Bike Cottage

Just one

CliffordK

I went out for a ride this afternoon/evening.

And the speedometer decided not to come home with me.

Time to head out for another ride and see if it shows up.


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Ahh... found it yesterday morning. It had fallen off at the beginning of the path to the basement, and I missed it when I was looking Sunday. From now on, it will be tied onto the bike.

David325

Some really great submissions have come in. Good job to everyone who is participating so far!

Bike Cottage

Cracking open a cold pop to celebrate. Good luck to all.

Barchettaman

Well, I successfully swapped over a 7-speed Uniglide freehub body from a donor wheel, and it all went super smoothly. All bearing surfaces now run smoooth.

I just have to put the chain on, cable the 2x7 STI units and wrap the bars, and we're into photo time.

Yeeeesss!
Over budget but I don't care. She's a beauty.

David325

Some really great submissions have come in! Just a reminder to all, deadline is the 15th.

CliffordK

Yeah...
I know the feeling of being a little over budget.

My bike is a serious "Frankenbike". But, it is a sweet ride. My body needs to be broken in a bit to the new geometry though.

Microshift 9spd Brifters
Deore RD-MT60 Rear Derailleur.

Not quite the perfect pairing, but not too bad.

However, it was really hard shifting in the higher (smaller) gears. I decided that I had too much play in the upper Jockey Wheel (Guide Pulley).

I had a jockey wheel, pretty narrow, but with a 6mm hole. I needed a 5mm.

So, I cut a bushing and washer spacer 5mm to 6mm, and pressed it all together (purple). PERFECT FIT.





BLING? Well, it may look a bit funky, but it helps the shifting a lot.

I have the B-Screw set pretty tight for clearance of my 32T sprocket. But, loosening the B-Screw might also help shifting, perhaps if I can find a bit smaller cassette.

Barchettaman

OK, mine is all finished.















The 7-speed Uniglide freehub and the 105 brakeset came off a Mondia bike that I found knee-deep in weeds and missing a front wheel behind a tram stop last September:



I slapped a front wheel on for the above picture. Anyway, the little Mondia cleaned up OK, was stripped for parts and sold on for a total of approx €65 after eBay fees. Not strictly relevant to my Velo Cheapo entry, but part of the story. Hereīs the frame prepped for sale:



I then saw what looked like a mint RSX groupset on eBay, with very little interest in it. €58.50 later, it was mine!



The right hand STI unit needed a good WD40 rinse but is now working perfectly.

Barchettaman

Anyway, having looked at the Velo Cheapo competition, a vintage bike then popped up in my town, Frankfurt, that looked little-used and a bit dusty. Although a bit on the large side I snapped it up for €65,80. No-name but butted Reynolds 501:







All was not well, upon further inspection the seatpost was 26.4 not 26.8mm and this had buckled the seattube slightly. Ah well, the wheelset was absolutely lovely and the rust situation was OK.

After a bit of light resoration weīre left with this specification:

I took the crankset and RH STI unit from the RSX groupset. Nominal cost of €35
The bottom bracket was greased and repacked.
The cassette from the donor Mondia was cleaned and installed on the repacked 7-speed Uniglide hub.
The LH STI was from my old commuter bike, I think it was €5 from eBay. Shimano 105 and works perfectly.
The 105 brakes are from the Mondia.
Front brake cable is the old rear cable from the bike as purchased.
The original Exage rear mech was removed, disassembled, cleaned, reassembled and replaced. Works great.
Front mech is original to the bike (Shimano 105)
Housings, cables, ferrules and an (original) headset service from my LBS mech was €15 in the tip jar and a litre of organic apple juice.
The tyres are from the parts bin (622-28), nominal value €30.
Cheap Chinese bar tape, €3.
The Zoom handlebar was in the parts bin, it was on my old CX bike. €10. Original stem
Original chain showed no signs of wear or stretch, so it was cleaned, reoiled and replaced!
The MTB pedals are from the parts bin, as is the bottle cage and seatpost. The Ritchey saddle appeared from somewhere, canīt remember where.

Barchettaman

So all in Iīm at €165.80. Over budget, but I have left over:

-original handlebars
-a pair of Shimano SPD road pedals
-a Shimano Biopace 52-42 crankset
-an Exage brakeset
-a 26.4mm seatpost
-a crappy suede saddle
-a pair of 2x7 Shimano 105 downtube shifters
-a very weird pair of triathlon bars
-some nice Exage non-aero brake levers
-a bike computer with a flat battery

That little lot, when sold on, should net me €25 I reckon. Again, not relevant to the rules of the competition but of interest to the overall picture! Plus, I have the €65 from the original Mondia donor bike in the kitty too.

KMs ridden so far: 45 (more to come tomorrow)

Congrats on getting this far!

David325

Great entries thus far. Official deadline is tomorrow- PM me for submissions!

wrk101

My second El Cheap entry turned out to be a road bike.


As found, dug out of the woods:




Finished today, kept $$ to a minimum, so not much matches, no barcons, etc. In keeping with "cheap" and the era, I installed turkey brake levers on the bike, first time I have ever installed turkey levers onto a bike.






After:

CliffordK

I assume David got a few last minute entries. Hopefully he'll get them all sorted out shortly.

Here's a photo that I don't think I sent Dave.



I came out just shy of $400, which for a Titanium Litespeed isn't bad. But, obviously when I totalled up all the little pieces, it became more than I had originally expected. And when one looks closely, it has an odd mix of parts throughout the bike from a Litespeed 26" frame, 700c wheels, and a Schwinn fork.

Yes, I realize the cable housing is yellow in the front, black in the middle, and yellow in the rear. There is a reason for that. The 3 middle sections came with the frame and were all there. Lined Gore-Tex housing with a multi-stranded longitudinal internal wire support that I found curious, so I left it on the bike.

