"铁猪 - Iron Pig"

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SwissGuy

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Hi RatRodders. This is no actual build, but rather a blast from the past. This bike was built in 2015 but never documented here on RRB, but already made several guest appearances in other threads.
As I use it a lot lately, I wanted to give it a place here on this site.

So may I proudly present you "铁猪 - The Iron Pig"

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This is how it looked, when it was all shiny and fresh from the workstand in 2015. At lot of small stuff has changed since then, but the vibe is still the same: the one of an elegant but simple workhorse... But let's start this journey on the very beginning.

This bike cougth my eye on the bay. Some crappy pictures but a very promising description (chinese cargo bike) and I got it for a low price. I took the vendor over a month to finally send it to me (I had to be very insisting) and this is how it arrived at my place back then:
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I got a frame with crank and (open) bottom bracket, pedals, a wheelset (28' front/26' back) with heavy duty spokes and tires, fenders, a stand, remnants of a rod brake, a handlebar with stem, a set of truss rods and a chinese license plate.

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After ordering a (dutch) 28' fork and digging through my stash I came up with this "layout" (the trussrods got ditched later on):

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Another thing I wanted to try on this build was using reflectiv black tape instead of paint (left without, right with flash):
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The frame and fork were pretty easy to cover, on the rims it took some convincing with a heat gun to make it work:
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As you can see on this picture, the frame had already a hole from the rod brakes in this place:

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This gave me the perfect starting point to install a stick shift. I made it up from parts of an old camera lens, a cover from a pocket watch and the rubber from one of the original pedals (they were beyond saving):

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So this is how the bike looked in its first version:

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If you look closely you will see, that the refloctor in the right grip got replaced by a coin. That's because the bike fell over once and the reflector broke. At some time I had kept that coin because it showed the animal that gave me my name... The bear in latin: ursus and the short from of it is a very tipical swiss first name: Urs

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Later in the game I also added lights. Both front (classic Bosch) and rear (Hella tractor light) are converted to LED and operated by a 9V block battery. They both had the perfect patina to fit the build.

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And finally I found also a fitting chain guard:
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Like this the bike got ridden hard over the last seven years:

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In the meantime it lost the saddle bag, the monkey light got stolen (that's Berlin...), the adapter for mounting a kids seat is gone as well (kids ride their own bikes now), it got different pedals and a new fork (bent the old one doing a full stop to prevent an accident with some idiot stepping onto the bikelane without looking while checking his smartphone and having headphones on...). Also the bottom bracket is the third one (last service is documented here). The first one lasted only one year. It was one of these suntour plastic encapsulated ones. I'll never use one of these again!



And when I say that it gets ridden hard I do mean it. This is in winter 2015 with spikes mounted.
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That year I even rode it up and later down our local sledding hill. That was real fun!
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I hope you enjoyed my little pre RRB making of. I'll keep you posted...

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You built a shifter from a camera lens and a pocket watch?!?! Incredible!
At that time I was working as a propsmaster and had a huge stash of this kind of parts in my workshop... ;) Nothing was thrown away, everything, even little parts was stashed away. Some would call it a mess, for me it was a treasure trove!
 
I really like this build. From a distance it is an ordinary rider, but a closer examination reveals that a great deal of thought went into the build. Nice work!
You described the concept behind the build perfectly! That's exactly what I was aiming for! Thanks!
 
That was interesting packaging. Interesting build too.
There is a history connected to the packaging: As I stated above I got it for a cheap price, that also included packaging and postage. After I won the auction I quickly got the confirmation but then the seller went silent. I had to write him several times and even threaten to take legal steps until he finally sent me the bike. Turns out that the postage almost cost him as much as I paid for the bike in total as he had to send it as a special delivery due to the size and weight. I guess he was so mad about that fact, that he packed it like this in a very angry mood to keep at least the packaging cost down to a minimum...
 
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There is a history connected to the packaging: As I stated above I got it for a cheap price, that also included packaging and postage. After I won the auction I quickly got the confirmation but then the seller went silent. I had to write him several times and even threaten to take legal steps until he finally sent me the bike. Turns out that the postage almost cost him as much as I paid for the bike in total as he had to send it as a special delivery due to the size and weight. I guess he was so mad about that fact, that he packed it like this in a very angry mood to keep at least the packaging cost down to a minimum...
It looked like a picnic ham. I have an Arpan very similar.
 
Today the Iron Pig got a new saddle. Because in difference to the bike my behind is not made of steel and the old saddle was bottoming through onto the seat stay...
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Much more bottom room now...
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Got this fine Brooks on a flea market this summer for just 25.- €! 🤘
And it suits this ride very well!
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This will also be tomorrow's ride for the yearly ✨Berlin Lights Ride✨. I'll keep you posted! ✨
 
Today I got the IronPig ready for the announced temperatures below 0°C.
The spiked tires are on and all the missing reflective spoke sticks are replaced.
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Ready for the winter ❄️
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This winter I take part in Frostpendeln ("freezing commute"), hence the head badge. That's s German bike community event in wich all that take part collect and share the kilometers they make on the bike during winter time despite the cold weather.
If you are active on mastodon you can check out our hashtag #frostpendeln for some nice winter bike pics...
 
That is one of the coolest diy shifters I've seen yet expect me to steal that design
Just go ahead, I'll take that as a compliment! :grin:
 
I've been wanting to do something similar with the black reflective sheeting for a while but haven't found the right build yet. Very cool!
The straighter the tubes, the easier it is! :grin:
I did also the rims with the reflective tape and used a heatgun to convince it into the curve...
 

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