Astute readers of this blog might have noticed that I have a bit of a fondness for bicycles. Long time readers may have also noticed that on any given day "my bike" may be in fact a different bike than the one I owned yesterday. Managing a place like Bike Works certainly provides me with lots of opportunities to experiment. Edison once said "To invent, you need a good imagination and a pile of junk." Bike Works is the ultimate junk pile. My friend Mark Vande Kamp put it a bit differently, "you're like a drug addict whose managing a pharmacy!"
The latest bike out of the lab is what you see here. Special Ed is an old Specialized Stumpjumper but, as I pointed out to my wife, my personal bike fleet still remains at three: I have one road bike, one mountain bike and one folding bike. Special Ed replaces StuM2y, my previous Specialized Stumpjumper.
So why replace one Stumpjumper with another? Aside from the obvious "because I can" answer, Special Ed differs from StuM2y in a couple of ways. StuM2y had a red, aluminum frame with vertical dropouts. Special Ed's black, Cr-Mo frame has semi-horizontal dropouts.
Special Ed comes from that brief period of time when people thought putting a U-brake underneath the chainstays was a good idea. In hindsight it seems obvious that putting a brake in a spot where it can get bashed by rocks and gather up all the crud kicked off of the crank is a bad idea but a lot of crazy things came out of the 80's. At least Special Ed doesn't sport one of those neon purple and green Miami Vice paint-jobs.
Even before he knew I was building it up for myself, my colleague Dan Boxer commented that Special Ed looks "like a Kent Peterson bike."
Black tape over the most garish logos. Custom coroplast fenders stealthed up with black duct tape and set up for massive mud clearance. Armadillo tires. Front and rear racks. And just one gear. 46 by 20 fixed.
Riding fixed means I can gladly toss that U-brake in the parts bin. The deraillers and the extra chainrings and cogs go there too. The rear wheel gets re-spaced, re-dished and the 20-tooth cog got stomped on good and tight. Note that if I was building this bike for anyone else I'd probably either go with a real fixed hub with a lockring or dual brakes but I'm willing to trust my own life to my gear-stomping, lock-tighting and judicious use of my big old Kool-Stopping front brake. If anybody wants to know how to do this kind of conversion, Sheldon has a great page on the subject here.
I donated StuM2y to Bike Works Friday morning and sold it to a commuter about an hour later. I rode Special Ed home Friday night
8 comments:
Hi Kent- What kind of front rack is Special Ed sporting? Looks like it uses long screws to anchor on the canti bosses. I have a bike or two that could use something like that! Right now I'm hanging the kids' backpacks and lunch boxes off the back of the kiddie seat. They think it's kinda neat when Dad does a wheelie, but I'd rather, ya know, find a way to distribute the weight better...
Hi jls,
It's a Nashbar Front Rack. I just posted a quick blog entry about it.
Kent
I have a RockHopper frame of similar vintage. It is set up 40/18 fixed on 700c wheels (a centerpull brake on the front fork lines up nicely withe the larger rim).
Equipped with a rear rack and bags, it is my current favorite commuter.
That is a crazy looking rear fender. I am trying to decide what kind of rain protection to put on my bike and have never seen anything like that. Who makes that?
Jason,
The answer to "who makes that fender?" is me. Use the search function on this blog and look for "coroplast" and you'll find the link to the how-to pages.
Kent
Hi Kent
What type of track crank do you use, and can you recommend where to find them?
Thanks
Simon
Simon,
A track crank isn't needed. Almost all my fixies, including Special Ed, just use a standard crank with the excess rings removed and the long chainring bolts replaced with short ones. In this case, the crank is the stock Shimano Deore 170 mm mountain crank. I removed the 36 and 26 tooth rings and placed the 46 tooth ring on the middle ring position with short chainring bolts. Any bike shop should be able to get you a set of short chainring bolts.
Kent,
Ya really hurt my feelings with your "at least Special Ed doesn't sport one of those neon purple and green Miami Vice paint-jobs." comment. I have a 93 Trek 830, made into a "speed cruiser" with exactly that paint scheme. And I just got a matching purple bar and bar ends !
Saweeeet !
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