Bikes for 'tweens: SUCCESS

Luigi de Guzman said:

Total cost: thirty-three bucks, and maybe an afternoon or two of fettling
and polishing. The look on his face when I turned on the lights?
Priceless.

Rockin' good job, Lu! How did the folks react?
\\paul

Paul Myron Hobson said:

Luigi de Guzman said:

Total cost: thirty-three bucks, and maybe an afternoon or two of fettling
and polishing. The look on his face when I turned on the lights?
Priceless.

Rockin' good job, Lu! How did the folks react?
\\paul

Dad was actually pretty impressed. "I had thought I'd see a kind of
rickety old bike," he told me later, "but I walked in and saw a brand new
bike. He won't know it's not brand new. It's pretty."

He also noted, to Mom, that he had owned a ten-speed in the same shade of
yellow back in the '70s.

Oh, pictures!

http://ouij.livejournal.com/233139.html

Yeah, I know, not so much of a big deal. No component swaps/upgrades--not
in the budget for this project. No real bike pr0n. But a satisfying job.

-Luigi

--
Luigi de Guzman
http://ouij.livejournal.com

Luigi de Guzman said:

Paul Myron Hobson said:

Luigi de Guzman said:

Total cost: thirty-three bucks, and maybe an afternoon or two of fettling
and polishing. The look on his face when I turned on the lights?
Priceless.

Rockin' good job, Lu! How did the folks react?
\\paul

Dad was actually pretty impressed. "I had thought I'd see a kind of
rickety old bike," he told me later, "but I walked in and saw a brand new
bike. He won't know it's not brand new. It's pretty."

He also noted, to Mom, that he had owned a ten-speed in the same shade of
yellow back in the '70s.

Oh, pictures!

http://ouij.livejournal.com/233139.html

Niiice. It looks much snazzier without the decals.

Quoted message said:

Yeah, I know, not so much of a big deal. No component swaps/upgrades--not
in the budget for this project. No real bike pr0n. But a satisfying job.

Hey, getting him out biking is the first step. It's a lot easier to
work on upgrades or an improved bike once the time pressure is off.
i.e., If he has a working bike in hand.

--
Dane Buson - [email hidden]
"A power so great, it can only be used for Good or Evil!"
-- Firesign Theatre, "The Giant Rat of Summatra"

Luigi de Guzman said:

Paul Myron Hobson said:

Luigi de Guzman said:

Total cost: thirty-three bucks, and maybe an afternoon or two of fettling
and polishing. The look on his face when I turned on the lights?
Priceless.

Quoted message said:

Rockin' good job, Lu! How did the folks react?
\\paul

Dad was actually pretty impressed. "I had thought I'd see a kind of
rickety old bike," he told me later, "but I walked in and saw a brand new
bike. He won't know it's not brand new. It's pretty."

He also noted, to Mom, that he had owned a ten-speed in the same shade of
yellow back in the '70s.

Oh, pictures!

http://ouij.livejournal.com/233139.html

You could totally pimp that mofo with a $10 Tourney rear mech! I do
like the homage to the Simplex, though.

Alloy or steel rims? And did ya put on the rigid fork? The Sears
catalog shows the"stoned mountain" with a doinger. All for $80.

On Fri, 06 Jul 2007 05:17:37 GMT, Luigi de Guzman
<[email hidden]> wrote, in part:

Quoted message said:

They got back late tonight and I got to surprise him with what looked like
a brand-new bike. He was jazzed, practically jumping up and down. He
wanted to ride it--no-go, since it was already pitch-black out. He'll get
to ride it tomorrow morning though.

Total cost: thirty-three bucks,

Beautiful.

How'd the ride go?
--
zk

Zoot Katz said:

On Fri, 06 Jul 2007 05:17:37 GMT, Luigi de Guzman
<[email hidden]> wrote, in part:

Quoted message said:

They got back late tonight and I got to surprise him with what looked like
a brand-new bike. He was jazzed, practically jumping up and down. He
wanted to ride it--no-go, since it was already pitch-black out. He'll get
to ride it tomorrow morning though.

Total cost: thirty-three bucks,

Beautiful.

How'd the ride go?

His first ride up and down the block this morning was a great success. He
was grinning from ear to ear. I took the opportunity to fine-tune the
fit, raising the seatpost and the stem a bit for proper leg extension &
reach. He's very comfortable on the bike, and it fits him just right.
I've told him not to mess with shifting yet until I can teach him how to
trim the front derailleur (I noticed some interesting wear marks on the
chain sideplates when I was done cleaning it--probably from chain rub on
the front derailleur cage).

He's really jazzed. I want to take him out for a longer ride.

-Luigi

--
Luigi de Guzman
http://ouij.livejournal.com

On Fri, 06 Jul 2007 20:10:35 GMT, Luigi de Guzman
<[email hidden]> concluded:
\

Quoted message said:

He's really jazzed. I want to take him out for a longer ride.

You're creating long lasting pleasant memories for his future and
perhaps striking the spark that ignites lifelong cycling enjoyment.
--
zk

landotter said:

Quoted message said:

http://ouij.livejournal.com/233139.html

You could totally pimp that mofo with a $10 Tourney rear mech! I do
like the homage to the Simplex, though.

The Soleus came with the bike. I note that only the rear is indexed (and
not badly for such a cheap unit, IMO). The front is pseudo-indexed; that
is, it's a friction shifter with click detents. I actually prefer this
setup to my own Sora brifters, since he can trim the front derailleur. I
haven't yet taught him how to shift/trim, though.

The SOLEUS/SIMPLEX similarity is something I found really funny. I know
it's pretty normal to copy your competitors' nice components. I have a
1984 Shimano 105 rear derailleur in my parts bin which has a nice
bow-and-arrow engraving on it. I imagine that sort of design cue was
meant to remind me of Campagnolo, who had the very pretty winged-wheel
device on their components.

But Shimano and Campagnolo were--and are!--both alive and kicking each
other in the marketplace, especially among road-race enthusiasts. I
thought it kind of funny that anyone would try to copy Simplex's trademark.
The buyers of this type of bike--young parents--wouldn't even have been
*born* at a time when Simplex parts were a big deal.

Re: pimpage--ultimate pimpage would probably mean building a new wheel for
a Sturmey-Archer 8-speed hub. Alas, the budget doesn't stretch that far.

Quoted message said:

Alloy or steel rims?

Chromed steel, which, with the marginal brake shoes and the flexy sidepull
calipers, occasioned my very sage advice to him: "Don't ride stupid."
But they sure are shiny.

Quoted message said:

And did ya put on the rigid fork?

Stock--the whole reason I went for this bike over any of the others.

Quoted message said:

The Sears catalog shows the"stoned mountain" with a doinger. All for $80.

I had a look at the eighty-dollar X*Mart doingers and was unimpressed.
I could have possibly gotten better brakes in the deal, but that would
have meant buying a useless doinger fork. Worse, "hardtails" are starting
to go out of fashion in this market. Double-boingers are even
worse--short short seat tubes and weird angles mean it's almost impossible
to fit the bike to the kid. They're a far cry from this bike I saw when I
was last in Cambridge--obviously some primary schooler's daily rider:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/ouij/254599421/

As it is, we've been spending the past few days going up and down the
block and fine-tuning things, especially saddle position.

-Luigi

--
Luigi de Guzman
http://ouij.livejournal.com