age, so light rust on rims and chrome and a slightly distressed painted look.
Day 1 with the stretch:
Day 2: ( Chopped and painted the rear mudguard and removed the front - and my girlfriends shiny happy Electra)
Now
It's going to be all about the stretch, but I bought the near bike (80s ish huffy) for $25 which is a deal for the rims (already on the stretch) and handlebars (switched after this pic). Fat Franks arrived too.
In the near future I'm going to:
- experiment with seats.. I bought an old leather jacket for $5 at a thrift store with nice aged leather that I'm going to re-cover a seat with.
- build a wooden rear rack on metal struts
- learn how to true a wheel
- modify and spray a light fixture I found in a thrift store as a front headlight.
- respray the huffy as a practice run
- respray the stretch
Hope to see any Denver peeps some Wednesday night.
Best
K
When I was a kid my life was bikes, and although I've used a bike for transport ever since, it's only recently that I've been bitten by the bug of building / modifying again. It's all thanks to my girlfriend and 7 year old, who ride SOOOO SLOOOOOWLY that I simply had to get a bike for cruising with them, and it all started there.
I'm a car guy, and it's so nice to be able to achieve something so quickly and cheaply with a bike that takes so much work (and money) with a car. I've gone from having one bike to 3 in 2 weeks thanks to Craigslist ;-)
My absolute dream bike is an authentically aged old bike with rust and muted colors, but the first thing I picked up was a used XYZ stretched cruiser for $120 and I'm very much into the feel of it. The goal is to use parts, paint and some basic metal work and wood skills to end up with a bike that someone will look at and think that it's old, but in very good shape for it's age, so light rust on rims and chrome and a slightly distressed painted look.
Day 1 with the stretch:
Day 2: ( Chopped and painted the rear mudguard and removed the front - and my girlfriends shiny happy Electra)
Now
It's going to be all about the stretch, but I bought the near bike (80s ish huffy) for $25 which is a deal for the rims (already on the stretch) and handlebars (switched after this pic). Fat Franks arrived too.
In the near future I'm going to:
- experiment with seats.. I bought an old leather jacket for $5 at a thrift store with nice aged leather that I'm going to re-cover a seat with.
- build a wooden rear rack on metal struts
- learn how to true a wheel
- modify and spray a light fixture I found in a thrift store as a front headlight.
- respray the huffy as a practice run
- respray the stretch
Hope to see any Denver peeps some Wednesday night.
Best
K
