Bike Consolidation

Once again, I have acquired way too many bikes. Every now and then I realize that I have bikes which never get ridden because I have what are essentially two or three versions of the same bike, and I only ride the one which best suits me.

So, I've decided to thin the herd, so to speak. But, before I put bikes up for sale I have to make sure that the ones I keep will suit me. As part of this process, I decided that I should build the Pink bike into a fixed gear after building up the Ghetto Blaster V-Link.

After stripping the Pink bike of usable parts for the Ghetto bike, I stuck the ENO-hubbed wheelset from the Cannondale on it, along with the drivetrain. I used a new cartridge bottom bracket rather than the three-piece version which was in the Cannondale. The Cannondale also donated the Mary bar and old-school Shimano brake levers.

I had a set of Avid cantilevers which Brad gave me a few years ago, and they work nicely with the old brake levers. I have a rigid steel fork on its way, but used the Manitou Mag 5 which came with the Ghetto bike.

The tires came from the Rolf wheelsst which was on the Pink bike as a multi-speed. They are Performance-brand copies of the Ritchey SpeedMax tires I had been using for fixed-gear mountain biking (which are now on the Ghetto Blaster. Are you keeping up?).

After years of using the biggest, knobbiest tires I could fit on my bike I was quite impressed with how well the semi-slick design works on Colorado and Moab trails. And, they are quite a bit easier to accelerate (climb) with.

The tires aren't knobby, but the pedals are. Guaranteed to shred my shins at some point or another...

I had been riding around on some plastic platform pedals on the Cannondale, and decided I like them for city riding, so I got some nice ones for the Pink bike. I'll still use the SpeedPlay Frogs, offroad, though. I like being attached to the pedals for log-hopping, etc.

Having the Pink bike set up this way allows the KHS and the Cannondale to go away. The Cannondale will become a singlespeed with a freewheel (vertical dropouts), and I think the KHS will probably become Cafe Bike #3. Both should be very reasonably priced, as well.

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