Ok, I keep noticing a pattern with me. I say "I'm going to sit out this year's Build Off," whichever Build Off I'm referring to, then I start fiddling with a bike that'd be a perfect candidate for one of these competitions. Back in October, I started building this 1952 Schwinn Hornet as a quick-and-dirty "street bomber" bike, called
The Ratical Rustin' Hornet. My plan was to throw this bike together in 10 days for a local bike cruise that was supposedly happening on October 30th.
Long story short, things didn't go as planned. I was only able to get the bike half-assembled before realizing that I'd have to take it apart again and fix or redo some parts of the bike.
Now that I've missed my initial deadline, and I need to take the bike apart again, I'm thinking of building this Schwinn as an "all-terrain" klunker/bomber bike; something I could ride on dirt, gravel, or even paved trails. I've got some other wheels and mountain bike tires that I think would look good on this bike, and I think it'd be nice to try something different and build a bike for off-road use. So, why not enter it into the Off Road Build Off?
The one concern I have is whether or not this bike would qualify for the ORBO. As the rules for the ORBO state: "
This is not a build-off for your everyday cruiser, perfect restoration, or your ride to the shops bikes... This is for bikes that are meant to be ridden hard and fast, jumped, skidded and abused in an OFF ROAD setting!"
I'm not a "hard and fast" kind of rider, and if I had to pick one or the other, I'd choose "fast." I don't like to jump or abuse my bikes, and the only skidding I do is locking up the coaster brake to leave a mark on the pavement. I just want to build this bike to handle some flat dirt/gravel trails that my other bikes can't. I'm sticking to a single-speed coaster brake, so I'm not climbing hills or going faster than maybe 15mph at most with this bike. So what I want to know is whether that would disqualify me from entering my Schwinn into the ORBO? If I don't meet the qualifications, that's all well and good, as I can just post my progress on the thread I already have going for this bike. Still, it'd be fun to enter a different category for the Winter Build Off than what I normally do.