Hello my fellow builders. Sometimes live is happening and bikes are building themselves. This is one of this occasions. Originally I planned to build a trike with an egg-shaped front basket, hence all the egg-puns, but then my live really got complicated and the build went down a completely different road: I will move to Berlin in a few days and I needed a suitable bike to take me to the train station and to take it with me on public transport for free. I needed a folder. As I did this before, I knew what I had to do and went at it. But with the big move ahead, money was scarce and this build had to be cheap and mostly stock parts. In all (without tools) I spent about 60 Euros on this bike, which is very much ok.
But enough preface, here comes the final product of my journey to the finish line of the build off 13:
Taken apart it looks like this:
As I mentioned above, my intent was to build a bike suitable for short rides in the city, from and to the S-Bahn (public transport), which is allowed to be transported for free (once folded it counts as luggage and is free of charge). I wanted a short wheelbase, hence the 26" wheels and as few cables and wires as possible (single speed, kick back brake, front brake, lights with integrated battery). The look should be ratty, so that it would blend in, when left behind at the railway station. And all that for as little money as possible...
This bikes handling is very good. It turns on a dime, but you have to be careful in high speed turns, because the ground clearance of the pedals is around 7cm only. It's definitely a pedal scraper...
The transmission is perfect for my actual uphill downhill terrain I have now. For Berlin I'll probably make the chain longer and put it on the larger chainring to have more speed on the flat land.
The folding process works fine for me, as I'm already used to it. This time I added some straps in strategic places to make the carrying of the folded bike a bit easier.
For the overall size of the bike I have made some comparison shots with another bike (the Capitan, since they are cousins..) but it's about 10cm shorter then most of my other bikes. And the overall look is the one of a classic railway station beater bike.....
So I can say all my goals achieved and all that amidst all the other stuff going on like exams, flathunting, packing up our flat, farewell parties....
The build thread
Here you can jump directly to the step-by-step for the Kee-Klamp installation
That's what I started with:
Here's what's the omelette is made of:
Stock parts:
But enough preface, here comes the final product of my journey to the finish line of the build off 13:
The EggBeater
Taken apart it looks like this:
As I mentioned above, my intent was to build a bike suitable for short rides in the city, from and to the S-Bahn (public transport), which is allowed to be transported for free (once folded it counts as luggage and is free of charge). I wanted a short wheelbase, hence the 26" wheels and as few cables and wires as possible (single speed, kick back brake, front brake, lights with integrated battery). The look should be ratty, so that it would blend in, when left behind at the railway station. And all that for as little money as possible...
This bikes handling is very good. It turns on a dime, but you have to be careful in high speed turns, because the ground clearance of the pedals is around 7cm only. It's definitely a pedal scraper...
The transmission is perfect for my actual uphill downhill terrain I have now. For Berlin I'll probably make the chain longer and put it on the larger chainring to have more speed on the flat land.
The folding process works fine for me, as I'm already used to it. This time I added some straps in strategic places to make the carrying of the folded bike a bit easier.
For the overall size of the bike I have made some comparison shots with another bike (the Capitan, since they are cousins..) but it's about 10cm shorter then most of my other bikes. And the overall look is the one of a classic railway station beater bike.....
So I can say all my goals achieved and all that amidst all the other stuff going on like exams, flathunting, packing up our flat, farewell parties....
The build thread
Here you can jump directly to the step-by-step for the Kee-Klamp installation
That's what I started with:
Here's what's the omelette is made of:
Stock parts:
- cheap old frame (Krauter Aluette), meant for 28" wheels
- 26" fork from a ladies Herkules
- set of 26" wheels, hubs and spokes from the same Herkules (single speed, kick back brake), rims from an old MTB
- front fender from the same Herkules
- handlebar from a kids bike (Puky)
- 175mm cranks of unknown origin
- assortment of various unnamed parts from my leftover box (front brake, grips, bottom bracket, pedals, kickstand, reflectors, saddle, seatpost, ...)
- frontlight converted to led
- backlight (former frontlight, converted to led) stolen from "Capitan Terror"
- Cheap tyres and tubes (30.- €)
- short piece of 3/4" tubing (1,30 €)
- and finally the secret ingredient: 4 kee-clamps (30.- €) for 3/4"
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