By blackmountaincycles,
Filed under: Uncategorized
Four years to the day tomorrow, I blogged about Joe’s road bike after building it for you. Four years ago, Joe was 76. After 4 years and thousands of miles and a joint replacement or two, Joe couldn’t swing his leg over his bike to ride. He came in looking for a new bike with a step-thru frame. While there are plenty of step-thru bikes on the market, they are all pretty much heavy, non-inspiring comfort or hybrid bikes. Nothing that could easily converted to a bike that offers a spirited ride. Well, there was one that I knew of that could fit the bill. Soma Fabrications make a pretty nifty mixte framed bike called the Buena Vista that would be an easy convert to drop bars like Joe likes.
Buena Vista ordered, arrived, built, call to Joe – “that looks fabulous!” Take it for a spin, Joe, let me know what you think. And that’s where Joe’s limited flexibility showed itself. Even with the lowered top tube of the mixte design, it was still too high for Joe to lift his leg over. Back to the drawing board.
“What would you think about cutting the top tube out of your road bike and welding in a new “top tube” as low as possible, Joe?” Joe liked that idea as it used everything he already had and didn’t generate excess. Now I just had to figure out how to get it done. A call to Cameron Falconer, fresh off my recent MUSA disc cross frame production to discuss the possibility of converting Joe’s frame and because Joe’s 80 and still rides a bike and loves riding bike, Cameron agreed. We talked about cable routing, how low the tube could get, and to work Cameron went.
The result? According to Joe, it’s fabulous. I did have to move the seat tube bottle cage to a place high up on the new tube with a Two Fish cage adapter. As I was riding to work one morning last week, I saw Joe pedaling towards me. As we passed, I asked how was the bike. “Fabulous!” And away Joe pedaled.
Yes, the bike is a bit flexy, but for Joe and his riding style, it’s perfect. Ride on, Joe!
Post script – this was the first and last step-thru conversion from Black Mountain Cycles and Cameron Falconer.
(What’s playing: The Jayhawks Baby, Baby, Baby)
« Prev
Enduro
Enduro
Next »
Lever Position
Lever Position
3 responses to “Joe’s Bike”
Leave a Reply
This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.
And there's the beauty of a relationship, whether it be with a friend, an artist, a retailer, or all of the above. If I make it to 80 on my bike, I hope the guys at the Old Spokes Home can help me in such a glorious way. Great work.
People helping people.
This is absolutely spectacular!! I’ve got a litany of medical issues , one of the more minor of wich is a prosthetic leg and a full-length leg brace. Due to my hips and spine being misaligned so bad I can’t have both legs at the same length, they are better than pre prosthetic at only about ¾ of an inch instead of the 1 5/7s it used to be. Being as such my amazing LBS has always helped me get riding and stay riding no matter what even down to sourcing, adapting, and eventually using 2 different length crank arms andna set of VERY wide and VERY spiked pedals to help with foot retention seeing as I have no ankle movement. In the woods I can usually clip in snd use a tree or my hand to unclip it. But in the city I don’t trust anyone else or myself enough to do it. So we made a small toe cage out of metal and some leather straps but it could only be a actual ” TOE” cage. Wich made it infinitely harder to find and in the end had to be custom fabricated by a good friend as well. Basically what I’m trying to get to is that no matter what you need to do to keep riding, it’s worth it to atleast try and having a good relationship with you LBS and some (hopefully) very handy friends in different aspects and you can almost always make it happen.