💾 Archived View for zaibatsu.circumlunar.space › ~solderpunk › bikes › franken-peugeot › philosophy.… captured on 2020-09-24 at 02:11:12.
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My plan is to always have some bike *other* than this one in my stable to fulfill the role of "everday" bike, for running errands around town, carrying groceries and parcels, things like that (the "Finnish Pigeon"[1] will eventually step into this role). The Franken-Peugeot will be used for "just for fun" rides in the evenings and longer "mini tours" on weekends. So it doesn't need to have an awful lot of cargo carrying capacity or be as suitable for riding in all weather conditions as the workhorse/beater. It's supposed to be lighter and sportier, and mostly just a lot of fun to ride. That said, I am pretty strongly influenced by the philosophy of Grant Petersen, and I *don't* want to turn this into an uncomfortable and impractical wannabe-racer bike that's only good for riding on smooth, dry roads. I will install 32 or maybe 37 mm tires so I can ride on the gravel trails along the river I live near, and the handlebars will be adjusted for a fairly upright riding position, so I can see and be seen, and to take weight off my wrists. I will try to add *some* carrying capacity, even though the frame isn't really designed for it. This might just be a modestly sized saddle bag, or maybe a Wald basket on the front (as these attach to the axels and don't need any kind of special eyelets or braze-ons on the front fork, all of which I'm lacking). The drivetrain is single-speed, in part because this is my first ever bike build and I wanted to make things easier on myself, but also because I just like the sheer simplicity, reliability and ease of maintenance that this brings. The gearing will be set modestly (current ratio is 2.33, but I may tweak this as I get experience) because I'm more interested in being able to climb the occasional hill than going super fast on the flats. In terms of aesthetics I guess I'm going for an overall vintage vibe, but because this is being built from whatever the co-op has lying around I can't be super choosey about parts (no leather saddle, cry, cry!). It's not exactly a terribly coherrent build because of this, but most of the parts are French or Italian, and the Peugeot+Mavic combo is very conventional, so I guess overall it mostly has a 70s/80s Euro-bike vibe. That said, the moustache handlebars are a definite nod to Bridgestone's XO-1, and the stem is by SR, so there's a little Japanese influence in there, too. Hey, it's a low-budget Franken-bike, pure pedigree was never on the cards. [1] gopher://circumlunar.space:70/1/~solderpunk/bikes/finnish-pigeon