The unfinished project bike
A little backstory
As long as I remember myself I’ve always been an avid cyclist. But I was never really bothered by the technical aspects of cycling. I knew the basics – how to fix a flat tire, adjust the brakes, lube the chain, etc., and it was enough for me. For more complex repairs I would simply take my bike to the local bike shop.
In 2016 I got seriously drawn into bicycle mechanics
I made a career change and the salary at my new job was nearly half of what I used to make, so I decided to give up driving a car in favor of cycling.
I decided that I will cycle for the whole year – winter included. Since winters around here are quite harsh I realized that I needed a designated winter bicycle. Something cheap, something that I would not feel too sorry about when it will be devouvered by salt (in the winter, they pour salt on the roads to deal with the ice).
I opened up the classifieds and found myself a cheap mountain bike, it cost me 120 euros
The moment I bought that bike I became an amateur bike mechanic.
I had a lot of fun that winter. Immense amounts of fun. I was putting that bike through hell and surprisingly it was holding up really good.
So good that I had to keep it
The only thing remaining from the original bike is the frame. Currently Ol’ Dirty is a single-speed mullet mountain bike rocking 26" in the back and 27.5" in the front. The gear ratio is not for the faint-hearted with 11T in the back and 36T in the front.
I really enjoy the mullet setup, the smaller back wheel makes the bike more nimble, responsive and overall maneuverable and the slightly larger front wheel helps with stability and rolling over obstacles. Perfect bike for riding in cities with terrible infrastructure.
The unfinished project bike
In 2019 I had this crazy idea to create a low bike that would have big wheels. By low I mean a bike that would be close to the ground, a lowrider.
My friend had given me his old roadbike frame, I think it was the Dutch brand Batavus. I decided to cut the frame up and reweld it.
The frame before the surgery
The frame after the surgery
I had nearly all the neccessary parts to finish the bike
This bike was supposed to be a 3-speed city cruiser with 28" wheels, it had a Shimano Nexus hub in the back and a beautiful lightweight hollow-axle hub in the front. Except for the frame and the fork, all the other parts were aluminum.
Why I never finished the bike
Money and lack of motivation. I needed around 300 euros to finish the bike. For some time I did not have any spare money, and when I finally did, I had other priorities to take care of. If this project bike had been a mountain bike I would have probably finished it by now.
It’s been almost 4 years since I started this bike and by now I have used almost all the parts I had for it on other bikes.
I still have the frame and the fork wrapped in foam lining
Ideally I would like to give it away to someone who would build it, but I highly doubt that anyone would want to do that. Building bicycles is expensive and this bike is kinda impractical, it is meant for joyrides not day-to-day commuting. I think very few people would appreciate that.
The ride that can be finished is not the perfect ride.
The frame that can be broken is not the perfect frame.
The ride is the beginning of sky and dirt.
The singlespeed is the mother of the ten thousand gears.
– The Tao of Singlespeeding