I’ve been a cyclist most of my life. From riding a bike to school and “customizing” my bikes with neighborhood friends as a kid, to riding recreationally as soon as I left school, to commuting to work and back consistently for years, I’ve had bikes.
I’ve never been good at working on bikes, though. Despite the allusion to it above, the so-called customizations were all about accessorizing, rattle-canning, and using stickers, decals, and tape to change my bike’s appearance. I never wrenched, except for when I did, and quickly realized that I should not be wrenching. I would occasionally give it a shot, and would ultimately take it to a local bike shop to fix my work.
The Impetus
When it became apparent that the pandemic was not going to be over in a month or so, I needed to do something. And that something needed to be an activity that I could do at home, isolated/quarantined, with at least some supplies and tools that I already owned. And thus, I decided that I needed to get over my anxiety and fear of failure over bike mechanics.
The Frame
I had an old road bike that had been hanging in the garage, unridden for at least 5 years. It was my first road bike in a decade or so, purchased on Ebay from a guy in Colorado who had dented the top tube but otherwise taken good care of it. He had raced it, and it had decent components on it. I bought it specifically for commuting, which was hilarious given how it wasn’t really set up for that. But I loved the thing while I used it, even if it occasionally tried to kill me (race bikes are … squirrely).
The racing bike before I pulled it apart.
The Goal
I had no use for a road race bike. What I could use was a “city bike” with flat handlebars (think, like a mountain bike) for a more upright position. I didn’t need the expensive and painful-to-replace Campagnolo drivetrain components. I wanted some mountain bike gearing to accommodate Idaho’s many hills and mountains. At the end, I wanted a fast, fun street rider that I could take up to McCall, Idaho, (about 2 hours north of our home in Boise) and ride around town on that rather than jumping into the car for every trip.
The Process
I won’t go into a long, blow-by-blow account of the process.
It took me a long time just to strip off the old parts. Bicycles require numerous specialized tools, with some being dependent on what make/type/year component you are trying to remove or install. So for a guy who didn’t pay much attention to what specific parts were on his bike, this was a real learning experience.
I learned mostly by watching YouTube videos. I wish I was kidding. This playlist contains many, but not all, of the vids I watched in order to do this. The reason that they’re not all in there is because it was getting too crowded in there for me to find what I actually needed to watch. As I went through certain parts, I removed those videos if I thought I wouldn’t need to go back to them for any reason.
Rear brake and seat post tube.
The Challenges
My god, just getting the parts during a pandemic was the central challenge to all of this. I pretty much wore out the door and entry mat at my local bike shop to ask for parts. Parts that they never seemed to have in stock. No one did. I had to chase down far-flung suppliers through any number of online market-places. I wanted to source parts without Amazon, but I was unable to do this. I just used them as a last resort, and I can live with myself for that.
I had go to that bike store only once for help, which was when I could not for the life of me get one of the crank arms (the part that attaches your pedals to the front chainring) off. They took those off for me and went ahead and removed the bottom bracket cartridge (related to the crank arms, kinda) since they saw a little rust. Other than that, I was able to remove and install the other parts myself. My greatest achievement in all of this, I think.
The Result
The feature photo at the top of the post is the finished bicycle. I ended up mostly with what I wanted. A racing frame is so thin that the tires I originally bought for it would not fit — they would hit the frame and not budge. So there were compromises.
I ended up using just a few parts from the old bike, aside from the frame: two tires (still in good shape), an adjustable handlebar stem, the seatpost clamp, and the front derailleur. Everything else on it is “new”, at least to the frame.
It took almost 11 months. I’ve been riding it around Boise for the past couple weeks, and it is as fun and fast as I imagined. I’m very glad I did this.
nice bike! looks like a job well done to me 🙂
Thank you, fellow cyclist!
Wow, impressive.
I feel like you’d still be pretty hunched over, or is that not the case?
Good job, and thanks for sharing. Now we know who to call when wrenching is needed!
Not hunched over nearly as much. I can see where it’s hard to tell from the photos, but basically the steer tube is longer in the “after” shot. The previous owner had cut his tube much lower to invoke a more aero racing position.
Sigh. Once upon a time I had a nice road bike and I would do upwards of 50 miles a day (I was in high school so had literally no responsibilities other than a part time job. Racing bikes are very squirrely. I once test-rode a racing bike and as good a rider as I was, the damned thing dropped me like a bad habit on the first corner I took.
Anyway, great post, and hopefully one of these days I’ll have a bike to ride again.
