New bike! Or bike frame at least
I have for a long time been wanting to build myself a bike, and I have recently been spending quite a bit of time researching it. Some might say with passion, my girlfriend would say obsession - which I guess is a fair point.
But finding the right frame is somewhat hard, new frames cost a fortune, and I am quite sure I am not going to build it right the first time, so a smaller investment would be nice. Old frames can be hard to find and I think they might be a bit tricky to build with as I have no clue what its specifications are, especially with regards to the wheel hub spacing, and bottom bracket. I would prefer to have a 120mm/100mm solution, something that older track and race bikes tend to have, but not nearly as common on newer frames made to fit gears.
Luckily one morning a few days ago one such popped up on dba.dk (Denmarks primary second hand site), I texted the guy and expressed my interest, and asked for the hub widths, luckily it was just as I wanted it to be. And not more than 2 hours later I had bought a bike frame.
Sure, I may have been rash and dumb, maybe the specs make it impossible to find parts for it, but compared with a new frame it was cheap, so I think I can afford to make a mess of it and screw up - I think I can manage to turn it into a rideable bike, the question is how long will it take?
It's currently just sandblasted and looking mighty raw, right now, so I need to get it painted fairly quickly as I can see that my fingerprints actually makes the frame darken, which is actually rust. I think the best solution is to have it painted professionally, so I contacted a local car painter, and asked if he could paint the frame. And so far it looks like I will drop it off monday morning.
So far I think it is going to be painted grey, probably a bit darker than the raw steel above and perhaps less shiny than customary, but I think I will have to ask the painter if a matte paint has any consequences. I toyed with the idea of painting it brown to make it less attractive, but on the other hand, crap bikes with both tires flat and no kickstand gets stolen at times. Which must mean that the chance of a bike getting stolen does not depend on how (un)attractive it is.
Project: DIY Bike
Posted Aug 01 2014 by Esben Sonne