My friend Tim over at An Old Guy on Two Wheels is getting close to finishing his latest project: He’s building a randonneuring bike from scratch. He had the frame custom built, and gathered together all the components for it. In recent days, he’s been apprising us of his progress. It looks like he’s going to take it out for a serious ride sooner rather than later.
Tim is an accomplished bike mechanic, and I wasn’t surprised when he first revealed his build-from-scratch plans. I, on the other hand, have often thought about refurbishing my old Raleigh 10-speed, just to do it — not that I would make it my regular ride, or anything. I just don’t have Tim’s know-how when it comes to working on bikes. (Although I’m getting better — been paying a lot of attention to online videos and some repair books I have around the house, and have done some bike repairs to the Allez that I wouldn’t have tried a year ago.)
Anyhow, I think it’s a cool idea, to either build a bike from scratch as Tim as done, or fix up an old beater into something rideable. Believe me, I’ll get around to it.
How about you? Have you ever considered building your own bike? How about taking an old bike and modifying it into something different? For example, turning a 10-speed into a fixie, or restoring a vintage bike to its original condition?
Weigh in on the following poll, if you will.
Take Our PollI’ll report the answers next week.