When I was a callow youth, in college and graduate school, I became a serious cyclist. Spent a large amount of money on a nice bike and I rode 30 miles a day and did centuries on the weekend. In Florida you can ride pretty much all year long. Thunderstorms, of course, but I mostly just ignored those and kept pedaling.
You have to become very familiar with bike repairs when you’re riding 100 miles. You will NOT be near anything helpful when your tire goes flat, your spoke breaks, your brake cable breaks, etc. I learned VERY quickly to pack tools and replacement parts. Including replacement tubes, since patch kits don’t work in a Florida downpour (found that out the hard way and hiked 10 miles in the downpour before someone offered me a ride).
I don’t really ride any more. I pedal a stationary bike now, so I can read or watch TV and stay dry. Every once in a while I spruce up my bike and take it for a few spins, but it never lasts long. The lure of multitasking and avoiding the weather is too strong.
I rebuilt a couple of old bikes just for the fun of it and sold them, so I stripped them down to the frame like you did, Memeweaver. It was fun and taught me a lot.
Yeah, I definitely learned a lot. Not going to do another one any time soon, unless I can find a friend who wants to do a build. But very glad that I did this one.
Good work.
How many months a year are you able ride in Boise? Or do you ride on/in snow?
@Elliecoo, we’re in a river valley that doesn’t get a ton of snow every winter. Some years I have been able to bike year-round (with the help of some studded snow tires to combat icy roads), but most years I’d say 9-10 months is a reasonable expectation.
Very cool – you wield a mean wrench!
Wow, that’s a lot of work. It looks great, glad you’re enjoying the fruits of your labor.
That’s beautiful. There’s a lot to be said for a hybrid bike with the upright handlebars but thinner tires for a combo of easier riding but more speed.
It is a very fun combo, and I have no regrets.
Nice bike and great job! I’ve had bikes all my life but never been good at fixing them. Never owned a street bike though, went straight from BMX to mountain bikes. Now I’m really wanting a mountain e-bike but the prices are still a little high for me and the bikes are still a little too heavy for serious mountain biking. Hopefully all those things will come together before I am too old to mountain bike. I tip my hat to your project!
Thank you, everyone, for the kind comments. Made my day.
Nice work!
I’m a relatively new bike commuter (I started literally a month or two before the COVID Shutdown), started out with partials, got a nicer bike earlier this year, and eased into a full commute. It’s a nice way to start the day, it gets me some much needed activity, and saves me about ~$125 a month on transit fees, plus I’m not reliant on transit schedules, I can leave whenever I damned want. I am reading significantly less, though…
I am also trying to decide how to go about ordering parts/tools, I have a lot of trouble making it to any of the local bike shops when they are open… I really need to get a chain check tool though, any recommendations? I was considering the Pedro’s one, or possibly the nicer Park Tools one. I tried using some electronic calipers from work, but I didn’t have enough hands to put load on the chain, measure it, and get any reliable readings, maybe I need to try a different “technique”
I’m also considering trying to switch to a waxed-chain setup, and what I’d need to make that work (so far, crockpot, wax, 3+ chains, who knows how many quicklinks, maybe a boiling pot…
I also have an old plastic soda crate on the rear rack of my old clunky hybrid, and I want to figure out a way to easily/quickly attach it to my current bike. I don’t think I want it on for everyday, but it is really handy, and it would be nice to be able to take it off and throw it on as needed. I haven’t really thought much about it so far, it’s super back-burner.
And, I’m already feeling the N+1 itch… I recently took my new bike in for the first tune-up, and I absolutely hated returning to my old clunky hybrid (there’s a chance I got the wrong size, or don’t have it fitted properly…), plus old clunky needs a lot of replacement parts and such – I completely neglected maintenance on it… I want to get a better back-up bike, that I won’t absolutely hate riding, and am thinking maybe I should do that, and then just leave old clunky unlocked somewhere, instead of repairing/upgrading old clunky, just to get another bike soon after…
Anyways, if you write more cycle-related content, I’ll certainly read it, I just don’t likely have enough experience to make much in the way of productive comments…
You already have made productive comments.
As far as tools go, I like both Park and Pedros. Get whichever chain measuring tool works best for you. I have tools from both and have not had any tool failures with either. I even have a Pedros bottle opener, and it has never let me down.
My advice is to update the clunker — one of those is great to have! You don’t have to care about it getting wet, icy, slushy, dirty, etc.
I still have the first mountain bike I ever bought — a Trek 820 from 1992 or ’93. That is my clunker now, and I am eventually going to set it up as trail bikepacking rig, because there are enough idiots out there on YouTube to teach me how to make it happen.