Bike Project #1: The Start

Time to write about something other than cocktails, I guess.

I want a new bike. I can’t afford the bike I want. I decided to build myself a bike instead.

Positives: It’s cheaper. I get to learn about bike mechanics. I get to pretend that I’m a bike-hipster.

Cons: Slower than just buying a bike. I’m only building a single-gear (freewheel , not fixed) for the sake of simplicity, so biking up hills will suck. Not as shiny as a new Surly.

Today I took the first step and bought a frame from Sunrise. Pictures of the frame to come, I’m sure. It’s an old Schwin steel road-bike frame. Horizontal dropouts, so it’ll be easy to switch to a single-gear setup. Downside is that it has no fork, so I have to find one of those.

The next step is prepping the frame for painting while I find a fork. Time to go buy some sandpaper.

Project totals:
Days: 1
Money spent: $30

Bike terms: Freewheel, fixed, dropouts, fork