tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14183237810673740512024-03-13T23:03:15.813-07:00Douma-Dixon CyclesI build, maintain, sell and rent city bicycles.Dorian Doumahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03364794199544461977noreply@blogger.comBlogger15125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1418323781067374051.post-51713593965662696392013-07-03T06:08:00.003-07:002013-07-03T06:08:34.348-07:00The white Mixte townieFinally, here's a great shot of one of the early Douma Cycles bikes.<br />
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This is one of those awesome Mixte (pronounced Mixtee) frames that are known as being for both genders and for both racing and commuting. It <i>is</i> fast - very fast. And smooth. This was the first Douma Cycles bike built entirely from scratch from nothing but a found frame. The frame was lying in some garbage in a back alley, where bike frames and parts are often left to die. Adding cruiser handlebars to it instead of road ones turned out to be a great choice.<br />
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<img border="0" height="300" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-gCjzg21dE_0/UdQffQpFwDI/AAAAAAAABns/AIvwGtPqGUw/s400/120_0176.JPG" width="400" /><br />
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The original paint job was gray and blue, and the gray was replaced with neutral white and clearcoated into durability.<br />
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Because 10-speed road-bike parts are so easy to find, this came together quick and cheap. These steel 27-inch wheels are easier to trip over than they are to buy, because the popular thing to do is replace them with aluminum wheels. I know better than to put aluminum wheels on a steel frame, so this means I have an unlimited supply of old steel wheels that just need new spokes and some rust removal. The rust is, as in this case, usually just superficial. An old steel wheel will last longer, after it's fixed up, than a brand new aluminum one, and it'll have less theft value. A mountain bike seat and long steel seatpost completed this bike's transition into a total commuter, but the narrow road tires preserve its speed potential.<br />
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This was a custom build for a friend, and although it's needed some tube patching, it's been otherwise reliable for the two years it's been in service. According to the owner, it "practically rides itself" and is very, very smooth. It's been all over the GTA, and even the paint job has held up.Dorian Doumahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03364794199544461977noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1418323781067374051.post-52573573463302955922013-07-01T05:38:00.002-07:002013-07-01T05:38:23.639-07:00My "sorry for cycling" bike<p>My own beautiful main bike. I love it so much. I rescued it from the Beer Store in Little Portugal. It was tossed in the bushes with a broken chain, broken forks, no wheels, headset problems, bottom bracket problems, etc. But I knew its life wasn't over yet. After registering it with the local 14 division Police (who are super duper friendly about such things), I put my heart and soul into fixing it up to sell to a friend. Then, at some point, I realized it'd be perfect for me. Even though the frame was too small, I could make up for it with seatpost and handlebar changes. I'm still trying to get the bars in the right place, but as it stands now, this is the best bike I've ever owned. It's so fast and smooth, and it has a great feel.</p><br />
<img border="0" height="300" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-JjLNbIyOTuU/UdF0p_hkqAI/AAAAAAAABm4/5HZBemg5vto/s400/120_0203.JPG" width="400" /><br />
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<p>I did so much work to it. I fixed up the drive system, then messed it up, then broke it, then gave up on it and turned it into a ghetto one-speed (with the cassette still on) and then finally, finally committed and replaced the cassette with a normal rear freehub. The performance difference of having a one-speed is totally worth it! I also painted it pink and then green. Maybe I should have left it white. It did look good. But it looks good Green too.</p><br />
<img border="0" height="300" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-kt-VKwcFOG8/UdF1AIJcShI/AAAAAAAABnA/IFR3zgzoeRU/s400/IMG_5105.JPG" width="400" /><br />
