state of the stable: spring 2024 bike fleet overview

Currently i have 2 working bikes, some parts for a third, and a parts donor bike i hauled out of a creekbed a while back. let's start with the working bikes:

Vincent von Velocipede: the project cargo bike

vincent began life as a retrospec single-speed bike with some characteristics of both a cruiser and a roadster. i got him on craigslist for 80$, and soon began modifying. the first big project was rebuilding his rear wheel around a shimano nexus 3-speed internally geared hub. this cost substantially more in parts - 60$ for the hub on craigslist IIRC, and over 100$ for a new set of spokes from my local bike shop. however, it greatly improved his performance and practicality, while introducing minimal new maintenance needs.

The next and most obvious modification was the cargo fork. This was a collaborative effort with Emily, and she's working on a blog post about how we did it. The fork cost about $10 in scrap metal, and made vincent much heavier and wider. He is no longer practical to carry on the bus, but he can carry a lot more stuff, on par with many car trunks. Riding Vincent currently feels somewhat like pushing a wheelbarrow. Perhaps installing a spring to pull the fork to center could help with that.

What's next for vincent? First, I'm adding a side-pull brake caliper to the front wheel, just as an extra safety precaution to supplement the rear coaster brake. More excitingly, i found a big, unused Lectric-brand mid-drive motor on craigslist for $100 and some lightly used scooter batteries for $20 each, so i'm working on converting him into an ebike: Vincent Von Voltage! He desperately needs a better kickstand too, but I've had trouble finding a good deal on one.

Lettuce jr: the "reliable" road bike

Lettuce Jr, named after Emily's cat, is a Free Spirit road bike of indeterminate age. Free Spirit was the Sears store-brand of bikes, which were made of whatever parts were easily available at the time. Her frame was made by AMF (yes, the bowling alley company), and her drivetrain uses a Shimano Eagle derailleur and a Shimano Thunderbird front changer. She's very stable and fun to ride, although the frame is much heavier than it looks.

I got Lettuce jr. for $30 on craigslist, and i've replaced her rear tire because the old one had become extremely brittle with decades of aging. Her chain was too long too, so I removed a few links. She's had issues with chain slip, indicating that I should replace her chain soon.

Her gear changers have had some issues as well. The spring in the Eagle derailleur came un-seated and caused a loss of tension, but the design is remarkably easy to disassemble and repair. Shortly after i fixed that, however, her chain caught on the front changer while rolling off a bus rack, breaking a chain link and bending the changer. I removed the troublesome changer, so she's now a 5-speed rather than a 10-speed.

I'll probably replace her chain ring along with the chain, because that shows signs of severe wear too. With that, and some cleaning and re-greasing of the Eagle derailleur, Lettuce jr should continue to be a reliable bike for many years to come.

Also, her rear brake is dragging and needs adjustment, and her shifter cable has suffered some damage from proximity to the chain, and will probably need replacement.

The mystery project bike

I have a few parts with which I'm planning to make a third bike. The centerpiece is a Sturmey-Archer AW hub that I found in a scrap pile. These 3-speed internally geared hubs are known for being extremely reliable and low-maintenance, so I set to work on building another bike around it. I got a road bike frame on craigslist for $40 a few months later, which was helpfully labelled 'mystery green frame'. I also got handlebars from a Bridgestone bike I found in another scrap pile. I'm still not 100% sure what else I want this bike to be, though. Maybe designing it with a folding fork so it can fit width-wise in my Honda Fit's rear footwell.