My winter project --
This time of year is rough for me. Its cold, I sit on my trainer for hours and hours, There is no racing going on, so I sit and think about racing, training, riding, and
blinging out my bikes. As my mind wonders, it the
blinging out my bikes part that gets me into trouble. I think about all the cool carbon fiber bits I could get to make me that much faster, the bike that much lighter, and of course that much sexier! It is this obsession that drains my wallet and puts more mental anguish on myself as I try to find ways to not only
justifying spending hundreds or thousands of dollars, but ways to do it! So this year I decided to take on a different approach. I have been wanting to buy a
cyclocross single speed, but like everything else -- I don't really need it or can afford it. So I thought, why not build one from scratch. The way they use to build
cyclocross bikes. Take a road bike and
bastardize it!!! So this is where I am at.
You can't start a traditional
CX SS without using a frame for the era of building a bastardized
CX'er the 70's. Before big name bike companies started offering off the shelf CX bikes in more recent years, you had 2 options. Have one custom built by your local frame builder, or convert a road bike. Option 2 was always the cheapest! So this is where it starts, with a donated 1978 Schwinn Super Le Tour 12.2 road frame (Thanks Dave T.) .....My journey begins.
The frame was a sexy red, but years of neglect, caused some minor rusting around the seat tube collar. I had to take off all the
ancient components, and decided that the paint was rough enough along with the rust, that if I was going to take this project seriously I would need to have it stripped. So I took it into the shop for some "
government work" and had the frame sand blasted. I was blown away by the quality of the bare frame. No deep rust or dents, and the brazing was unbelievable!
The next step in making a true
CX'er was to add on the all important braze on
Canti bosses on the rear triangle, and remove the chain stay cable stop, and relocate the brake cable stops from the bottom of the top tube to the top of the top tube for comfortable shouldering of the bike during hill run ups. Dave at
BFB was able to order me a bag of braze-on bosses and hooked me up with Stephens Custom Welding in Port
Huron relocate the stops and weld on the bosses. Man they did a great job!
I got the frame home and did some minor sanding an began my quest to have it painted. But I have since changed my mind to have it powder coated. Painting would have cost me $125 -$200 bucks !!!!! No thanks. I can get a 2 coat powder coat from Superior Powder Coating in
Fenton, Mi done for $75 bucks for any color or style under the sun. I am taking the frame to them Saturday and hope to have it back early next week to
finally start the build process.
When I get it back and complete, I will post up the final steps and results, along with build specs. But I don't want to give too much away... It is going to be sweet!
