rhumbunctious
New Member
.jpg height: 365px;)
Build Notes:
My Cruzbike conversion is comprised of the kit plus parts from three different bikes, and a few miscellaneous store bought extras. It's set up for commuting (and exercise) and the end configuration will probably seem too heavy and encumbered for some, but everything on it represents the minimal functionality I need/want for daily commuting. I don't race, so I'm not anal about bike weight. It does, however, come out at a rather robust 21 kilos (46 pounds) -- but then, it simply means I'm getting more exercise and building up my muscles for when I move to a full-on velomobile ;-)
I enjoyed the build process alot. It took a bit longer than expected, but I didn't want to rush anything and get some important aspect wrong. I also spent time repainting the donor frame and fully overhauling the components. All in all, I'm very happy with the end result -- both functionally and cosmetically.
The frame doner was a box store clearance bike missing a few bits (and therefore even cheaper than usual) from which I used the frame, fork, and rear wheel (though see below about the fork). The components were scavenged from a Nishiki Bigfoot mountain bike (Shimano Deore 8x3). The rear wheel amd rack came from a former commuter bike, and the rear wheel has a nice Shimano dynamo hub paired with a Basta Sprint LED headlight. The tires are a new set of GreenTyre Polyair airless commuting tires (60 psi). Given the geometry of the front bracket, I had to use a standard rear fender on the front as well as the back to get the coverage needed.
The bottom seat pan is mounted by drilling and tapping the steel frame for three bolts. The frame is more than strong enough, and two of the bolts are through reinforcement plates welded over the tubing joins as well as through the tube. This makes for a stronger seat mounting and also a much cleaner appearance than using the hose clamps. I'm left with about 4" of adjustment travel fore and aft which appears to be more than adequate. I originally had the seat nearer the front, but moved it about two inches back after a bit of riding, which distributes my weight more evenly between the front and rear wheels.
The only technical problem I encountered was with the initial front fork taken from the frame doner bike. It was a super cheap Zoom non-adjustable "suspension" fork, where the suspension is mostly just for show, and was very very soft. So soft in fact, that on large bumps it would compress down to and bind into the tire, temporarily locking up the front wheel! (how they can get away selling such unsafe trash is beyond me). So I swapped it out for an alloy rigid fork that the local shop had laying about. I'll probably eventually put a suitable suspension fork on the bike, but for now, the rigid fork is working fine (it's also about a third the weight of the suspension fork it replaced).
Riding Impressions:
OK, so while waiting for my kit to arrive and while gathering the various bits and parts, I had read through the forum, watched all the videos, and had as good an idea of what to expect as one could have before heading out to ride this thing. I had a whole day at my disposal, beautiful spring weather, and a small bag of tools to tweak and tune as needed. I decided to go "all in" in getting acustomed to the bike, and ride it until it "clicked", rather than getting accustomed to it in lots of shorter sessions. The city where I live (Espoo, Finland) has bike paths up the wazoo, so no shortage of room to practice away from cars and such. By the end of the afternoon, I was riding pretty smoothly and with relative confidence. But it definitely took the better part of the day to get there. The learning process for me went like this:
During the first few minutes: WTF! This can't be right. What were those guys smoking?! You've gotta be kidding me! There's no way I can ride this thing. This is insane! I should've worn more protection...
After about 10 minutes: OK, well, I guess circus performers have mastered more bizarre acts of balance and coordination. Perhaps I can manage this with alot of practice. But this is just wierd. I doubt I'll be enjoying any casual weekend rides on this thing. I hope I don't sneeze or I'm gonna be picking gravel out of my teeth... People must think I'm drunk, the way I'm swerving and wandering all over the path... and I feel like a right goober doing this "Fred Flintstone" starting technique -- kriminy, the bike is nerdy enough already...
After the first hour: Hmmm.... not too bad really. Can't seem to decide whether I want to counterbalance pedalling by pushing or pulling on the bars, or both. Toe clips and more circular pedaling would probably help alot, but not sure I want my feet unavailable at an instant on sudden stops. Working on relaxing and letting instinct take over. Hey! I actually wasn't thinking about how to ride this thing for the past 10 seconds! -- oh shit... still don't quite have the hang of this (Sorry lady! My bad...)
After around 3-4 hours, and finally heading home: Nice. I think this is the beginning of a beautiful friendship...
But then the next morning: OH GOD! MY ARMS!!! WHERE'S THE &*%#^@ ADVIL??!!! (strangely, not a single complaint from my legs, back, hands, etc.)
I guess I'll be keeping it... and hope my forearms don't end up looking like Popeye's ;-) ...perhaps toe clips aren't such a bad idea...
