Rat Bikes! Pub Bikes Beaters! Frankenbikes!

Why is he called Goat?

Embracing the weird with his left-hand drive bicycle there...

(Apparently it was built up with tandem cranks from the parts bin.)

I made the mistake of watching that full screen on my telly. I think I've broken my eyes.

Samson is slowly being repainted. I've been working on the fork first to get good results...think this is the 3rd or 4th strip/respray. Trying different paints (Ironlak Lak and Molotow Premium). May end up getting it pro resprayed/powder coated.

Soon as I get good results on the fork I'm going to hit the frame. Just temporarily assembled it to get some riding in.

Just kill it already :-/

Paid next to nothing for the frame.

100% up to you what you do with it, naturally - just seems a shame. It's not really about the money.

Guess I don't understand. The paint was always horrible on the thing. It's been a city owned bike for 10yrs+ and seen major use.

The worst cast scenario is I strip it down to chrome and have it custom painted and add new Samson decals.

It's not like I'm taking a hacksaw or permanently modifying the frame.

who will think of the collectors?

looks pretty swish like that i reckon.
might 'pink' my bianchi front end

The paint doesn't look too beaten up in that photo. It's your bike though, if it'll make you happier to redo the paint, go for it.

I personally find the missing silver paint with Samson decals over chrome to be more interesting and rad than any brand new Samson paint job ever could. The bike has been ridden to heck and it shows, and it's more interesting because of it.

To me and probably others in this thread, you're just slowly ruining a cool bike.

Ruining seems a bit strong, I agree that the ratty silver paint with the chrome poking through is more interesting than a brand new paint job though.

But it's their bike, it's for them to ride and mess about with and enjoy.

He's totally welcome to do whatever he wants with his own bike, of course.

But he's posting on a public forum, he's opening himself up to criticism as well.

Aren't we all.
I say make it the bike you'll like - it'll last longer with a decent paint job as well.

Fair point!

Readers

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It occurred to me when changing a BB that if you had Octalink/square taper BB you could fit a chainring on the NDS as well as the DS. Turns out it has been done before:

Anyone got two sets of compatible cranks and a flip-flop hub and want to assemble one, go for a ride and report back?

Very minimal practical advantage for massive weight gains, but that's the frankenbike spirit!

Sheldon Brown also built one but he did something more complicated involving hub gears.

No practical advantage for massive weight gains

Surely.

I also don't know if that's a smart plan. Your NDS pedal (well, it's not really NDS anymore if you run a drivetrain on both sides, but you get the point) could possibly unscrew while riding, due to the threads of the crank going 'the wrong way'.

You'd need a tandem crank.

Yeah, no doubt. Same goes for the NDS sprocket.

I also expect that even the most miniscule mismatch in gear ratios would eventually lead to the wheel locking up or one of your chains coming off, assuming that you ride it fixed. Freewheel on the drive side is probably a good option.

I imagine it could be useful when you've got huge torque on the pedals, like a track bike sprint or trials or something, and can't get a beefy enough chain for some reason

redundancy for brklz