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They're 406. The tyres are 47-406 at the moment. I have tons of clearance and am thinking of throwing on some 50-406 Big Apples so I can balloon bike it. I can get the Marathon Plus in a 47-406 and there is some inherent arguement for running high puncture protection as fixing a flat would be a massive PITA on this thing. The downside of going for the Big Apples is getting the brunt of the forum's low tyre pressure advice brigade.
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If you are running internal gears and a dynamo, then puncture protection is a definite +
You can get the Big Apple Plus in a 55; not sure if they'd fit, but it would look and ride amazing and it's give extra puncture protection over the regular Big Apples.
Last year I ran 23C 451 on my Kingpin and this year I bumped them up to a spongy 28, so I can only imagine what 45+ would feel like.
Your post is perfect timing, 'cause I rode it this morning for the first time since last summer and I'd forgotten how much fun it is!
Thanks for sharing the @brokenbetty thread as well, that was a good read. -
I’ll have to measure but I suspect the Big Apple Plus will be just too dang big. At least the 50-406 Big Apples come with the Raceguard level of puncture protection.
I can get great puncture protection at 47 with the Marathon Plus and with the Big Apple plus in the 55. There are just no bulletproof tyres in a 50 though. Conti don't seem to make anything. Do Panasonic make anything that size? I have Ribmos on the commuter bike and the last set I replaced looked like an experiment with shrapnel - but zero punctures in 18 months.
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Looking forward to seeing how it turns out, specially the change from chrome to black.
Also interested to see how the heights work. I'm 5 foot 2 (almost) so mine's kind of like a normal size bike for me ;)
Best name ever!
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Is the crankset really all that bad and are you sure the chainring is ali not steel swaged onto the ali crank arm?
I ask because I really hate how the steel pie plate chainring on my beater looks and the cottered crank arms it's swaged onto but it seems to be pretty much impossible to wear the thing out. I've ran that bike through 4 winters now, given it a new chain each spring and barely any other maintenance and there's no visible wear on the ring yet.
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@hugo7 It could be lots worse but I'm really not a fan. I could create something horrible but I am trying to keep this functional with some focus on aesthetics. I can always bail out by getting it resprayed or stickering it like a rat bike - which is an idea with some appeal.
@brokenbetty Thank you. I am very fond of the name, it's another of those 3am inspiration things. I will keep posting updates.
@JamesQGM Well I don't expect it to be comfortable enough to do long rides with, although that would be an amazing bonus. I need to be comfortable enough to get to the shops and back without being too much hard work.
@M_V I had to look up swaged so I learned something new - thank you. I am quite sure that it is not swaged. But seriously - those are not spider arms in the pic - that's a solid, stamped chain ring. It's sandwiched between the crank arm and the bottom bracket, and held there with with some grooves, a bit like cogs on a freewheel. It's hard to describe in words so I'll take some pics tonight.
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@M_V - I thought on my initial inspection that this was akin to the Blackburn type of cranks but the chainring may be swaged after all. I couldn't get a decent pic from the back but the chain ring is pressed onto the crank.
It's a 40T chainring which makes it an utter pain to try and find a replacement. 165mm cranks that will fit available 40T chainrings are not easy to find. My options are better with a 42T chainring instead.
I've done some quick calcs and I'm pretty sure that I can squeeze a 42T on there without them striking the mounts for the chain protector. I have about 10mm to work with and the bigger chain ring only adds about 4mm to the radius so I think I'm good.
I've ordered the Big Apples in the 50-406 size so with the 42T chainring and the 16T freewheel on the back I'll have approx 52GIs which is pretty sensible. I can go up or down on the rear freewheel if I am wrong.
A bunch of parts are arriving over the next couple of days so I should be able to start the build this weekend. The crankset remains the biggest challenge. I may decide to replace it at a later date.
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I have already rejected the idea of Mag wheels. Aerospoke do 20" wheels but there is nothing on eBay. I would ditch the front dyno for a 'Spok in about a nano second. I may have to annoy @Object to see if he can help.
Are any of your vertically challenged, drug bearers riding anything that could be repurposed? Mini Corima?
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OK. Time for the obligatory shots of stuff I have collected for the build so far.