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<p>After awhile, I wanted to give it a name, or at least a title. So I wrote "sorry for cycling" on the side. It's kind of sarcastic, in that no matter what you do on the road, if you're on a bike, some driver will find a way to object and try to punish you for being there. But it's also genuine. I know that our infrastructure puts drivers and cyclists in conflict, making both much harder than they have to be. I also know that, since I switched from driving to cycling, I've been freed from buying enough cars and gas that at least one person has been put out of their job in the auto or oil sector. As cycling takes off, those industries are being affected, which is great, because they're very harmful to our public health, and they need to take a huge hit, but that hit doesn't just affect their corporate earnings: of course it affects jobs. The Auto industry is one of the last manufacturing opportunities for Canadians - which is also wrong and not my doing - but still, I am sorry to those who lose their job because I promote cycling as an alternative to driving.</p><br />
<p>But "Sorry for Cycling" isn't a name... it's a slogan. So I still want to come up with a nice model name for this thing. I was thinking I should label my bikes by their owner's name. At least their first name. But wouldn't having your full name on a bike have some value? I can't tell. I also wanted to name this something that indicated how quickly and smoothly it got me across huge distances... something like "portal" or "tele-" something. Nothing seems good enough. Naming things is hard.</p>Dorian Doumahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03364794199544461977noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1418323781067374051.post-79602541854170769692013-06-30T13:35:00.003-07:002013-06-30T13:35:35.449-07:00DC#7 - The Pink Step-Through 3-Speed Cruiser<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">
It's bold, it's beautiful, and it's the perfect city commuter bike: a 3-speed vintage thing of beauty, stolen from the garbage and, at this point, mostly fixed up. All the things the average cyclist wouldn't easily be able to do at Bike Pirates has been done: the drive train works. What it needs now is new brake cables, pads and housings ($10 and about an hour at Bike Pirates), a new longer steel seat post ($10 - $15 and about 1/2 hour install time), and a new bell, and it'll be good to go. At this point, it's $130, including the $40 Kryptonite lock I bought for it. I'm no longer selling bikes without locks included, unless the buyer can produce an acceptable lock for the bike. How's that for a sales policy? If I finish the repairs myself, the asking price will be closer to $180 - again, lock included. Still an amazing deal, but I do want to leave it as is for just long enough for any savvy cyclists to take advantage of their willingness to take it the rest of the way.</div>
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Note - these pics were taken <i>before</i> I installed the shifting system, so you don't see the shifter or the stuff that makes it work. But it <i>does</i> work. It'll need to be tightened a bit as the cable wears in, but that's an easy thing that you can do without taking anything apart.</div>
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It's a beautiful machine, and it's in great shape, considering. The spokes will have to be replaced at some point, but I offer great and affordable wheel reconditioning services. I just replace spokes as they break, personally, and I can quickly teach anyone to do it themselves.<br />
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When it comes to convenience and performance, nothing matches a 3-speed step-through bike in the city. This thing will rock all year 'round and still seem worthless enough not to worry about. With this Kryptonite on it, you get a high-performance, low-value, low-maintenance city slicker mobile that will take you there, back and everywhere in between. This thing is a jewel of the garbage pile, and has many years of truckin' left in it.Dorian Doumahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03364794199544461977noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1418323781067374051.post-30857502987184390042013-06-27T05:22:00.002-07:002013-07-01T05:15:21.979-07:00Bike frame shapes and gender<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<a href="http://ws.appstate.edu/virtual-tour/childrens-bicycles">"The lower bar is meant to allow girls to get onto the bike without heaving a leg over the seat and thus showing their underpants"</a></blockquote>
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<a href="http://bicycles.stackexchange.com/questions/13826/what-are-the-differences-between-a-mens-and-womens-bike-frame">"Although "step-through" frames have typically been marketed as women's frames in the USA, they're ridden by both men and women elsewhere. This type of frame is very convenient for utility and commuter bikes in urban areas where one may want to mount/dismount without swinging a leg over the back of the bike"</a></blockquote>
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<a href="http://orbike.com/better-bike-fit-is-gender-neutral/">"Think about it, would you buy a car that you had to climb into, rather than step into gracefully, just because you were told that it was a ‘gents’ version?"</a></blockquote>
