Well, I passed on crusty and instead came home with a (you can't make this stuff up), a 1976-ish Motorbacon Grand Touring Fixed gear conversion. I chatted with the fellow I got it from and his story of how this came to be involved a rush to not be late for class at UVA one day and totally blowing a shift, an exploding drivetrain and a college student's tight budget. It's a tad tall for me at 23", and despite wanting to put it back to a worthy tourer (which I may do anyway), I lack a double crankset that does not involve heavy steel and cotter pins. But Hey! it was 50 bucks and it came with a perfectly functional U-lock and mount. It won't make budget, as the only free 27" wheels I have are made with some neat steel Schothorst rims that were on the Hetchins that I got about a dozen years back. Not that they're particularly valuable, but rationalizing the budget for this contest would make my head hurt a bit more than I care to consider.
What I think I'm going to do instead is make a proper frankenbike from the 50s(?) Robin Hood that I picked up at an Antique Mall in Florence, KY four years ago for $76.50.
The biggest challenge will be wheels. Fortunately, Kurt was kind enough to send me remnants he had come across, and I have enough left from that to make a 3-speed coaster
brake rear, and if I can sweet talk the fork into spreading a bit, can also rebuild a front with a dyno-hub. Otherwise, it's going to inherit the front off a little purple Raleigh Sports that
was made free for purposes of this contest for having been in a twofer deal five years back for $55.00. I slapped $30.00 of tires and tubes on the other bike (another fixie) and was able to sell it for $90.00
in one of my very few positive flips ever.
I have a couple things in mind to further dress up the Robin Hood, so it should be fun.
I'm also going to have fun making a respectable Touring rig out of today's catch once I work out a couple details.
So now that I have worked things out here, it's off to bed. I have a wheel to build tomorrow.