the B bender

It's here, The 650B Mechanic's Bike.

 

The Wolf and I were over at Paul's shop back in August talking about the team bikes for the season, when the idea for this monster was was born. I wanted a cool rig for riding around at the race. Something I could roll to the bathroom, Ho Chi Minh our tent and stuff from the truck to the venue, and something I could cruz to the pits... Swigg Boss was also talking with Mr. Kirk Pacenti of BikeLugs.com about building up bike with 650B (27.5") wheels... the rest as they say, is history.

 

I normaly don't post pictures of "works in progress" but damn I couldn't wait with this one. This is a FUN bike.

 

Just a little background on what's going to be changed before going to the '08 North American Handmade Bicycle Show

The painter didn't hear the Navy when we asked for the fork to be Dark Blue to match our team colors, but Paul and I wanted to build the bike up to see if he needed to make any changed to the fork before having it re-painted (we don't, it's perfict)

 

I also scavanged the brakes from my other Rock Lobster Single Speed until we can dig up some Avid BB7's to go with the with the sweet Paul Love Levers I have for this baby. The Rear Hydro line is a little short so that's why the lever is all funky... we'll take care of that soon enough

 

With the 650B being such a big chunk of early Mountin Bike history, Paul’s inspiration for this came from the Schwinn Excelsior... Check out Klunkers for the ful story on how those rigs changed cycling forever... And DAMN did he nail it. This baby rides so AWESOME.

 

The boss and I went Gonzo with the component spec. hehe, and it's fricked bomb proof. Barring any wacky unforeseen, we made it to last forever. We had lot of help too, Paul at Paul Component Engineering has been one of 'Cross teams longest and most supportive equipment sponsors, and his stuff is totally bomber. He sent us the Hubs, Crank and Love Levers. Chris King is another team sponsor and one of my personal favorite parts manufacture, you'll never see another headset in my home shop.

 

Of course the key to the rig is the Rims, Paul liberated this baby's from the Bicycle trip when he worked there. 36 hole Super Champions, these baby's are so Classic. I can see why they were used as some of the first rims cut down to 26" 32 hole'ers. It was really cool and educational for me to build them up...

Ok that's enough for now, I wanna go ride my bike...

I'm sure I'll blog about this baby again