Super-secret Skunkworks Bike Project #1

As I hinted, yesterday, I have been working on a couple of personal projects in between every thing else I've been doing. Gotta figure out some way to use up all of that spare time!

This one is finished enough to show to the world. It may get a bit of fine-tuning, in the future, and it may not. It's quite usable and fun, as is.

I bought this, last year, as a 24" wheeled mountain bike, complete with a double crankset and 5 speed freewheel and derailleurs. It struck me odd that the bike had sidepull brakes, rather than cantilevers, but I bought it just because it was all chrome.

Raleigh American (RAMPAR) was originally a licensing agreement between "real" Raleigh and Huffy, to sell BMX bikes and parts with the Raleigh nameplate. Eventually, Huffy sold the name and business out to Derby, and the whole American series of Technium bikes (and other, Asian-built, frames) was born.

This bike was built during the Rampar years, and I suspect they just added cable stops and water bottle cage mounts to their cruiser frame. The more I looked at it, the more I wanted to convert it.

So, I bought the old-school handlebar, stem and brake levers from Richard, down at Cycle Analyst, and ordered an NOS Robinson cruiser fork off of the Bay of E. Add one BMX freewheel and chain, and , Voila; a 24" BMX cruiser.

Of course, I now have too much money into it to sell it at a profit, so I guess I'll have to ride it a bit and get some use out of it. I just tooled up and down the block a couple of times, and it's a blast to ride. I had forgotten how much fun BMX bikes are, and having one a little more in scale to my size than the 20"-wheeled versions is even more fun.

Coming soon: SSBP #2

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