Hey Everyone,
I truly admire the artistry of those of you who can bend tubing and weld and come up with bikes from a pile of raw materials. I'm not there yet. What I do well is conceptualizing and building. I had the idea of converting a beach cruiser into a fixie. Enter my (formerly mine) Felt navy. I tried selling it. No takers at $400. No takers at $300. No Takers at $250. In the event that you were thinking of converting your cruiser to a fixie save your cruiser parts! You may wish to convert it back some day. Fortunately, I've built a few bikes this year and I had a spare pair of new 3speed rims, Felt Bars, Jerry Springers and HSBC 3 speed wheels. I made up a list of other parts and sent the frame to the Powder Coating Maniacs in Torrance, CA.
In less than a week I had my frame and parts back from the Maniacs. Not a few boxes had arrived at my door with various parts, Felt bottom bracket & cranks, chain guards, pedal, number plates and I even bought a $40 Nolex seat from France. Studio City Cycles did a spectacular job re-lacing the newly coated sky blue rims. Junky Rusty Bikes furnished the tires - just $25/pair. I used a lot of 3M blue tape to prevent any potential damage to the fresh durable powder. The Felt bars were flipped board track style. The "G R" on the number plate are not my initials. A man, Geoff R., heard I was building this bike and wanted to see it. He was interested in obtaining something that everyone else at the beach wouldn't have. In my experience, Felt Navies are rare - I don't know that they sold very well. This one is the only one that I had ever seen in the wild. Since I built it to sell and Geoff had some cash I went ahead and put his initials on the number plate. He deliberated for the better part of 45 minutes between this Navy, a Felt Chief and a near flawless 2011 New Belgium Brewery bike. He chose the Navy - who wouldn't.
Unfortunately, the Navy had been stripped of it's racks by the time it made it to me. Enter Chubby's Cruisers in Culver City, CA. Chubby's hooked me up with a used rack for $6 and a bell for $3. The bell never made it on the bike. By the time everything was bolted on the bike there was no reason to add a bell. No reason to. Geoff bought the bike without even riding it. I already had a backup buyer in case Geoff made a different choice.
The Navy was a labor of love. The day I sold it I began assembly on my revamped Felt 1903 (it doesn't look a damn thing like a 1903) and my Vintage Iron 3 speed which looks a lot like this Navy. It's no coincidence - same powder coaters, same day, same color. There will be lots of differences between the two. Hopefully, I can convince Geoff to let me borrow the Navy for a video & photo shoot that I want to do. One day, I'll learn how to weld. Then I'm really gonna make some cool stuff. Thanks for reading - Gigmata
I truly admire the artistry of those of you who can bend tubing and weld and come up with bikes from a pile of raw materials. I'm not there yet. What I do well is conceptualizing and building. I had the idea of converting a beach cruiser into a fixie. Enter my (formerly mine) Felt navy. I tried selling it. No takers at $400. No takers at $300. No Takers at $250. In the event that you were thinking of converting your cruiser to a fixie save your cruiser parts! You may wish to convert it back some day. Fortunately, I've built a few bikes this year and I had a spare pair of new 3speed rims, Felt Bars, Jerry Springers and HSBC 3 speed wheels. I made up a list of other parts and sent the frame to the Powder Coating Maniacs in Torrance, CA.
In less than a week I had my frame and parts back from the Maniacs. Not a few boxes had arrived at my door with various parts, Felt bottom bracket & cranks, chain guards, pedal, number plates and I even bought a $40 Nolex seat from France. Studio City Cycles did a spectacular job re-lacing the newly coated sky blue rims. Junky Rusty Bikes furnished the tires - just $25/pair. I used a lot of 3M blue tape to prevent any potential damage to the fresh durable powder. The Felt bars were flipped board track style. The "G R" on the number plate are not my initials. A man, Geoff R., heard I was building this bike and wanted to see it. He was interested in obtaining something that everyone else at the beach wouldn't have. In my experience, Felt Navies are rare - I don't know that they sold very well. This one is the only one that I had ever seen in the wild. Since I built it to sell and Geoff had some cash I went ahead and put his initials on the number plate. He deliberated for the better part of 45 minutes between this Navy, a Felt Chief and a near flawless 2011 New Belgium Brewery bike. He chose the Navy - who wouldn't.
Unfortunately, the Navy had been stripped of it's racks by the time it made it to me. Enter Chubby's Cruisers in Culver City, CA. Chubby's hooked me up with a used rack for $6 and a bell for $3. The bell never made it on the bike. By the time everything was bolted on the bike there was no reason to add a bell. No reason to. Geoff bought the bike without even riding it. I already had a backup buyer in case Geoff made a different choice.
The Navy was a labor of love. The day I sold it I began assembly on my revamped Felt 1903 (it doesn't look a damn thing like a 1903) and my Vintage Iron 3 speed which looks a lot like this Navy. It's no coincidence - same powder coaters, same day, same color. There will be lots of differences between the two. Hopefully, I can convince Geoff to let me borrow the Navy for a video & photo shoot that I want to do. One day, I'll learn how to weld. Then I'm really gonna make some cool stuff. Thanks for reading - Gigmata
