Bikes for friends

One to tinker, always ready for a project and a shed full of parts...

Since having our first kiddo our network of mum/dad friends has grown and most of them see us riding bikes constantly and we end up helping them get on the road.

I think to date we have gifted 3 abus smiley lids for birthdays, built one bike and am just starting another;

The black panther!

45 minute drive and £10 later, we have a frameset

This is for Steve, needs to cruise with his son and ride to work.

Will nick some parts off the rockhopper in the shed and off his current bike (that’s too small, barely works and is not comfortable)

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Great stuff, spreading the word and setting an example that it's possible! And then actually providing the bikes as well... excellent. Never heard of that frame before.

This was for daisy, Steve’s OH a year or two back, think I paid £10 for the bike and spent £30 just adding some bars/grips, recable, brake pads, guards and rack!

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Turns out the black panther has an oversize headtube?! About 37mm internal... so will hunt for a headset but use the rockhopper for Steve

“Rockhopper in the shed” has made me go “OH RILLY?” (I’m building a ‘99 Rockhopper for my kid).

Meanwhile: Can’t the Panther headset be rebuilt? What’s wrong with it?

Panther headset is passable, but not perfect

ah, that’s a shame. 1 1/4” threaded? I think I’ve seen something like that on modern alu city/leisure bikes (I had a Giant Expression N3 for example).

I just bought a Chris King headset for our tandem that has a 1 1/4'' threaded headset, which also goes by the name EC37, so could be the same. The CK was expensive (but worth the investment for the tandem in the long run), but I could literally not find anything else. I hope you have better luck than me.

I’ll probably just eBay the frameset if I can’t find anything, I’m not into CK and that kinda money is wasted on projects like these!

Oh dear!

Just cracking into this and found a nice crack in the chainstay!

Back to using the black panther!

Trying to find a headset / salvage the original, a bit annoying as I’d got everything ready to go!

okay,black panther nearly done, just got to take care of the stuck post. have been dosing lube for the last week but seems no resolve.

Caustic soda fun i guess!

Gave up on the seatpost, taking too long to resolve!

Picked up this sweet wagon , 1994 ish, collected this pm and new owner stoked being able to ride to work / with kiddo again

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Class. Nice paint up close!

I am
Sure I have missed a bike or two from here!

Any how; last weeks trip out and a friends kiddo has a family hand me down first pedal bike... it’s all very pretty but the sweep on the bars make it impossible to control, especially at low speeds, aka the hardest bit!

A cheeky marketplace find, given the once over; pair of grips and tyres and ready for hand over tomorrow!

Ft. My Little human on the test ride, she’s becoming quite well attuned to bikes these days, apparently the front brake didn’t feel so good so we tweaked that!

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Turns out I have definitely missed at least two updates; will try find the photos but;

Nhs colleague of wife; bike stolen, needs to ride to work.

Found a £10 beaut about 10 miles west, towed it home on our Brompton electric and fixed it up with a fresh set of cruise bars, grips, saddle, rack and guards. Complete with a new lock and lights! She was over the moon!

Next; a drive up to Bristol, a mum friend who had been donated a complete POS from a friend; old Argos thing!

Managed to buy a lockdown purchase used 2 times! £350 Liv, complete with guards and a rack to carry her kiddo, well happy, no parts needed for that one!

I wish Isla bikes didn’t come with one off hard to find skinny tyres when you could fit something like these...

My kiddo has some Conti double fighters in 1.75” and these are so much nicer too!

Service, new tyres and trim that ridiculous cable!

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