Bicycle Berk

Tuesday, March 10, 2009

The Home Teacher




So I bought this bike from someone down in Provo back in October of 2008. I actually sent a friend (Tim Spjut) over to pay the guy the $5.00 for the bike just so it wouldn't slip away from me. Days later Sam and Alisa Hunter went down there to pick it up for me, they are good friends. Anyways, it is hard to say exactly when it was made but i'm guessing early seventies and it is a Styr, Made in Austria road bike. Since recieving the bike I have done tons of work on it as you can tell. I got the wheels from a guy in salt lake that traded me a couple of old BMX bikes for some cranks, wheels, and two or three frames. I converted this bike to a single speed, dished out the rear wheel, lubed the bottom bracket, changed out the seat, handlebars, stem, and had the before mentioned Sam Hunter machine out the outer chainring to make a clover bashguard that totally rocks. The bike has cross tires and a very cool, totally vintage, BYU bike licence plate. Thus The Home Teacher. I'm still planning on fenders if I ever find the ones I want and that fit. Handlebar grips are probably next.

Saturday, February 21, 2009

my fixed gear


So this is my fixed gear bicycle. Rusty found it in a dumpster last spring and brought it home. After some bartering, she was mine. I'm not a 100% sure of the exact year make and model of the bike but late seventies early eighties is as close as it gets right now. This picture really does no justice for the paint is awesome. Metalic brown that shines in the sun so so so sweetly. I put on huge grippy pedals to grab my chacos and she now has a sweet Brooks B-17 saddle. I have ridden this bike all over and i hope to always ride it, i've learned all i know about fixed gears because of this bike.Thank goodness for dumpster diving! And thank you Rusty for finding her.

Tuesday, February 10, 2009

My house's first bike





























So back in 2003 my cute little wife and I bought our first house. We searched long and hard for over a year, patiently waiting for the right house. When we found this house I spent the next 18 months of my life working day and night along with my father restoring this amazing tribute to the arts and crafts. I became obsessed with our home. I researched and read and asked and poked around all over to find out more and more information on my little bunglow and at last I was able to find out some information about the architect of our home. His name was Adelbert Brown. Adelbert had his own ideas about how his home should be and he did such a good job that one day some other family thought his home was so great they decided to build another home just like it one door south. So i've got the older sister of the two sister houses on my street. Anyways, Adelbert loved his house so much he died right here in the front room one day reading the paper. I hope that he is up there looking down and can appreciate all the love my wife and I have put into this great little house. Also I hope he can forgive my children for slamming thier toys into the 89 year old oak floors.
So the reason I posted this particular picture is because the house in the background is my house many many years later. I'm thinking that this picture was taken right around 1933 because the bike in the picture is a 1933 Schwinn B-10E with sweatheart sprocket, bolt on dropstand ears and the tank shape would be the same. I know this because i've become a bit of a bicycle enthusiats to say the very very least. I really like bikes. I like to ride them, fix them, collect them, and find out more and more about them and it is really all because of my very good friend Rusty. We started collecting bikes and fixing them up last summer and i've been hooked ever since. I'm not exactly sure how many bikes I have but i'm thinking i've got around twenty or so. I hope to have them all listed and catagorized sooner than later and that is the main reason I have had my wife help me start up this blog. So I hope I do this blog justice. I don't plan on loosing any sleep over this blog and if I find myself working on this thing more than working/riding/finding bikes I'll have to let it go so lets hope that doesn't happen any time soon.

Followers