Houston Commuter

[Maria Parker]

Here is my conversion from last summer. I have since put about 2,000km on her in daily commutes across the center of Houston (a flat, wet and muddy city).

I used a Mongoose Women's 26" Impasse as the donor. I had a local bike shop pull the loose bearing bottom bracket fro the donor and install a cartridge bracket into the conversion. I used a 22.2mm Black Ops "Lay Back" chromoly seat post w/ shim to get the seat back as far as possible (I am 195cm tall).

I upgraded the pedals to Sunlight cruisers (nice & wide for my big feet), and the tires to Contenental Gatorskins. Today I added an EVO MassLoad kickstand to replace a Sunlight double the scraped the pavement on every tight turn.

This is an amazing bike for the money.

 

[Charles.Plager]

That's a very nice looking

That's a very nice looking bike. The double kick stand is a good idea as I've had issues with my Sofrider and a single kick stand. And for wet riding, fenders are a very good thing.

 

[ak-tux]

Am I missing something here?

Am I missing something here? Can't see the picture.

 

[Charles.Plager]

Hi Ak-tux,
Long time no see.

Hi Ak-tux,

Long time no see.

It's a facebook picture. You may have to be logged into facebook to see it.

Cheers,
Charles

 

[ak-tux]

Thanks Charles!  
Nothing new

Thanks Charles!
Nothing new for me to post of late but maybe I should record a small video of my riding and share

.

 

[bladderhead]

Looks cool.  Real cyclists

Looks cool. Real cyclists use mudguards.

 

[Kenneth Jessett]

Very clever work milcrow, is

Very clever work milcrow, is there any chance of seeing it up close? I'm often on the Terry Hershey/Bush trails, do you ride there by any chance?

 

[billyk]

which kickstand is that?

Another CZ rider interested in a 2-leg kickstand.

What brand is yours? Is it heavy? What's the distance from the mount to the ground? How stable is the bike when parked on the kickstand? Any tendency for the front wheel to flop around?

Thanks ... BK

 

[Jake514]

milcrow,
Very nice.  Did you

milcrow,

Very nice. Did you do the conversion work yourself or at the LBS? Are there any local Houston shops that work on Cruzbikes?

 

[Charles.Plager]

Hi Jake514,Take a look at

Hi Jake514,

Take a look at this thread for info about conversions. If you don't want to do it yourself, print out the instructions and take them with you to different bike shops. I'm sure you can find someone who would help you out.

You can also show them this time-lapse video:

Cheers,
Charles

 

[Jake514]

cplager:


I thought the conversion would take a lot longer than the 1:27 it took Charles!

Seriously - thanks for the informative video and conversion information. I have much to learn and decide.

 

[John Tolhurst]

The quickest I did a

The quickest I did a conversion was doing a second on a frame I'd already done one on. Essentially it is stripping and rebuilding the bike. It took me 3 hours as I recall.

 

[michael.brombacher]

Houston

Hi there

I think I saw you near the Menil the other day. I am really interested in building/buying a bike like yours. Any tips? How much would it cost me? Which shop do you reccomend tkaing it to put it together?

thanks!