Bicycles

It was no secret at school that I loved bicycles and that I knew how to build them.  In fact, we had found an old bike shop that had a very large pile of parts in the back that they were getting rid of.  My friends and I went there together, we found frames for each person’s size, and from these I built a bike for each of them with parts which I had reconditioned myself.

One of my books on bikes was about the history and evolution of bicycle design.  I found that most of the “inventions” that were now considered the “latest” or “breakthrough” ideas had in fact already been in existence and use, but simply forgotten about.  Among other things were wheels from the 30ies with twisted spokes which were very stiff, but also quite complex to true, thus possibly why they fell out of favor.

I decided to make my own bike, with a retro look and some inventions of old, purchased a frame, hubs, parts, and built it entirely on my own.  The pieces were out of brass, copper and aluminum. I lightened them, and polished them by hand, as well as created a twisted spoke pattern to stiffen the back wheel, as it was not necessary in the front since there is no torque transfer.  Since this was to be a fixed gear bicycle, there was no need for a rear brake (the pedals are connected directly to the wheel, therefore you brake by slowing down your pedaling cadence).  For legal requirements, I had to have a hand-operated brake, thus, I highly modified and incorporated a brake handle into the existing stem.

It was truly an exercise in style, a sculpture in motion.  It attracted specialists, who appreciated the creativity in the modifications, which while subtle, they certainly noticed.  This became my regular bike and I used it all the time.

Thus, when I saw an old tandem bike left in the wood shop for months, I was understandably curious and asked to no avail.  Finally, I found out that there was an upcoming fundraiser for the Rainbow Children Foundation, and that the school was looking for groups that would want to do something creative with it.  Out of four groups presenting their project, three wanted to make a kinetic sculpture from it.

My group was going to consist of Ariel Vergez, Zack Simmering and I, and as we were examining it, Ariel naturally sat in the center of it to reflect, setting his chin on the front seat.  This brainstorm moment was the solution: Zack and I knew immediately what it meant and, encouraged by the fact that Ariel could easily stretch his arms to the handlebar, we decided to make a lowrider.  Our teachers selected our proposal, but unfortunately, Ariel was not able to join us for the construction since we were fast approaching the end of our studies and had a thesis to prepare and present. Thus, we were a team of two to make it, but Ariel had provided the spark of inspiration!

It was not “pretty” to begin with, and we were looking for ways to improve it aesthetically.  I thought of making a long chain, and made it work by changing the direction of the dropouts in order to put some tension on the wheel and the chain.  For the “cool factor” we decided to add some whitewalls which I found in the research as being part of the subculture for the lowriders. The further I researched these types of bikes, the more I realized how much there was, and how easy it was to find parts.  We removed the unnecessary parts, reinforced where was necessary, modified the shape of some parts slightly when they did not match the new silhouette we were creating, and finally we painted it a “cool” color: bright apple green.

There were 15 other bikes at the fundraiser, most of which were sculptures, three only – including ours – were fully functioning bikes.  The other functioning bikes were, in effect, standard bikes with interesting wheels or paint details, thus ours was very much standing out.  In total, $13,000 were raised, $8,000 of which were for ours.

At the end of the evening, we were approached by a gentleman representing the Lance Armstrong Foundation who told us that they were very disappointed to not have won it in spite of having bought many tickets for it.  Half-jokingly, I told him that we could build another one for them if they wanted, and by the time I got home two hours later there was an email commissioning us to build one specifically for the Lance Armstrong Foundation.  I was an immense fan of Lance Armstrong at the time, both as a cyclist and for the foundation which he had created, we were honored.

Thus, we decided again to take on the challenge, during our final semester and co-present it as our second thesis.  We purchased an inexpensive tandem for the main components: bottom bracket, saddle frame, seat tube and clamp as well as headset, we repurposed the remaining parts.  In effect, I found that it costs less to purchase a tandem and cut it in parts, rather than to purchase the parts separately to build the bike from scratch.  We had both studied welding and we both understood bikes.  Zack was stronger in welding and painting, I was stronger in bike parts and their mechanics, which is how we distributed our roles.

I completely dismantled the wheels, chromed the 280 individual spokes, purchased new gold anodized spoke nipples, powder-coated the rims and hubs matte black, and rebuilt everything.  In effect, except for the internal bottom bracket and the headset, we modified, painted, powder-coated or chromed everything, personalized with the logos and the colors of the foundation.  I even made the seat myself out of leather, on which I cold stamped the logo of the foundation, stitched the seat together, and finally dyed it black.

To avoid any visible brake, I modified the bike for retro pedaling, and modified the handlebar slightly and the handles themselves, dyed them to match the saddle.  In the end, we kept only about 5% of the original frame.

Shortly after our thesis presentation we delivered the bike, and the gentleman from the Lance Armstrong Foundation was absolutely thrilled with the result.  I received several messages of thanks from him later on, since he was regularly noticing another detail, and I must admit that I was delighted that he appreciated all the work and thought that we had put into it.