I've heard so many different excuses for why women should step onto their bikes and men should swing their legs over their back wheels. The long skirt one is the most common. The one that seemed most promising to me was that the step-through frame was designed originally for businessmen who didn't want to break their work pants, and then by the time women started cycling, men had switched to cars, and then after that it became a torch carried by marketing. It's a bit shaky as a theory, but it brings up a good point: using a diamond-shaped frame with any kind of formal wear, whether it's a long skirt or formal men's trousers, is a pain.<br />
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For me, the main differences between step-through frames and diamond shaped frames are:<br />
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<li>Step-through frames are so much easier to carry, mount and dismount, making them well-suited to city cycling.</li>
<li>Diamond-shaped frames are more rigid, so they offer better performance on smooth roads, while step-through frames (assuming they're steel) are more flexible, so they offer better performance on rougher city terrain.</li>
<li>If I'm riding the wrong bike for my gender, I get treated like a bike thief and/or a weirdo. I've been subjected to a bunch of gender harassment just because one of the tubes on my frames isn't ready to get me in the crotch.</li>
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There's so many gender studies things in play here, I'd rather just focus on the practicality: I think everyone should have a few bikes... well, of course I think that: I want to sell more bikes to fewer customers! But as a cyclist, I want the choice and I want the backups. I used to think two was enough, but now I want three:</div>
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<ul>
<li>One diamond-framed road bike with smooth, narrow tires, lots of speeds, and set up so I'm positioned like a racer... bent over for maximum power and minimum drag.</li>
<li>One step-through cruiser with large tires, a one or three speed drive train with a coaster brake, and a basket on the front. And the whole thing has me positioned erect instead of bent-over.</li>
<li>The main commuter bike, which is also a step-through frame, but has medium-sized tires, a one-speed drive system with no brake, and then front and rear hand brakes. The body positioning on this frame allows me to sit back and look around, or bend forward to get some speed up or deal with wind. It's the most low-maintenance and flexible design, and it allows for the most maneuverability in urban situations. If somebody just has one bike and they use it in the city, this is what it should be, regardless of their gender.</li>
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Dorian Doumahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03364794199544461977noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1418323781067374051.post-21215900642136234582013-06-15T11:34:00.001-07:002013-06-15T11:34:24.567-07:00Back in action!After selling my first wave of bikes, I realized I was doing it wrong. There were a few types of work I couldn't do on my own, and didn't feel okay about doing at Bike Pirates, and pretty much had to do in order to guarantee the relative safety of the bikes I was selling. So I put my bike business on hold, while I got the tools and extra education to be able to do a complete and proper build. I also realized that there's no way I can just build up a bike and sell it right away. It's something that I need to do while riding the bike here and there, so that I do a build over a longer period of time, and all the bugs get worked out. I kept having to do follow-up maintenance after my sales, and it was the kind of stupid things that now I plan to catch during my extended builds. So now I plan to take a month or two to get a bike up to scratch, and then I can sell them with the knowledge that they won't need maintenance for a reasonable amount of time. This gives my customers a big value advantage over other bikes. Even brand-new bikes aren't ridden around between being built and being sold, so they usually require maintenance almost right away. Bike vendors even offer follow-up maintenance in their sales agreements, and I think that's an admission of failure. They should be able to sell each and every customer a product that doesn't need maintenance for at least six months, and the goal should be a year and a half. So that's my goal with my bikes. I even plan to lend them to friends so that they can be tested and tuned up over the period of a whole commuting season.Dorian Doumahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03364794199544461977noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1418323781067374051.post-59933918729920907322012-05-08T06:09:00.001-07:002013-06-15T11:25:31.219-07:00How can you tell whether it's a men's or women's bike?Check the gender of the person riding it.<br />