BluesDaddy

$400 ?? Velo-CHEAPO my friend.

burnfingers

Do I get a cookie?

~1968 Italian Chiorda, got free as a parts bike years back. just over a month to finish, mostly used and spare parts.



~1964 French Mercier, paid $40 for the bike and used a lot of second hand parts. crankset was the one big spend but totally worth it as the bike's under 20lbs (used it on the gray bike while working on this one, hence the pics). There's still a lot of little detailing needed but it's on the road.

CliffordK

It will be interesting to see how people tally up the costs... and "builds" vs "restores".

How many $400 Titanium Litespeed road bikes do you see on the road? For sale? Even if somewhat of a "Frankenbike"?

I will say that it was an interesting project, and interesting to see how quickly little things add up.

There are a few places where I could have saved a little money. Perhaps used tires, but without going through the worn-out tires I've removed, I only have one mis-matched used tire that would have made sense to mount.

Lascauxcaveman 

Here's mine; came in at about $130-140, with a lotta parts from my $0 parts bin. We'll see how the judges feel about that.

Anyhow, it's a decent riding bike with a fairly primitive but usable drivetrain suitable for anyone who's adept at friction shifting. A high-ten Japanese Apollo frame painted to look like a Leganano Gran Premio and equipped with Campy Nuovo Gran Sport shifty bits and skinny Rigida Blue Label rims from the early 80's.

Barchettaman

yeah, he's over budget, but titanium scores double. Or something!

Looking back at the original rules and spirit of the competition, I think the original intention was to reuse and recycle as much as possible in the finished project, and put as many miles as possible on something grotty but roadworthy on a tiny budget. Now, I and it seems lots of other people didn't do that, and I think it's because:

a) the donor bike was too nice
b) the parts bin sits there full of parts, saying 'use me! Use me!'
c) budgets creep, that's what they do
d) the weather curtailed any significant mileage (that's my excuse, anyway!)

So I'm not gonna win, but hey ho, my bike is lovely, rides nice & there is nothing - not a thing - i would change on it!

CliffordK

Most of my deposits into my spare parts bin got there at a price.
Thus, I tried to valuate the withdrawals as closely as possible including shipping as applicable (sometimes guessing how much I thought I would have paid for an item). Including shipping on E-Bay items. Bulk items got divided by the quantity.

Perhaps next year I'll dig up some deposits into the spare parts bin that happened so long ago that I have no recollection of when, where, or how they entered the bin (other than being legal), and they've surely depreciated to zero long ago.

lotekmod

That turned out really nice! Did you have that green paint custom mixed or did you find something off the shelf? I've always liked that Legnano color scheme and have had similar thoughts of buying a decent frame with ratty paint and creating a Legnano copy.

David325

Great submissions by all- judging is starting and I'll post a compilation thread soon!

CliffordK

Grotty?

I see some photos of some beautiful restorations. However, at least in my case, I decided that I wanted to build a bike that I wanted to put some miles (or KMs) on. Now, and in the future. I have some stem shifters that almost went on the bike, but they just weren't a good match. I suppose I could have slapped it together on the cheap as a 26" MTB, but what fun is that?

I'll probably make a few changes in the future, but I also didn't want to build a bike planning to unbuild it in a couple of weeks for major upgrades, or to fill it full of "temporary" parts.

I do plan on continuing to ride my bike, perhaps as my new dedicated rain bike / winter bike / and if I get a rack installed, grocery getter.
Maybe I need a government job

I suppose when I listed out the parts, I was quite surprised with how much the cost/value of the little parts added up, but overall, it was a wonderful exercise.

Now, if I could just fill my parts bin with FREE parts. Maybe look for donor parts from my next "restoration".

bmthom.gis

89 Schwinn Prelude...$20 off CL

Before:


Nitto bars/stem, brake levers, brakes/pads, bar tape, pedals, bottle cages: Free or had laying around
Tires: 42.93
Tubes: 12.78
Hoods: 9.50
Brake cables/housing: 18.18
Derailleur cables: 10
_________________________
Total spent: 113.39 (not counting champagne for cork for bar plugs)


After:






Rides really nice. Can't wait for the weather to turn a bit nicer to put more miles on

Barchettaman

Man, I completely agree. I did all the miles on my entry BEFORE restoration - the only things that went on were the tyres and tubes, as 622/19 old tyres are no good for my arse.

Likewise, I went over budget, swapping out (and selling on!) parts that were perfectly serviceable, purely because I had something either slightly better and/or to my riding tastes in the Bin of Magic Parts and Magicness.

I definitely understood the īspiritī of the competition to include bonus points for reusing stuff from the bike as found/purchased. With that in mind I repacked the BB although I had a cartridge BB in the Magic Bin, and reused the rear brake cable and chain. Heck, I should reuse the suede saddle that came on it originally, it cannot be any more uncomfortable than the Ritchey needle I ended up replacing it with!

All-in-all, a fun project, with moreīspiritī than īrulesī to the competition, which is why I joined in.

CliffordK

There wasn't much that came on my frame.
Seat, seatpost, Suntour front derailleur, water bottle cage, and 3 short pieces of cable housing.

I kept all of those except I was going to exchange a black bottle cage for silver, but ended up ruining a rivnut (which will get replaced soon).

Most of the parts that went into the build, however, were used, although the rear rim may have been NOS. The biggest exceptions were new tires & tubes, and 1 derailleur cable, and 1 brake cable.

The front wheel was a bit of a hassle as one rim was the wrong color, one rim had too much of a wobble, and one was 27". So, I ended up with a wheel off of my Colnago Super (charged an approximate purchase price to the bike), and will later decide what will go back onto the Colnago.