Summer bike project

I have been wanting to ride a single speed bike for a while now, but can't bring myself to spend $600+ on a new one that I'd like (not a fan of many of the cheaper models like the se draft). Instead I thought it might be fun, even though I've been warned it might be harder than I think, to try converting my current bike to single speed rather than buying new.

This morning Marybeth and I took a ride out to Bikes Not Bombs to do some preliminary research, just to get a feel for how hard or easy they thought it would be, seeing as they often work with kids and volunteers with little experience like myself. The guy helping us mentioned two ways to take on the project; an easy, low-cost way and a slightly more involved, higher-cost one. Suffice to say, I decided on the easier/cheaper of the two and what do you know but I managed to convert it over in about an hour after getting home!

Sure, all the sprockets/chainrings from my previous ten gears are still there, but I took the derailer and all associated wires off, shortened the chain, and am on my way to my final product.

Here's how she looks after todays tampering (forgive the poor photobooth pic):


The next hurdle is to chop my handlebars down (not a fan of the current drop bars), install new breaks for a flat bar, and re-grip the new setup.

We'll see how this next step goes since it actually involves putting a mechanism together, unlike todays strip down where I got to feel good about myself for indiscriminately ripping things apart (I'm pretty sure I wouldn't be able to put the stuff back on even if I wanted to).

Side note: I found this cool website that lets you customize your own bike in however much or as little detail as you want. For me, it was mostly just changing handlebars, number of chainrings/sprockets, and trying out various color combinations, but the program has the ability to go pretty much as deep as you want, offering the ability to change tube size, frame build, and all sorts of other things that were way over my head.

Anyway, it's a fun program to mess around with. Try it out yourself (click BikeCAD).

Here's a few I came up with for fun:

Fuck Yeah (The America Bike)

Subdued with a bit of character

Creamsicle


Radioactive