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The only gender-specific item you'll find on a bike is the very rare men's or women's -specific seat, designed to protect the reproductive organs, but even those are mostly interchangeable because those vulnerable organs are in the same place on both men and women. The bicycles I build and use have "cruiser-style" seats and promote an erect posture, so the weight is safely on the butt bones.<br /><br />
The confusion is about the two most common frame shapes: step-through and diamond. Step-through frames were built to allow both men and women to commute to work without spoiling their dress pants, skirts or dresses. The design also makes the bike easier to get on and off, and to offers some flexibility in the frame for a bit of natural suspension. It's a city commuting design. Diamond-shaped frames are less flexible, so they're faster on smooth roads, and more durable on offroad terrain. With a bit of suspension, step-through frames offer better speed on urban terrain. Each frame shape has the same effect on male and female users, so everybody should have one of each. They're for different purposes, not different bodies.<br />
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Men and women have the same physical needs when cycling. All the little details that have been masculinized or feminized are based on stereotypes that fit one's intentions for a specific trip much better than one's gender. So everyone should have a "man's" bike and a "women's" bike, if they want to talk about it that way.<br />
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So what most people think is a ladies bike is actually a formal-wear friendly city bike, and what people think of as a man's bike is actually a sports/highway bike. It's just that people don't think of bikes as highway vehicles anymore, and every product we use has had gender assigned to it as a marketing gimmick.<br />
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So that's the full explanation of why I've been "cross-cycling" for years. Not everything is a french noun. Bikes are genderless.Dorian Doumahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03364794199544461977noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1418323781067374051.post-52793613260281249792011-06-29T17:21:00.000-07:002013-06-15T11:26:34.209-07:00Blue Raleigh Space Rider 1-speed backpedal-braking small step-through cruiser<a href="http://goo.gl/photos/R4dzO0oAB9" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://lh6.googleusercontent.com/-5HOZeAMoQg4/TgvA8ta8RDI/AAAAAAAAAy8/tB6fIYVpEnc/s512/101_0014.jpg" /></a><br />
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This gorgeous Raleigh Space Rider was rescued on its way to the dump by my good friend Stan the Man! It's a lovely 1-speed, backpedal-braked, tiny step-through cruiser that a long guy like me can even ride like a BMX... and it's light as a feather! I fixed it up and sold it at a garage sale for $75. If I were to sell the same bike now, being more patient about it, the price would be closer to $150. Maybe $130.</div>
Dorian Doumahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03364794199544461977noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1418323781067374051.post-5590260990251294252011-06-29T13:58:00.000-07:002013-06-15T11:27:16.543-07:00Get Good Gloves!<a href="http://goo.gl/photos/k24VenXjG0" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://lh5.googleusercontent.com/-7nobe8P73ac/TguHbyHCfWI/AAAAAAAAAy4/NT1BdYblPSE/s512/101_0011.jpg" /></a><br />
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I hate getting my hands dirty. Hate it! And I also hate getting steel wool and bits of cabling stuck in my skin - what a pain! So I nabbed these babies from the hardware shop down the street - just over $3! They work nicely, but they do get dirty, so it's a good thing they're very washable. But I also recommend gardening gloves for heavier work.Dorian Doumahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03364794199544461977noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1418323781067374051.post-49209178282120224612011-06-29T13:56:00.000-07:002011-06-29T13:56:57.590-07:00The purple road bike and the white fold-up<a href="http://goo.gl/photos/JL58grIKhQ" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img src="https://lh5.googleusercontent.com/-Ee6fBh1vPPo/TguHPQrIUrI/AAAAAAAAAyg/OJ4g3wn4sDk/s512/101_0005.jpg" border="0" /></a><br /><br />That there in the back is a gorgeous CCM Concorde in great shape. No repainting needed! It doesn't even need any steel wool work done, which is a relief - I'm sick of stripping and painting for now! I found some great steel wheels for it, complete with perfect tires. They're just in the sweet spot between road tires (too dainty) and hybrid tires (too beefy), and they've got some tread to them for grass but they're perfectly smooth on the road. I could have found aluminum rims to match the ultralight frame, but I'm sticking with my steel-for-real mentality, and I think it's going to offer the perfect amount of suspension and momentum. I don't want to make bikes that are too skittish!