Story time:
Back in 2019, the local co-op where I lived at the time was tossing this into their recycle heap (pic \#3). They didn’t have any wheels for it, and they didn’t wanna bother with building a set since old steel road bikes didn’t sell anyway. Me on the other hand, I love lugged steel just as much as I love a good underdog story, so I offered to take ownership of the poor thing and was given the screaming deal of “free, please take it.”
The first iteration was an aggressive commuter build (pic \#2). I rode it all over the city, took it around the PNW, made a lot of good memories with the bike. Moved to AZ, downsized from 16-ish bikes to 8-ish bikes.
I didn’t ride it as much in AZ, and it spent a lot of time hanging from the rafters of an abandoned chicken coop. One day, I thought “maybe I should move it into the garage”. I didn’t. That night, a freak tornado came out of nowhere and demolished the chicken coop. The bike was recovered, frame bent, and it got pushed aside till it was time to move again, this time to Maine. Downsized to just 2 bikes this time – my Steamroller and the wreckage of the old Schwinn.
Years later, I figured hey, let’s make something out of this. A friend of mine repaired the frame (shout out to Josh) and a little parts-binning later, here we are! Pic \#1 was taken from my commute today.
by gumption_boy
3 Comments
I literally just posted my own parts bin bike, but I actually paid for my frame, so yours definitely wins trashiest and I mean that in the absolute best of ways. I mentioned to a triathlete at the shop that I hadn’t biked for years after my old bike got stolen. He said something about how cycling is one of the most expensive hobbies you can get and I obviously balked at this. But you OP, you get it.
Singlespeed townie duty is the last stop on the train for all well-loved frames. Nice build!
My first bike was one of these, I still love that blue so much. It always pops in the sun!