Monday 28 January 2008

Bikes

So I've been getting busy building singlespeed bikes (fixies)
I love it, it's creative, healthy, and I get to show off a bit.

The first one I made (below) was a gift for a girl, she liked it I think - I love the colour, it was originally a black peugot, I kept the frame, forks and front brake caliper and binned everything else. I then stripped it back to bare metal with Nitromoors (the jelly kind) and wet sanded it then wire brushed it. I then applied zinc coating primer (2 layers) and 6 layers of plastikote in lilac, then 2 layers of lacquer. The bars are cut down drops and I found some really cool NOS lilac bar tape on Ebay. I bought some brand new Rigida rims and a 47t SR chainset, the rear freewheel is 17t. The saddle is a Frontera and the bars and post have been sanded and the same paint treatment as above but in white.

BeforeAfter











Here's the one I'm working on at the moment - It's for sale, goodness knows who'll buy it though (Nathan Barley maybe?) I'll stick it on Ebay Japan maybe?! It's got a Fizik saddle, Sturmey Archer NOS steel (!) rims, riser bars, Oury grips (also green) whitewall tyres, Campagnolo cranks and chainset 52t, and a fixed 14t rear, same treatment as the other bike (I hang them on the washing line to paint them and dry them in front of an open oven!) the paint is Ford Signal Green - I used to have a MK1 Ford Escort in the same colour, I loved that car.

Before



After












So there we have it. I'll post some of the completed bike when I get back from America (if anyone's arsed) I'm also up for building them to order if you want one making email me ellioteastwick@hotmail.com, they're not hugely expensive and you end up with a totally unique hand built bike. (carries on talking about bikes, bores self to sleep)












1 comment:

Anonymous said...

an electronic music enthusiast (though not exclusively i see) into bikes.. you're a versatile character elliot. i used to road race back in the dizzog quite competitively (although i was literally 25kg lighter at the time) and have just bought a flashy condor with ludicrous matching lycra in order to try and counter the decade and a half of late night liver/brain abuse. i love it crazily although all it brings me is pain (and looks of derision and amusement from my friends). awesome.

great blog btw- really enjoyable. more bike action!