Nigeyy
Legendary Member
- Location
- Massachusetts, USA
Back in September, I saw a Raleigh Super Course out on the pavement with some other old rusty bikes with a "FREE PLEASE TAKE" sign on them. I couldn't resist. I drove back, picked up the Super Course, and then went on a mission: make a workable bike while spending no, zero, nada money.
I changed it over to a singlespeed doing the following:
The long and short of it is I did spend..... zero. Granted I have the good fortune to have a few spare items (e.g. the used crank I had kept because it was more expensive to replace the chainrings than to actually buy a new crankset, and then a friend gave me a singe chainring that fortunately happened to fit it), and I had some old unused brake levers. Probably aside from the crank, I'd think most bike enthusiasts have these kinds of parts hanging around (well, particularly if you don't throw them away
Really I was on a personal challenge to see if I could get a truly usable bike for no money spent -and I succeeded! Anyway here it is now doing trusty service as I cycled to the nearest town to buy a six pack as a gift on New Years Eve (I've also used it for some other errands previously as well, and I'm very pleased):
I changed it over to a singlespeed doing the following:
- replaced road handlebar with an old straight handlebar and some old short pull brake levers I had
- replaced brake cables with some old ones (OK, I do keep reasonable used cables for just such things!)
- replaced the wobbly crank (with cotter pins) for an old one I had and made it a singlespeed with a chainring someone had given me many years ago....
- removed front and rear derailleurs and just wrapped the chain around one of the rear freewheel cogs
The long and short of it is I did spend..... zero. Granted I have the good fortune to have a few spare items (e.g. the used crank I had kept because it was more expensive to replace the chainrings than to actually buy a new crankset, and then a friend gave me a singe chainring that fortunately happened to fit it), and I had some old unused brake levers. Probably aside from the crank, I'd think most bike enthusiasts have these kinds of parts hanging around (well, particularly if you don't throw them away
Really I was on a personal challenge to see if I could get a truly usable bike for no money spent -and I succeeded! Anyway here it is now doing trusty service as I cycled to the nearest town to buy a six pack as a gift on New Years Eve (I've also used it for some other errands previously as well, and I'm very pleased):