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Conference noted::bicycle

Title: Bicycling
Notice:Bicycling for Fun
Moderator:JAMIN::WASSER
Created:Mon Apr 14 1986
Last Modified:Fri Jun 06 1997
Last Successful Update:Fri Jun 06 1997
Number of topics:3214
Total number of notes:31946

49.0. "Custom? - izing" by PUFFIN::WILSON () Wed Apr 23 1986 17:05

    This is a note along a humerous vein.
    
    Describe the oddest combination bike you have ever seen.
    
    
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49.1Yes, dear...PUFFIN::WILSONWed Apr 23 1986 17:1627
    Since it is my note, I thought I should give the first reply.
    
    My wife's old Atalia (sp) gave out on her a couple of years back
    and we decided to buy here a new set of wheels.
    
    As her uncle is now retired, we went to one of his friends.
    
    As a consession to size she had to buy a close out Schwinn LeTour.
    It was the only lightweight girls bike she could get her 4'11"
    body onto and feel comfortable. She also "would prefer a better
    bike than a Schwinn...". Neither was it a bad deal, last one of
    a close out, so I got it for half price.
    
    So, I told her to customize it as she liked.
    "Quick release hubs, front and back"     - "OK,"
    "A different read sprocket to take the new hubs"   - "OK,"
    "'Campi' Super Record derailers"        - "OK,"
                                            (I told you I not "into" bikes)

    All in all her modifications cost more than the original bike.
    After two years, I just found out that Campi' rates their Super
    Record's for Racing only. I always knew my wife had chanpagne taste
    on a ginger ale budget.
    
    Steve W
    
    
49.2Citrycle?SHIVER::JPETERSJohn Peters, DTN 266-4391Thu Apr 24 1986 19:018
    After crashing my 3-speed, with attendant destruction of the front
    wheel, when I was in junior high school, I replaced the front wheel
    with two rear wheels from a tricycle, side by side, sort of jammed
    into the forks.  The resultant changes in steering geometry produced
    a virtually unridable vehicle, extremely difficult to pedal (I never
    managed to explain why...) and close to impossible to steer.  We
    retired the machine after a friend suffered a terrible crach on
    a local sidewalk.
49.3Tall in the SaddleRAINBO::WASSERJohn A. WasserThu Apr 24 1986 20:599
	When I was a child, one of my older sister's friends built a
	tall bicycle by turning a regular frame upside-down (to put
	the bottom bracket on the top) and installing a long handlebar
	stem (like several feet long) and a long seat tube (by welding,
	I think).  It did function (after a fashion).

				-John A. Wasser

49.4Easy RiderBPOV09::ERICKSONTue Jul 22 1986 17:0320
    When I was but a child I took a modified a Schwin Typhoon (20")
    in the following fashion:
    
    	(a) I removed the front wheel and installed 3' chopper forks,
    	    fashioned from 3/4" electrical conduit. Flattened the 
    	    wheel end and "ovalled" the fork end by heating the pipe
    	    in a charcoal barbecue and pounding with a hammer. These
    	    slipped on over the non-tubular Schwinn forks nicely.
    
    	(b) I replaced the normal handle bars with cinneli-style, to
    	    put my CG forward (to prevent continuous "wheelies").
    
    	(c) I installed a "touring" seat and "knobby" (now called BMX)
    	    tires.
    
    Incidently, many kids in my neighborhood fashioned 'choppers from
    old "klunker" forks---tubular forks flatted with a hammer a tad
    and stuffed on a Schwinn fork. That's why I had to go for 3-foot
    forks. By the way, 5-foot forks don't work, even with a wagon
    wheel (8"-10") and bricks up front!