Benjamin J Newland

This past Thursday, enroute to other obligations, I ventured north to Recycled Cycles. Upon the illicit bike rack (Owner's Manual: “It’s a freaking Prius! Why would you put a trailer hitch on it?!”) rested the Raleigh frame I started on earlier in the week.

I was a little trepidatious, since the last time I visited this bike shop I met with a Disdainful Hipster. This visit possessed a greater level of fortuitousness, and I was met with a less-common sub-species, the Friendly Hipster.

I had intended to order a set of their hand-built wheels, but the Friendly Hipster guided me to a pair of used wheels with higher quality hubs, spokes, and rims than the standard they build with, and for substantially less money as well. Plus, these wheels come with tyres (yay, English spelling!) that, while used, will last me awhile and put of that expense unto a later date. PLUS! The wheels have baby blue rims that match the two-tone blue of the frame’s original paint. How groovalicious is that? I picked up a golden coloured (again!) chain (not pictured) that will also look hella sharp once this project is completed.

I still need three main components to finish this build. 1) A saddle. The budget is busted for this pay period, but when new cash flows in, I’m planning to get a Brooks Saddle. 2) A set of handle bars. I’m thinking moustache bars are the way to go. And 3), a crankset. The existing pedal/crank/hub set up could be made to work, but I’d have an extra chainring cluttering up the aesthetics to no useful purpose. The Friendly Hipster guided me towards Go Huck Yourself, a bike shop that started with BMX only and has branched out into mountain bikes and fixies. I’ll stop in the next time I’m headed that way and see what can be had at what price.

Stay tuned.

A friend recently purchased a garage-sale bicycle for himself. Looking to recoup the exorbitant cost ($25) he sold me his previous garage-sale bicycle ($20).

It's a sad thing, this old Raleigh. Someone drove a car over the back tyre (yes, we're spelling in English today), yielding a the profile of a Pringle potato-based-chip. The seat is mouldering (see, there I go again), the cables missing or askew, and neither of the brakes perform in a manner that you might hope they would. Not that you can build up much steam on the deformed wheel.

I've long been an admirer of human powered vehicles (HPV in the parlance) of all sorts, the more esoteric the better. Bicycles--being the dominant species of HPV on our planet--have generally played a prominent role in that admiration. I've owned all kinds of bikes over the years: BMX, 10-speed, mountain bike,  cargo bike, triathlon bike, and Dutch bike, to name those which I can recall in specific.

It would feel something like completing a set to own a fixie. I'm puzzled by the intentional dis-utility of them while simultaneously intrigued by their simplicity, to say nothing of the compulsion/revulsion of the hipster ethic that goes along with these machines.

So. Piffling concerns aside, here is the instigating opportunity, in this old frame and fork. Yesterday I stripped it down to the constituent elements I think I can save and/or will need.

Thursday I will have occasion to visit Recycled Cycles, and will inquire of the hipster mechanics therein how to go about this resurrection.