<br /><br />And in front, we have a lovely Universal folding bike. What a gem! This baby just needs the front brake re-attached and the 3-speed hub fixed. Right now it's stuck in low gear. I hear that you're allowed to ride on sidewalks with these babies because of their small tire size - a rumor I'll have to investigate. Seems like the only way to find out the truth about that would be to go to court over it - even the police don't know or don't want to tell the truth about the laws, depending on which one you talk to. Sometimes they'll admit to not knowing about the law, and sometimes they'll just lie to cover up their ignorance, but when it comes to cycling bylaws, they're not really concerned with accuracy, so it's anyone's best guess what we're supposed to be doing out there. This is the only one of these bikes where I may just leave the rack on. I'm not sure. We'll see how it wants to be ridden when the gears work again.<span style="font-style: italic;"></span>Dorian Doumahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03364794199544461977noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1418323781067374051.post-29287731077604819752011-06-29T13:50:00.000-07:002013-06-15T11:28:24.149-07:00More bikes on the build!<a href="http://goo.gl/photos/QSxWABlU94" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://lh5.googleusercontent.com/-cDapBNZZeKY/TguHM5VyYzI/AAAAAAAAAyY/VSPNjYmGT9s/s512/101_0004.jpg" /></a><br />
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Just behold all this cycling goodness in the making!<br />
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Here we have, from back to front in the pile:<br />
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An old crackmobile of a mountain bike, just needs a tune-up and some cleaning up, and I'm going to cut them big wide bars down to city-size. Maybe I'll put some faster tires on it too, might turn it into a single-speed if it's fast enough, but hey, this could be my one and only mountain bike for people who want to trek through high park and do some offroading by the tracks or something.<br />
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That camouflage craziness on the next frame is actually tape. Somebody wrapped this monster, then dumped it next to a park near my place. I found some awesome big balloon smooth tires for it, rehabilitated the heck out of the drive train, and now I'm doing the same thing with the brakes. This is going to be the ultimate macho hybrid. Underneath it's red. I can't decide whether to remove the tape, I kind of like it!<br />
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The weird blue cruiser thing got converted in a very strange way, and I'm planning on stripping it down and turning it into a proper cruiser. I'm not even sure what tires this frame was designed for!<br />
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And finally, the superstar of the bunch: This Brentwood Hustler is another rescued-from-the-trash item that came with some great (after the rust was removed) rims with white-walled tires. The frame has a lot of rust damage, so this is going to teach me how to deal with that. My strategy is to aggressively sand through all the rust spots, then use rust converter or just get down to the bare metal, and then prime and paint those spots so that it's kind of spotted, like a leopard! I have a buddy who I think will suit this bike perfectly, so we'll see how he feels about the colour. It's gonna be a classic worthless, fast, sturdy road bike when I'm done with it.<br />
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Update: About half these bikes got fixed up and sold, and the other half got donated to Bike Pirates. So you may see these cruising around the streets of Toronto!Dorian Doumahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03364794199544461977noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1418323781067374051.post-84753447218951021532011-06-29T13:37:00.000-07:002013-07-01T05:19:04.294-07:00My black beauty's busted!!!<a href="http://goo.gl/photos/ys9hrw966C" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-sick39ESbd8/TguHKeT-9SI/AAAAAAAAAyU/BwZKGEaIYb8/s512/101_0003.jpg" /></a><br />
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So here you can see not only how rad my big black stallion of a racer really is, with them belts and stuff, but also: this is what happens when you <span style="font-style: italic;">don't</span> properly remove all rust and apply new paint to seal an old frame! After about a year of riding, this baby just broke on a bump. I was already safeguarding my builds against this by stripping and sealing the frames, but now I'm doing much more thorough inspections and preventative paintwork. I also went out and checked all the Douma Cycles frames that were out in the wild and fortunately none of them had any paint or frame issues.<br />
