Out with the old, in with the new (vpc inspired)
Posted: February 16th, 2015, 9:05 pm
Hello all-
This thread is a bit of a wink to my good buddy vpc66 and his thread with a similar but reversed title. I sent a couple of older cruiser projects out the door via Craigslist to clear some room for a new cruiser build. By old I'm talking about threaded 1" steer tubes with quill stems, by new I'm referring to a 1 1/8th" threadless set up so I can take full advantage of modern components. One bike I've had my eye on for quite some time is the B1 by Nirve, a mock tank throw back to the old pre-war cruisers. The B1 is a single speed bike with a coaster brake rear wheel and a v-brake up front. One finally came up locally that didn't cost a fortune, I snagged it and immediately started tearing it apart. I was intending to build up a springer seat retro style bike but every single B1 I've found online are all built to that same basic design. So, I sacked that idea and started combing over the bikes on RatRodBikes.com hoping for some inspiration. I saw plenty of interesting builds, some really cool and amazing bikes, but I couldn't find my direction so I slept on it and hoped for some clarity in the morning. When I got up today, sleeping on it worked, I was ready and the B1 went in the bike stand. Here is the initial mock up, the bike will keep the rear coaster brake but with a new hub, I'm going with a Shimano Nexus 3 speed internal gear hub, up front is a Swobo disc fork from my Folsom and I will be running a large rotor disc brake. I figure with the added speed from the extra gears I'd better have some serious stopping power... I wouldn't want to find out the hard way that the coaster brake wasn't enough to slowly and safely bring my clydesdale girth to a complete stop! I still need to trim the bamboo fenders, I'm not happy with the stem and bar set up but I'm on my way and I can envision the completed bike and it's looking good.
Anybody else building a cruiser besides vpc66 and myself? Did you build a custom cruiser? If so, share it!
Thanks!
-D-
p.s. The first photo is from the Craigslist posting, the other two are from today.
This thread is a bit of a wink to my good buddy vpc66 and his thread with a similar but reversed title. I sent a couple of older cruiser projects out the door via Craigslist to clear some room for a new cruiser build. By old I'm talking about threaded 1" steer tubes with quill stems, by new I'm referring to a 1 1/8th" threadless set up so I can take full advantage of modern components. One bike I've had my eye on for quite some time is the B1 by Nirve, a mock tank throw back to the old pre-war cruisers. The B1 is a single speed bike with a coaster brake rear wheel and a v-brake up front. One finally came up locally that didn't cost a fortune, I snagged it and immediately started tearing it apart. I was intending to build up a springer seat retro style bike but every single B1 I've found online are all built to that same basic design. So, I sacked that idea and started combing over the bikes on RatRodBikes.com hoping for some inspiration. I saw plenty of interesting builds, some really cool and amazing bikes, but I couldn't find my direction so I slept on it and hoped for some clarity in the morning. When I got up today, sleeping on it worked, I was ready and the B1 went in the bike stand. Here is the initial mock up, the bike will keep the rear coaster brake but with a new hub, I'm going with a Shimano Nexus 3 speed internal gear hub, up front is a Swobo disc fork from my Folsom and I will be running a large rotor disc brake. I figure with the added speed from the extra gears I'd better have some serious stopping power... I wouldn't want to find out the hard way that the coaster brake wasn't enough to slowly and safely bring my clydesdale girth to a complete stop! I still need to trim the bamboo fenders, I'm not happy with the stem and bar set up but I'm on my way and I can envision the completed bike and it's looking good.
Anybody else building a cruiser besides vpc66 and myself? Did you build a custom cruiser? If so, share it!
Thanks!
-D-
p.s. The first photo is from the Craigslist posting, the other two are from today.