Tip Bicycle rebuild

[=Stevo=]

Whilst saving some more cash for the next few steps of my magic surf bus project, several things happenned...

-I began to crave a cheap project to work on
-I needed a decent bike to keep fit on (and also ride to the hockey club for drinking/frivolity so that I can stop leaving my magic surf bus with several k worth of windsurfing stuff outside the club overnight)
-I was tiring of riding my mountain bike and constantly having my old man pass me with ease on his carbon bling roadbike
-Crawley was having a rubbish collection


The end result was me picking up one of these, an Indi 500 (aka repco superlite rip off) - although in much worse condition than this pic



^^ similar in almost every detail, right down to the mud guards and reflectors...


so after a quick bit of stripping, this is how she looked:




the parts bucket grows!




then I came across an annoying problem, the seat-post was wedged in tight - and whilst I could hammer it further IN, nothing I did could get it further out... so naturally I started to drill and hack at stuff...



After putting ropes, shackles, chains and all manners of crap through it and breaking heaps of ropes, chains, shackles and small trees... I became frustrated and attacked it with a hammer and rammed it further into the seat-tube... then got a pipe and hammered it angrily until it was halfway down the seat tube

hey, desperate times call for desperate measures...


anyway, after that I stripped all the bearings and such out as well, spent ages removing the crank and stupid cotter-pin arrangement...



after some de-greasing, sanding and cleaning it is now sitting under a couple of coats of primer (and so are the forks...)



and thats all I've done so far...


Still tossing up the following options:

-find some reasonable deraillieurs, levers and such (turn it into a half-ok roadbike - its going to cost $$ though unless I find cheap groupset)
-Convert it to a single speed freewheel
-Convert it to a fixed gear and be super-uber-leet-trendy

I'm also weighing up whether to paint it gloss white (I have several cans) or orange (I'm leaning towards orange)

Final goal is to have it turn out something like these:





If anyone has some half-decent rims/tyres/cranks/pedals/ANYTHING that they want to give away or donate then please let me know!

[Melchior]

I don't have anything to help you out, but definitely go orange

[resist]

fixed gear bikes are ok on the velodrome, but they suck balls in the real world. single gear freewheelers are ok, just be prepared to go hard on the hills. dont push too big a gear either, its how i did heaps of damage to my knees when i was cycling.

[MattyA]

Stick a motor in it!

[apples]

Convert it to a fixed gear and be super-uber-leet-trendy...

For this you'll need to ditch that front brake!

... and as has been said previously, go the orange!

fixed gear bikes are ok on the velodrome, but they suck balls in the real world.

Why?

[=Stevo=]

I think I would have to keep the front brake for a little while until I got used to a fixie, then of course rip it off and be even more leet and trendy...

But then again if I do find some cheap parts I wouldn't mind actually having gears aha

erghh I also want orange, but that means I have to go ALL the way down to supercheap and buy a couple of 'export gold' rattlecans in orange, whilst I already have a couple here in white...

oh well, orange definately looks better though...

[wannabee]

Well... The Orange will always come out nicer on the white?!...

So maybe u should go the white and see how it goes... then just orange over the top for a nicer colour!

[Arwon]

I have a set of 27" single rims set for a 5 speed cluster that may go your way, i just have to check to make sure they don't have Campag hubs.

[scottyj]

Go the orange buddy, i need to spray some boots for the ranga party tomorrow night so your welcome to use the leftovers. I'd say gears would be the best option aswell.

[=Stevo=]

Aha yeah I just bought 3 cans of 'international orange' from supercheap (export gold paint of course!)

And I have another can of fluoro orange for my shoes and shirt for tomorrows party...
that reminds me, I should really spray my shoes and shirt now

Arwon, if you had some rims that would be fantastic, I just have to check what size this beast actually takes

off to do some orange spray painting!!!!

[browncow]

Orange and black, fixed drive.

Look the bomb.

And get one of those solid velodrome style rims.

[Ben S]

Nice choice. Pushy's are easy and cheap to work on, keep you fit and healthy and can look cool. I would go Single speed over fixie tho as fixies can bite you hard. Or even a flip-flop hub and a front brake till you get used to it.

I have heaps of gear if you need it. Wheels, levers, cranks, seats etc

[=Stevo=]

Well I ended up going with orange...

first coat down, still looks a bit dark as its a fairly light coat over the primer:



should start taking some proper pics, mobile phone doesnt capture colour too well aha




thinking of going the single speed at the moment to keep costs down and keep things simple...

Ramjet: Wheels and crank are the main concerns at the moment I think, although some levers would be good too - let me know what you have!

Top coat tomorrow, then its time to put it all back together!

[Melchior]

Looking good, I like orange

[jaseyjase]

Hey bud, just completed a fixed gear conversion myself from an old Repco pulled from the recyclers. Great fun building, learnt a bit along the way. Might have a few spares if the guys above cant help you out, let me know.

Cost me about $100 all up, originally i wanted to go as cheap as possible to see if i would enjoy riding. So used the exisiting 27' wheels with the thread on hubs, threaded on a track cog and lock ring, locite, front brake.




Then i decidied to drop some cash on a proper track rear wheel with a flip flp hub and crankset.



jase

[=Stevo=]

now that just makes me want white again!

yeah I'm trying to keep it cheap, I could always restore all the original deraillieurs - but most of the sprockets are pretty much trashed

I'm too tired and hungover to do anything this morning - useless uni ball, free alcohol, drunk girlfriend who needs caring for til 4am

- maybe I'll get round to it in a couple of hours after some bacon and eggs aha

[bertie]

Schindelhauer bikes

have a look at these bikes for inspiration. in particular the victor II. you should have gone white! The bikes are all belt driven, and designed my by mate.

[=Stevo=]

I still have several cans of white, if I don't like it I'll just spray over the top of this orange coat

PS - those bikes are awesome! Belt drive hey? hmmmmmm ahah

[mekon]

Fuckit! I'm inspired, I'm going to pull out one of my old racers and get to work. I also have a mountain bike frame to work with the wife just bought an Orbea.

Look forward to everyone's progress.

[=Stevo=]

well, after much drunken discussion last night... its now on its way to being white again... (although it looks grey in the pic)



also all of my orange spray-paint went to good use for the 'fanta-pants' ranga themed party we had at the hockey club last night (which scottyj was at as well)