Like most people I’ve been into cycling since I was a kid.
I remember opening my first mountain bike one Christmas. I couldn’t tell you anything about it apart from it being black with yellow tires.
I remember going for my first ride with my mum walking along side me and my brother. This is when a stranger stopped us to say my handlebars were on backwards.
What happened to that bike I have no idea. Like many of the bikes I had growing up, it most likely ended up a rusting hulk in the garden because we didn’t have the space to keep them inside.
Anyway, fast forward a about a decade and many bikes later. I’ve amassed a small fleet of custom bicycles that have occupied my spare time over the past 4 years.
The first one on the list would be my Duracell mountain bike. I got this as it was being given away as a promotional item. I don’t remember what exactly because I’ve owned the bike for at least 10 years in total now.
I used it a handful of times when I was 17, but living in a hilly valley town made it difficult to use and thus it was resigned to the garden until I moved to Cardiff in 2015.
As I’d moved to the city for university and work. I figured I’d need a mode of transport, Cardiff being a fairly flat city made the idea of cycling fun and easy. That’s when I decided to dig the Duracell bike out of retirement.
Needless to say, the bike was completely seized. I remember there being a puncture in the rear tire when I last used it, but being sat in the garden for all that time had taken its toll.
As I was unfamiliar with bike maintenance and repair (I had never even opened a puncture kit) I was unsure if the bike was worth saving or if I’d have to just buy a new bike, however having a limited budget at the time made looking for a new bike difficult.
So seeking some professional help, I went to my local Halfords store to see what they could do.
As it happens a friend of mine worked there and gave me the news that he could bring the bike back to life and have it in working condition for £55… Bearing in mind I had to carry this bike into the store because it was completely seized up.
Fast forward a week and here’s what I got back!
They had replaced the bottom bracket, brakes, brake levers, brake pads, inner tubes, brake cables and housing, gear lines and housing, front and rear derailleur arms and the rear cassette…
For all of you that are unfamiliar with bike anatomy, that’s basically everything that makes the bike move!
Of course. As happy as I was with the resurrection of the bike, I just couldn’t leave it in its stock setup. I had to make this mountain bike a useful city commuter that can take the urban and the mud. I started out by adding pannier racks and bags.
Ultimately the pannier bags above lasted about a week and the handlebar bag even less. They didn’t suit my needs, and keeping things on your bike while it’s locked up on the street just isn’t a great idea.
My modifications from this point had whole practical influences. I changed out the bars for a straight bar from Brick Lane Bikes and swapped out the horrid grip shift gears for some new combination Shimano EF41 quick shifters and brake levers. Finished off this some gold bar tape… Just because. This setup was then improved with the addition the Takeaway tray, another item from Brick Lane Bikes.
This setup helps me I’m the city because it makes the bike so narrow. I can filter through the heaviest traffic without worrying about accidentally scratching other vehicles, and the tray on the front has come in handy on so many occasions.
Later additions came in the forms of a Pendleton satchel bag for my everyday use, and some metal carrying cages.
While in uni, using the duracell bike. I realised that sometimes I was taking out a really heavy bike built to carry things when all I really needed was something simple and lightweight to get me from A to B. So as a result of this I ended up buying a new bike from ebay.
Brand new this bike only cost me £160 including delivery.
A nice, simple, single speed bicycle with nothing unnecessary weighing me down… The only problem was, I hated the bars on it for some reason.
I already knew what I wanted, dropped racing bars and 2 position brake levers like I’d seen on vintage 10 speed bikes.
I found it a great bike and took its place as my main ride depending on if I knew I’d need to carry anything heavy or bulky.
When I had these 2 bikes up and running my commute to work was only around 500 meters or so, I made a point of living close to my workplace. In fact, some mornings it would take me longer to get the bike out of my flat than it would take to cycle to work.
However, in February 2017. My place of work changed location. Which meant that my 500m trip to work became a 7 mile round trip. Needless to say this was a massive step up in regards to my previous cycling endeavours.
The first few weeks were hell and I still couldn’t work out which bike would be better to commute with. A lighter bike with only one speed, or a heavier bike with the ability to adjust the gears… over time and with a lot of practice I was capable of cycling the route in a best time of 15:30 with either bike. I still believe I could have got that down to less than 10 minutes if it wasn’t for the 10 sets of traffic lights on the way. My health improved massively and my asthma almost completely disappeared. I was in the best physical shape I had ever been. My thighs muscles had even doubled in size!
As of this post I have started a third bike build for the sake of fun. This project bike was actually acquired as the same time as the duracell mountain bike and was in pretty much the same condition when I dragged it out of the garden at my family home.
I proceeded to strip off all the parts I didn’t want or were too damaged to use. This left with the frame and forks, wheel set, front crankset, pedals and rear cassette.
The plan is to get the bike up and running as a single speed cargo bicycle for now, with the intention to eventually get an 80cc engine kit and make it work as a cargo moped! I’ve only got as far as to get the wheels re-wrapped with City jets and I’ve also already started to cover the frame with stickers… Because it’s my project and I want to… other parts I’ve been looking at including this flat rat handlebar rack by Brick Lane Bikes
I know this post isn’t for the purist cyclists put there. Nor is it for the mountain bike crowd, or even the city commuter crowd. These bikes are built to my own, very weird specifications. They all serve a purpose that I need them to. And honestly I do it for the fun of building. There’s nothing more rewarding that looking at something you’ve created with pure glee and pride. Here’s to running these bikes for years to come!
Oxfords Over Brogues. 
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