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Pink Single Speed for my GF

By MaSRade on 12/08/2008. Bike tags: Fixed gear | Albatross | brooks team pro s | schwinn | single speed | more tags >>
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1989 Schwinn World Sport

Nitto Albatross Handlebars (upside down), Nitto Technomic Deluxe Stem

Velocity Deep V (pink) rim w/Dia-Compe Gran Compe tire

Velocity Deep V rim with generic tire

Sugino Messenger Crankset (65mm?) w/sugino bottom bracket

Brooks Team Pro S (womens saddle)

MKS Sylvan Track Pink Pedals, generic chain

White Industries freewheel

This was my first legit bike project; the goal was to build my GF a pink bike for quick jaunts around town. The process and research was an awesome learning experience; a must-do project for anyone passionate about bikes.

We started with a womens '89 Black Schwinn World Sport (from Craigslist) and stripped the bike down, filed off the brake line clips, and bondo'd the rear brake mount hole. After days of sanding, and taping we threw on several coats of pink, accented with flat black lugs and fork. The research, and assembly spanned several months of a couple hours a week, and about a hundred bucks in beer.

I had a seasoned friend show me the ropes, and help guide the project throughout (thanks Jason!). After much debate we opted for a White Industries freewheel cog, as my GF was hesitant about riding a fixed gear. The bike is mostly used for short rides to the bar, but seems to do the trick!

Mounting the Albatross handlebars upside down gives the bike this unique vintage, aggressive look - but I think that it makes steering a bit twitchy. I've personally only ridden the bike a few times, and feel of the bars always throw me for a loop.

If I could do it over, I would seriously consider having the frame powdercoated. The man-hours involved in carefully stripping, and repainting was overwhelming - it seems like the 100-200 bucks required to have it professionally done would probably be worth it.

Cheers!





People who friended this bike CONDENADO, J Juicy, GreenDream, salsadoc44, immersionroom, iamsomeguy, ohand, bio9, Laurel.Aitken, theurbanspaceman, Dirty Tiger, quicksilvermessengerservice, damiantheomen, PHANTOM, trc, HoldenShreds, mysizebarbie
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oh boner the pink tire looks

Submitted by mysizebarbie on 07/15/2009.

oh boner the pink tire looks so awesome

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girlmachines..

Submitted by HoldenShreds on 07/03/2009.

Thanks for the inspiration. I'm currently working on a bicycle for the lady, it's in the ugly stage right now but seeing a finished project gets me psyched.

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i built

Submitted by the rabbi on 12/10/2008.

something similar for my girl. except with a coaster brake and nitto b603 bars. rides so smooth.

this thing's got class.

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Slap a front brake on, and

Submitted by sexdeathrobots on 12/09/2008.

Slap a front brake on, and relace that rear rim to a coaster brake. Instant-awesome.

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Fantacular.

Submitted by Joshua A.C. Newman on 12/08/2008.

Fantacular.

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Spectastic!

Submitted by Dirty Tiger on 03/25/2009.

Spectastic!

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Shes gotta love it

Submitted by GreenDream on 12/08/2008.

thought about doing the same type of thing for my girl, I never envisioned anything this well sorted.

well done.

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you must really hate your gf

Submitted by broo on 12/08/2008.

to build her a ride without any stopping mechanism

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HA...the bike was def not

Submitted by MaSRade on 12/08/2008.

HA...the bike was def not rideable at the time these pics were taken. Somewhere in the mix of things I lost the stupid brake caliper, and had to hunt around to replace the now forsaken 'nut-and-bolt' old-school style that fits the frame.

We tried to ride (sans brake) to a 7/11 by our house and it was a catastrophe...

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yea i figured this was a in progress picture...

Submitted by broo on 12/08/2008.

but i hope you put front and rear on. SS w/ only front brakes are the epitome of form over function.

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You're totally right

Submitted by MaSRade on 12/09/2008.

We screwed up there...ha. We bondo'd the rear brake hole before deciding fixed or freewheel. There was very brief conversation about drilling the hole back out, but my buddy refused to participate. I'd love to put a set of Honjo fenders on the bike, but I think that option went with the brake mount hole too.

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dont worry about it.

Submitted by larsenf on 01/30/2009.

if your braking properly a rear brake would be useless anyways. to slow down the fastest you should lean back and be on your front brake so hard your rear tire would just about lift of the ground. in this situation the rear wheel would have no traction and a brake there is useless. however a rear brake can be useful in poor weather.

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i'm not gonna lie.

Submitted by Jenn on 12/08/2008.

this makes me hot.

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haha.

Submitted by ohsomodern on 12/08/2008.

this is proper.

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I've seen people try to

Submitted by upthemaiden on 12/08/2008.

I've seen people try to combine different shades of pink and it look bad, but that front rim/tire combo looks great. The pink on the front dropouts are a nice touch too.

Maybe to save you a little time when you wanna paint a bike again, when I do it I usually just scuff up the original paint and use that as a primer/base layer. If I really want to strip the paint I'll put some paint remover(the metal can with an airplane on the front) on it and all the paint bubbles off in a couple minutes, then you can just wipe it all off with a flat peice of plastic or a wire brush. Probably a little toxic though, make sure the air is circulating and you wear gloves/long sleeves.

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You're totally right about

Submitted by MaSRade on 12/08/2008.

You're totally right about different shades of pink. I was having such a hard time envisioning the completed project when buying the parts; I got really nervous that it would come out looking weird.

I over-indulged a bit on the budget side of things (for parts), and felt all this pressure to do a kick-ass job on the paint. We used the crazy toxic paint stripper you mentioned, but it didn't seem to get off the red primer on the frame (http://flickr.com/photos/masrade/2969167450/). Rather than just paint over it, we sanded it for days, trying to get off every last bit.

You're totally right, on the next bike I'm just spraying over the whole damn thing :)

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well the next step after the

Submitted by upthemaiden on 12/08/2008.

well the next step after the paint stripper is one of those little wire brush wheels that you can just put in a drill(or an angle grinder if you have one) and just spin the rest of the paint off of it

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well another bike

Submitted by Timo on 12/08/2008.

wow , just unreal . im speechleess

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