diy
The Tin Can
As someone who gets their kicks from dragging bikes out of the garbage, I’m starting to have a problem where I’ve got too many bikes in various states of assembly. It’s currently winter and my basement, closet, and garden shed are all being used to store bike frames and wheels and other parts, while my winterized bike is the only one that sits outside fully assembled.
The only real way to mitigate this problem is to give bikes away.
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Trug
There is a vehicle trend these days of luxurious, heavy, loud, obnoxious lifted pickup trucks. It’s caught on among suburbanites and inner city dwellers for some reason. In my city, you can’t go anywhere without seeing a vehicle with a front grill so tall they can’t see the car they’re tailgating.
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The Purple Cruiser
This is a continuation of Adventures in Frame Painting.
So, I have a painted bike frame sitting in the closet. Now summer is full swing, and the weather is perfect to show off the new paint job. Plus, I have enough accumulated garbage bikes so surely I have enough spare parts for a build.
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Adventures in Frame Painting
My daily driver is a black commuter bike with hybrid geometry. It’s got a black paint job, black handlebars, a black stem, black grips, black pedals, a black bottle cage, a black rack, and black fenders. I’ve taken to calling it Johnny Cash, a monicker that came about just by outfitting it with parts that match. Beggars can’t be choosers, of course. And black is a common denominator for scrap bike parts since it goes with everything.
But Black is boring. I want a purple bike.
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Winter Riding Retrospective
Tagged: bike diy opinion winter
This is a continuation of The Winter Huffy Build.
My first winter of riding a bike was a roaring success. I can proudly (and with much hubris) say that I never wiped out or had an accident, though I definitely had my fair share of moments where I lost traction. To that end, I’d like to give my own list of advice for anyone who wants to ride in the winter.
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The Winter Huffy Build
Tagged: bike diy project winter
Every year, after the first dump of snow, I roll my bike up in a tarp and pack it away for the winter. But this year was different. I had accumulated a ton of trash bikes, and replaced basically every mode of transportation I regularly used with cycling. I was having a great time, and when winter rolled around, the thought of going back to walking, riding the bus, and driving seemed like more of a bummer than usual.
As the months rolled on I became more and more determined. Could I keep cycling through the winter? I’d heard of people doing it, even in my city, which has a (perhaps undeserved) reputation for harsh winters.
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Becoming Obsessed with Bikes
In 2021, I started getting into cycling. Like, really into cycling. Or more accurately, getting into bicycles. Cycling conjures up images of men in skintight spandex riding $2000 carbon fiber framed bicycles with garish brand names plastered all over the thick tubing.
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The Peugeot Club UO5
This spring I stumbled upon an estate sale while riding over to meet some friends. I took what I thought would be a quick detour to check it out. The first thing I saw was the only thing I purchased. It was an old road bike, missing its handlebars and brake levers, among other things. Parts of it were dotted with rust, but it didn’t look too bad. I took one blurry photo and then dropped $40CAD on it. [ Keep Reading... ]