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It's really important to check your frame for any rust spots and see how far they go by scraping them with some medium or light-grade steel wool. If the rust is only on the surface, that's great! Just remove it, and if you have to go down to the bare metal to do it, then start from the beginning with the painting: primer, steel wool, primer, steel wool, paint, steel wool, paint, steel wool, clear coat, steel wool, clear coat, and you're good!Dorian Doumahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03364794199544461977noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1418323781067374051.post-16664068431843977662011-06-29T13:31:00.000-07:002011-06-29T13:31:15.062-07:00Two paint jobs in progress<a href="http://goo.gl/photos/k36y8Q5VPr" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img src="https://lh5.googleusercontent.com/-BowNwWDa59c/TguHFWJIDCI/AAAAAAAAAyM/p1So113ndrw/s512/101_0001.jpg" border="0" /></a><br /><br />The white one is the green step-through 3-speed cruiser from a previous post! It's in "Recreational White" which is basically a white-ish cream. It's glossy but not glossy enough - so right now it's between clear coats. This baby's been put on-hold while I fast-track a couple of racing frames that already have buyers.<br /><br />And the orange one is an experiment! I found it on garbage day just down the block, as-is. No wheels, no seat, just a frame, and I thought: Perfect. I shall use this to experiment with using fluorescent marker orange. I didn't bother to cover anything up on this baby. Even the chain is getting painted. Mechanical movement will rub off the excess paint and I'll find out whether that's a structurally-sound way to paint in the future. It's also between clear coats. The marker paint is not so stable, so I'm hoping that the clear coats will seal it down and keep it robust. This took two cans of marker paint (big cans) and there are a couple scratched-off spots (I can't handle this carefully enough!) so it might take a third!<br /><br />I'm planning on replacing the grips with old belts wrapped around the bars! I've been wanting to try this for awhile. I wrapped belts around my own bike's top tube so that I could carry it more easily and it's so comfortable to hold that I can't wait to try it for grips! This bike will be suitable for a very small person.Dorian Doumahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03364794199544461977noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1418323781067374051.post-27982219227571752552011-06-29T13:24:00.000-07:002013-06-15T13:04:17.440-07:00Charlie's new racer, from me and Xenia<a href="http://goo.gl/photos/SqwNa11OQ7" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://lh5.googleusercontent.com/-15mKRqIF18E/TgenjocvYmI/AAAAAAAAAuM/DJXITfurdjg/s512/f1010024.jpg" /></a><br />
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I used parts from both these abandoned beauties to fix up the one on the left - it was my first Douma Cycles bike! My friend Xenia did a big move and it was locked up to another bike in her garage after they cleared out. I cleaned it up but didn't rebuild the bearings or anything, as it was very smooth when I got it. This bike got stolen from Ossington and Dundas St. W. about a month after it was purchased, so now I'm including appropriate locks with the bikes I sell.Dorian Doumahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03364794199544461977noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1418323781067374051.post-90728487020656733822011-06-29T13:22:00.000-07:002011-06-29T13:22:05.183-07:00The Raleigh Supreme Step-through 3-speed cruiser<a href="http://goo.gl/photos/Z3p7d1lD0k" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img src="https://lh6.googleusercontent.com/-P-4jy958Km0/Tgenf0v_4SI/AAAAAAAAAuI/Fx_5U4G803s/s512/f1010023.jpg" border="0" /></a><br /><br />This is the last anyone will see of this bike in its previous form. In retrospect, I wonder whether I should have just clearcoated over this green. When I was taking off the surface to prepare it for painting, it turned a nicer green before I hit the primer, but I couldn't manage to get a consistency over the whole surface so I decided to just take it down to the primer and go from there. Now it's in the process of becoming cream and lime green. Very 2005.<br /><br />I removed the rear rack and side basket, found a seat, and what I have to do after I finish painting it is fix one of the speeds in the 3-speed rear hub. Fixing 3-speed hubs is my next learning experience! Now I have two of them to deal with. I want to build racing bikes with them, so you get a classic road bike with the three gears that you need for commuting but without the derailers!<br /><br />If I were to put it back together and sell it without doing anything else to it, it'd be just under $200. It's got about another $50 - $100 worth of work pending.Dorian Doumahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03364794199544461977noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1418323781067374051.post-13350050953444762192011-06-23T09:34:00.000-07:002011-06-23T09:34:38.000-07:00First status update!<b>Here's what I got done during my first spring of operation:</b><br />
