Wheelin' and Dealin'. how to build a great bike on the cheap.

my buddy randy wanted me to build him a bike for my races, and since he's such a swell guy and helps me out at every race, i said, "who's gonna sweep the track if you're racing?"

nahh. i said, "sure, i'd be happy to build you a bike..."

so this thread's gonna be about how this bike came together, with a cost and labor breakdown, so people reading realize they can build an awesome bike for less money than they expect, without having to buy a piece-o-crap at the same store they buy catfood at.

before i begin, this bike is getting stuff welded to it, and a custom tank and all that, but that's just bonus stuff. if you don't have a whole lotta mechanical skills, you can still use the stock kit parts and build a cool bike.

but you gotta have some swindling, scamming, and scoring skills.

for now, heeeeeere's Randy!

Randy's the guy taking your money at the Adam's track, sweeping the sand, standing around with a flag, and driving me there in his volkswagen truck/van 3 door transporter thing-a-ma-jig that's worth a lot of money to some people for god know's what reason.

i built him that emory cruiser, and he wrecked it. remember that bike?



that was the bike i thought i was gonna make millions of dollars with and retiring to the virgin islands or something, but that didn't happen because the company that makes the frames... well, i'd rather not re-live that.

so for his new bike, i started with your basic taiwan made, schwinn cantelever knock-off frame i had sitting around in the backyard. this frame was made around 1980, and despite being made overseas, it's actually a pretty well built frame.

but i hate the cantelever design, so i fixed it.

i don't have any before pictures of it, because it was just your basic frame, but i cut the two cantelever tubes off and welded a straight bar onto it.

i got that bike a year ago for 100 bucks. at the time, i was buying another bike from the same guy. it was a blue, 1980, S&S Newport BMX Cruiser, for $160.

the S&S looked like it just came off the bike shop floor. the frame and fork alone go for 1000 bucks on ebay. obviously, the guy had no idea what he was selling, but i did, and i swooped it right out from under him. i thought about motorizing it, but it's worth too much. the pictures below are what it looks like now. i pedal it around all the time.

but the guy also had this red cruiser with 12g spokes, rear suntour coaster brake, suntour stem, and some other heavy duty parts, so i bought it as well, took off all the stuff i wanted and threw the frame in my crap parts pile.

the forks from it were cut down and are on my little race bike, and the other cool parts got built into another bike i sold for $1500.

so the cost of the bike was originally $100, but i got a million dollar S&S cruiser out of it, plus sold the parts for a huge profit.

here's the S&S:

the wheels on the basic mock up of randy's bike are 24"worksman's with a shimano coaster and the worksman front drum.

to get these is another story.

i bought a worksman trike that was also on craigslist for $120.

it had 24" wheels in the rear and a 26" in the front with the drum brake. that's the only reason i bought it, was for the wheels.

while i was welding the frame, Randy was taking the wheels off the trike, taking all the spokes out, as well as taking the spokes out of his old back wheel to get the shimano hub.

the rear trike wheels have trike hubs, so those are useless to me, and we needed to lace in the right hubs.

my neighbor said he'd give me 100 bucks for the trike carcass, but he's lagging, so i put it up on craigslist. http://orangecounty.craigslist.org/bik/3208002011.html

if it sells, the cost of the wheels will be 20 bucks, plus i've got an extra 26" rim and spokes. if it doesn't sell, 120 bucks is still a great deal for what i got out of it.

to make the straight bar in the frame took about an hour, and the 4130 chromoly pipe was left-over from some other project, but i think it cost me 40 bucks for 8'.

i laced the 24" rims up one night while drinking some beers and watching "sexy beast" with ben kingsley. i mean, ben kingsley wasn't sitting there with me, he was in the movie, playing a lunatic london gangster. it's a pretty cool movie.

both wheels took me the length of the movie to finish, so labor is an hour and a half.

the seatpost was cut and welded, and the mock up was assembled in a few hours.

the Ideale 6 saddle on that bike came from Goldenwest Swapmeet.

it's about $150 new, and this one looks vintage, never used, and i made Randy buy it a few years ago because i didn't have the cash on me.

it was 30 bucks...

totally forgot he even had it till he brought it over the other day.

the rest of the mock-up has used parts either from his old bike or my parts pile. the gooseneck, innertubes, seatpost, seatclamp and chain are from the trike.

the tires are on there just to see how well it rides. those are crappy Duro whitewalls i bought for the rustoration build-off bike, and they were so outta round i threw them in my crap pile and forgot about them. i think they were 10 bucks a piece.

i've got a brand new pair of 24" hookworms, but since they're discontinued, i dunno if they're going on this bike. probably, but i haven't let go of them yet.

so that's the swindle for now. basically, the only thing i haven't recouped my money on are the wheels, but if the trike sells, this bike will be almost free, so far...

i'll keep ya posted...

just sold the trike carcass for 100 bucks. that means i paid 20 bucks for the seatpost, stem, bars, innertubes, chain, 2 x 24" rims, spokes, and a 26" wheel with drum brake.

oh, and the 26" tire and tube are on my everyday cruiser, 'cause i got a flat a while ago.

brings the total cost on this bike to, uh, 50 bucks so far, i think.

if i bought the parts new, it'd be $200 + shipping for the wheels, $150 for the seat, and at least another hundred for the rest of the parts. that's about 450 bucks right there.

i'm $400 ahead. with the other parts i've already used or sold, building this bike has already made me money, and i don't even have to sell it!