Jerusalem Conversion

[robolion]

Hello everybody,

Just over a year ago I started seriously considering ordering the cruzbike conversion kit. It took another few months for it to arrive, to buy a new bike to put it on, and then to do final tweaks, but now I am finally ready to present the first blue and white (i.e. Israeli) cruzbike!

Some technical details:
Shimano 7 speed cassette (28/24/22/20/18/16/14), triple chainring (48/40/28), 175mm crank.
Tried to get a mega-range cassette, but my LBS ran into trouble with chain length.
Front tire is now an offroad for a little extra traction on Jerusalem's hills.

I have added a small upholstered pad on the elbow of the handlebar mount, it scared me to have something that hard pointing directly at my upper chest in case of an accident.

I ride it daily across town to work and back -- approximately 8k each direction. It gets lots of cheers, and jeers. At first the hills were really difficult, but a combination of getting into better shape, and finding the right 'cross country skiing' / counterWobble to put on the handlebars, and I can do any hill.

My only real complaint is the lack of ventilation for my back. Hopefully I will be able to upgrade my seat cushions to 'Ventisit' material soon. I also plan to add power grips on the pedals.

 

[Mark B]

Nice job!!

Mark

 

[defjack]

That is a nice clean build it even has the right kind of bars. Jack

 

[robolion]

Some more recent photos of me on the BWC (blue and white conversion):

Note the off-road tire in front, and the jeans-cloth crash pad on the handlebar elbow.

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If you like what you see, come donate in my honor to the Alyn Hospital in Jerusalem http://www.alynride.org

 

[buyagain]

Sweeeet Ride, Robo;
But poor example of safety. Where is your helmet and at least tennis shoes? LOL

I'm waiting on my kit to come in so forgive me for being a little testy. LOL

Are those the original peddles? My instincts tell me that I should change mine out for more free wheeling ones. what do you think?
Are those 1.5 inch tires or 2 inch wide? Mine are 2 inch (40 lbs per sq ") so I think they have to go too.

Bob

 

[teacherbill]

buyagain wrote: Sweeeet Ride, Robo;
But poor example of safety. Where is your helmet and at least tennis shoes? LOL

I'm waiting on my kit to come in so forgive me for being a little testy. LOL

Are those the original peddles? My instincts tell me that I should change mine out for more free wheeling ones. what do you think?
Are those 1.5 inch tires or 2 inch wide? Mine are 2 inch (40 lbs per sq ") so I think they have to go too.

Bob

Suggestion to start with the big tires and after you have it under control ride an additional hundred miles starting and stopping as many times as possible with out pulling an "Arte Johnson." Then you can go to a higher pressured tire. These are the major suggestions that were given to me as I started down the conversion pathway.

 

[buyagain]

Points taken, Teacherbill. Thanks
Especially in that it will save me some money to wait a little while on the tires.

I sure don't want to end up like Arte Johnson. :!:
BTW......Who is Arte Johnson? :lol:

 

[thadolius]

buyagain wrote:
I sure don't want to end up like Arte Johnson. :!:
BTW......Who is Arte Johnson? :lol:

He was an character/actor on the 70's TV show "Laugh In" who would pedal a small child's tricycle to a stop & then fall over to the side. (It is synonymous with a classic zero-speed crash.)

 

[buyagain]

Robolion;
If you ever check back here, this might be the answer to your sweaty back the Pricey Ventisit solution. Just check in the Conversion Tread and look for the title "Sweaty seats".

Regards

Bob

 

[jimlake2]

Quote: Front tire is now an offroad for a little extra traction on Jerusalem's hills.

Are you riding gravel roads? According to Sheldon Brown -

"Bicycle tires for on-road use have no need of any sort of tread features; in fact, the best road tires are perfectly smooth, with no tread at all!

Unfortunately, most people assume that a smooth tire will be slippery, so this type of tire is difficult to sell to unsophisticated cyclists. Most tire makers cater to this by putting a very fine pattern on their tires, mainly for cosmetic and marketing reasons. If you examine a section of asphalt or concrete, you'll see that the texture of the road itself is much "knobbier" than the tread features of a good quality road tire. Since the tire is flexible, even a slick tire deforms as it comes into contact with the pavement, acquiring the shape of the pavement texture, only while incontact with the road.

People ask, "But don't slick tires get slippery on wet roads, or worse yet, wet metal features such as expansion joints, paint stripes, or railroad tracks?" The answer is, yes, they do. So do tires with tread. All tires are slippery in these conditions. Tread features make no improvement in this."

Admittedly you are riding your conversion, which looks very nice. Kudos. I'm still waiting to get the parts that will enable me to ride mine.