<ul><li>Sold my roommate a lovely green step-through 1-speed cruiser for $80. To prepare it, I removed rust from the frame and rims. It was looking pretty ghetto when I first found it, but after some steel wool TLC, it's looking great. It took about two or three hours to get all that rust off. I definitely gave her a huge deal, if I had to sell the same bike again it'd be for $160!</li>
<li>Assembled a gorgeous and classic black '70s 10-speed racing bike out of a frame that I hauled out of my friend's garage after she moved out, and some other found parts. I gave that one to my buddy as a birthday present, so it doesn't count as a sale, but it still needs a lot of work so I didn't want to make it into one, also I owed the dude!</li>
<li>And wait 'till you see this gorgeous bike I put together and sold to my buddy for $90. Just gorgeous. This was the first bike I put together 100% from scratch using scavenged parts, and it's the first proper painting job I've done as well. He says it practically rides itself, it's totally him, and I'm glad to hear that because that's what I had in mind when I built it.</li>
</ul><b>Here's the bikes I'm working on at the moment and how ready they are: </b><br />
<ul><li>I'm most of the way through repairing an old '60s step-through 3-speed cruiser. I got it to the point that it was ride-able and then took it apart and painted it. It's almost finished its cream-and-lime-green paint job, and then reassembling it is going to be kind of a monster. When it's ready, it'll be perfect for a smallish guy or medium sized girl. In addition to the lovely 3-speed rear hub (which needs repair to restore one of the speeds), it features an elegant generator in the front hub, so I'll have to put some pretty lights on it too. What a gorgeous person-mover. It'll probably be $300 - $400 when I'm ready to sell it.</li>
<li>I found a small, beautiful cruiser frame in the garbage along Dundas West, and right away set to painting it in very loud orange marker paint, the kind you see spraying onto the road. I'm topping it off with clear coats to give it a brilliant shine, and it'll be perfect for a small person who wants to go fast while staying upright! Depending on how much work I put into building it, it should eventually be something like $180 - $300.</li>
<li>I've been finding all this mountain bike stuff. Frames and wheels and stuff. So I'm going to build two bikes out of the mess. One of them is almost finished being built and just needs some brake and drivetrain work. It's got wonderful fast smooth balloon tires and is perfect for a medium-to-tall person who wants to move quickly but likes to ride mountain bikes instead of racers or cruisers. This thing is bad-ass and should fetch something like $90 - $150. But it'll be hard to part with! Still not sure what the other one is going to look like, but it'll be similar except with larger wheels and skinnier tires, also very smooth and fast. And it'll be made from this gorgeous black frame I found in the alley down the block. And it'll be pricier, something like $140 - $200.</li>
<li>Then there's the crackmobile I found in an alley off Queen West in some garbage. I think a restaurant was throwing it out. It's got a couple of the kind of problems over which people throw out cheap bikes instead of fixing them. I think this is going to be my own mountain bike, because I need something for rough terrain. But we'll see! I plan to narrow the handlebars a bit and keep the knobby tires on this one.</li>
</ul><b>Here's where I'm going with all this:</b><br />
<ul><li>I want to do more 10-speed racers and keep it up with the single speed and 3-speed cruisers, they're just wonderful and I think they're the most practical thing for people.</li>
<li>I'm not going to be putting any baskets, racks or anything like that on these bikes. Even water bottle holders are a bit sketchy, as are plastic water bottles. This is just because it's a safety thing: Your bike should only be carrying one thing: you. And you should be carrying all your stuff. It's the only safe way to do it. I know it's tempting but no more loading our bikes up with stuff, it's not good.</li>
<li>I want to help drivers who live outside the downtown and commute into work and to run errands by hooking them up with good commuter bikes so that they can add a cycling segment to their commute, to cover the higher-density parts where cycling is faster than driving. I want to help them get more stuff done downtown and worry less about parking. Instead of attaching their bikes to their cars, I want to recommend to them that they choose one or two cheap parking spots that are along their typical commuting routes in and out of town, and then park bikes at those locations. And I want to be able to offer them a selection of bikes that includes expensive, gorgeous status symbols as well as worthless ones.</li>
</ul>Dorian Doumahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03364794199544461977noreply@blogger.com0