PurpleFrog
Kona Fan
So. Long time away from retrobikes and my retro bike for me. Had a lot of stuff to sort out and have been living at the address where I keep my modern bike, and where there isn't much room for another. But after I finished clearing out the Other Place, my Lava Dome made it down here. I've decided to lend it to my best friend, The Fraggle for use as a commuter. Because of a wrist problem he needs a very high bar position - the archetypal "vicar's bike" position - so after some lateral thinking I replaced the quill stem with an ahead converter and fitted a BMX stem and bars. The bars are cromo and you could use them as a crowbar. The stem is two solid blocks of hardened aluminium. The result looks like this:
The paint came up really well after I sprayed it with GT85. I used the black Gorilla tape (like Duck tape but MUCH stronger) to hold notes to the bike and to lock the front wheel in position while it was on the stand. I left it on afterwards because it looks so damn Chris Foss:
Look at the TBG badge - this is an EARLY Lava Dome!
I've Old Skooled the front brake with a hand adjusted straddle cable instead of using a Shimano pre-cut cable. Plus I've added a fork mounted brake hanger (nicely enough this is modern Kona hardware.) Together they've transformed the front brake. There's no canti squeal or chatter (switching o a fork mounted hanger is supposed to avoid this) just effortless squashy power with lots of modulation - the brake now feels almost hydraulic. Tomorrow I'll put big curving Mountain Kool Stop Pink & Blacks on.
Compared to the position that it is burned into my brain for this type of bike, my head was about three feet higher up. This feels very, very VERY odd - like I'm sitting on top of someone elses shoulders while I ride.
The leverage from the wide (88cm!) bars is huge. But the bike has lost none of its agility - which was my only real worry, because of the centre of gravity change - so an almost forceless hand movement on the bars can put it into a screaming turn. The huge bars also make it really easy to stand and accelerate and they're very confidence inspiring for descending stairs. They also - and I was expecting the opposite of this - make it easy to get my bum way back of the seat when braking.
The best way I can describe the *feel* of the bike is to say that it feels like a kid's bike, but super-powered. Very turn-y, very accelerator-y, very friendly to riding over or off things that perhaps you shouldn't. It's LOTS of fun - if you have a Kona sitting around at home and fancy a change, you could do much worse than putting BMX bars on it. And whatever sort of canti braked bike you might have, try one of those fork mounted brake hangers - one is going on my crosser as soon as I get time.
After The Fraggle has had a chance to play with the bike as-is, it will probably get 2.15 or 2.35 Schwalbe Big Apples - bouncy low pressure tyres that give a real suspension effect and super high grip.
Most of all, thanks for all the hints and tips when I was getting to grips with the basics of Doing Stuff To Bicycles.
(And this was a bike that I meant to put drops on and turn into a 26" crosser until I lucked into a real crosser cheap on ebay!)
The paint came up really well after I sprayed it with GT85. I used the black Gorilla tape (like Duck tape but MUCH stronger) to hold notes to the bike and to lock the front wheel in position while it was on the stand. I left it on afterwards because it looks so damn Chris Foss:
Look at the TBG badge - this is an EARLY Lava Dome!
I've Old Skooled the front brake with a hand adjusted straddle cable instead of using a Shimano pre-cut cable. Plus I've added a fork mounted brake hanger (nicely enough this is modern Kona hardware.) Together they've transformed the front brake. There's no canti squeal or chatter (switching o a fork mounted hanger is supposed to avoid this) just effortless squashy power with lots of modulation - the brake now feels almost hydraulic. Tomorrow I'll put big curving Mountain Kool Stop Pink & Blacks on.
Compared to the position that it is burned into my brain for this type of bike, my head was about three feet higher up. This feels very, very VERY odd - like I'm sitting on top of someone elses shoulders while I ride.
The leverage from the wide (88cm!) bars is huge. But the bike has lost none of its agility - which was my only real worry, because of the centre of gravity change - so an almost forceless hand movement on the bars can put it into a screaming turn. The huge bars also make it really easy to stand and accelerate and they're very confidence inspiring for descending stairs. They also - and I was expecting the opposite of this - make it easy to get my bum way back of the seat when braking.
The best way I can describe the *feel* of the bike is to say that it feels like a kid's bike, but super-powered. Very turn-y, very accelerator-y, very friendly to riding over or off things that perhaps you shouldn't. It's LOTS of fun - if you have a Kona sitting around at home and fancy a change, you could do much worse than putting BMX bars on it. And whatever sort of canti braked bike you might have, try one of those fork mounted brake hangers - one is going on my crosser as soon as I get time.
After The Fraggle has had a chance to play with the bike as-is, it will probably get 2.15 or 2.35 Schwalbe Big Apples - bouncy low pressure tyres that give a real suspension effect and super high grip.
Most of all, thanks for all the hints and tips when I was getting to grips with the basics of Doing Stuff To Bicycles.
(And this was a bike that I meant to put drops on and turn into a 26" crosser until I lucked into a real crosser cheap on ebay!)