For the actual carrying of stuff - on the front I'm going to be mounting the box to the rack using some P-clips. It's 38cm x 31cm x 21cm, so a little bigger than the rack without being stupidly wide. I suspect that this will do for about 95% of the stuff that I'll need to carry. It's an old cheese crate so much more solid than most other recycled box options (no wine boxes or old fruit crates) which are more ££ and less sturdy.
I'm going to be throwing a bi-pod kickstand on to keep thing all nice and stable for loading. I've become a huge fan of these types of kickstands since I added one to my commuto-dad bike. The only suitable ones that will fit the smaller bikes is the one from VO with adjustable legs. The bike already has a mounting plate in place for the current kick stand so that makes things much easier.
The bag is just a cheap racktop bag thing off of Ebay. I think that I won't use the rear rack that much so I didn't want to permanently affix anything there. This one just velcros on and off and it's an inexpensive way of adding extra capacity just in case.
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Steering/shifting/braking stuff is all here. I splurged on a very nicely toned Crane bike bell and some Oury grips. Brakes and levers are from the parts bin.
The bars are very close the ones on the bike now but they sweep back a good inch further. That gives us some more options to accommodate the height differential of the two riders. I did consider some of the Brompton options for bars but none of them were suitable. They were also £££ whereas the ones in the pic were £6. I also considered some monkey hangers for a bit before coming to my senses.
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Front dynamo wheel is here - it's a bottom of the range from Shimano one but for £30 I'm not complaining. B&M 25 lux light for the front although I am still waiting on the the rear light to arrive - both lights have standlights with a 4 minute standby.
Tyres are here but floating around with one of the neighbours. Will have to figure out who this weekend.
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Last pic is of the of 400mm seatpost and the chosen saddle - a PDW Dios Thronous. I have one on my hack bike and it's made out of the same material used to make Crocs and is ridiculously comfortable and utterly waterproof. I still need a 28.6 QR seatclamp to make it all work.
Replacement cranks on order so assembly can start this weekend.
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About
Gettoo - The Shopper.....project
Posted by
@Aroogah
One of the dangers of occasional bouts of insomnia is that you end up reading really odd bits of the forum on your phone at 3am. Which is precisely how I came across @brokenbetty 's awesome shopper project thread.
We recently bought near Peckham and we're committed to further exploring all of the local areas, in particular for places to shop. Plus we have a small child who is agonisingly close to moving on from his balance bike to a full pedal bike and we'd really like to have him ride his bike alongside while we go out and about. What we need is a bike that will allow us to do that.
So here's the criteria that we need from the bike.
Can easily spin at the pace of a slightly distracted 3 year old
Allows us to safely pootle behind him on the pavement and easily dismount when pedestrian traffic gets too dense
Carries a sensible amount of shopping, and more when needed
Is self contained - as in you can jump on it in all weathers and all seasons without faffing about
Is a bike that will work for both the 6'1" me and the 5'5" @longandwinding
A shopper is not really an obvious first choice of bikes to have, but for our needs, the more I started to think about it, the more it made sense. It was a good blank canvas for what we needed.
I poked around on-line looking for some of the more sensible shoppers but they all came across as pretty uninspiring really. Until I ran across a bike shop in Plymouth selling off a fleet of more modern shoppers that they had used for their local run-around/delivery bikes. So for £200 (including shipping) I managed to grab the bike in the pic. It's a 2014 Bobbin Shopper. Bobbin only sold them for about 2-3 years and I think that this was their final year model.
It's brilliant for our needs; front and rear racks already installed, no worries about rust or mechanical issues (it was a bike shop bike), SA 3 speed hub rear wheel, built in mudguards, and cheap! So. Why not just leave it as is? Well there are a number of things that I want to do with this.
Functionally there are some key things missing.
Aesthetically it just looks so fucking twee. I know that's the Bobbin kind of thing, but there's this really practical bike there, dying to get out, but they've spent their money and effort on faux patina chrome on all the bits, as opposed to putting decent kit in place. Oh. And the white wall tyres. And it's beige.
I'd given serious thought to tearing it apart and getting the frame powder coated something moar awesome, but I have been talked down from that ledge so the beige stays. But the chrome goes and gets replaced with black.
So plans are:
I'm excited for this as this is really not like any other bike I've had before I've been chewing it over in my head for the past week or so on holiday and have a pretty clear idea of where this is going. A number of parts are on order already and I'm particularly interested in the dynamo stuff. I haven't had a new project in years either. So. Woo! Go me.
And yes. The bike will be christened Gettoo when this is all done.
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