Hi all, so where do I start?
I'm a motorcycle mechanic by trade and I do love motorcycles, but I've also been into bicycles forever too.
I never set out to build a rat rod bike. . . It was more of a case of fixing a bike while trying to keep it cheap (which I guess is what rat rod is all about).
I came across an old MTB that was on the footpath (thrown out for the annual Council pick-up). I took it home and realised it simply needed front wheel bearings (worth about AUD$3.00 for the pair) and a set of tyres. Which could have been super cheap too, but I'm a hot rod loving fool and ended up buying white walls.
So here I am, with a bike that has sparkling new white-walls, but is otherwise a horrible looking thing, but none the less, I'm getting people going "Wow! What sort of bike is that". I found this hilarious especially as some of these people worked in shops that specialised in selling expensive, trendy, poser "custom" bicycles. They gave me all sorts of advice on what components I should buy to upgrade this tired, old (and cheap) bike and make it "better" and I quickly found they just didn't get that I simply wanted a bike. I was satisfied that it worked and if I could make it look good (in my eyes) then that was a bonus. If I wanted a bike along the line of what they where talking about I would have started with a much better quality bit of kit to build on.
Anyway I happily rode my crappy bike (with shiny whitewalls) to and from work everyday without another thought, until a bit of luck meant I could get some stuff powder coated red for free. . . That was it. Bike parked, rims off! (told you I was a hot rod loving fool) and that was the start of my build in ernest I guess.
While researching I kept stumbling upon topics from this forum and I was seeing clever, original ideas, so here I am.
Here's a pic of the bike as I found it. It's currently in pieces and a work in progress, but I figure on this is something for the Build Diary forum.
I'm a motorcycle mechanic by trade and I do love motorcycles, but I've also been into bicycles forever too.
I never set out to build a rat rod bike. . . It was more of a case of fixing a bike while trying to keep it cheap (which I guess is what rat rod is all about).
I came across an old MTB that was on the footpath (thrown out for the annual Council pick-up). I took it home and realised it simply needed front wheel bearings (worth about AUD$3.00 for the pair) and a set of tyres. Which could have been super cheap too, but I'm a hot rod loving fool and ended up buying white walls.
So here I am, with a bike that has sparkling new white-walls, but is otherwise a horrible looking thing, but none the less, I'm getting people going "Wow! What sort of bike is that". I found this hilarious especially as some of these people worked in shops that specialised in selling expensive, trendy, poser "custom" bicycles. They gave me all sorts of advice on what components I should buy to upgrade this tired, old (and cheap) bike and make it "better" and I quickly found they just didn't get that I simply wanted a bike. I was satisfied that it worked and if I could make it look good (in my eyes) then that was a bonus. If I wanted a bike along the line of what they where talking about I would have started with a much better quality bit of kit to build on.
Anyway I happily rode my crappy bike (with shiny whitewalls) to and from work everyday without another thought, until a bit of luck meant I could get some stuff powder coated red for free. . . That was it. Bike parked, rims off! (told you I was a hot rod loving fool) and that was the start of my build in ernest I guess.
While researching I kept stumbling upon topics from this forum and I was seeing clever, original ideas, so here I am.
Here's a pic of the bike as I found it. It's currently in pieces and a work in progress, but I figure on this is something for the Build Diary forum.
