Ghetto fixie

The most ghetto and possibly even the only fixed gear bicycle in H-Town, my bike, is a ladies bike from Butterfly that has been modified quit a bit.

The bike was in acceptable working condition, so the first thing I changed was the look. The majority of the frame, the front wheel and even the chrome handlebar had received a coat of rusty looking orange brown paint. I left it that way. Because of the smaller size of the front wheel, the fender was hanging too high, so I placed it on the rear, facing the other way so the chrome detail on the top would make a nice tail. The lack of actual brakes is no longer an issue because without a fender over the front wheel, I can use my foot on it to slow down.

That technique went well until a brake attempt with the wrong shoes transformed into a stoppie, bending the fork in the process. It’s now barspinable but I had to mount it backwards in order to get enough space behind the front tire for my feet.

Because I wanted something of a real brake, but mostly because riding fixed on a bike wth inappropiate geometry seemed like a (not so) good idea, I welded the single speed. The dodgy, unrefined welding seam (it’s crap) fits nicely with the rat bike styling.

I installed an aged leather Brooks saddle with chrome sprungs, removed the plastic around my lock to expose the polished steel chain and provided the rear axle with a peg. This setup nearly got me doing barspins during fakies.

To finish things off, I mounted the bell on the stem, that’s one thing now stopping to prevent me from doing candybars with this bike. The other is the will to not break my balls.

P.S. The bike's outside and my digital camera is broken. For some reason I don't feel like using my white laptop's webcam right now. I'll post some pictures when this snow storm is over!

Kick scooter #1 is done!

The  black and yellow kick scooter is finally finished!

The original fenders were round, so I took another kick scooter and stripped it off its fenders with grooves.That way I had something to base the pinstripes on after I removed all paint.
I applied a silver spray painted base coat, topped with several layers of black satin spray paint. Then I hand painted the matte flat yellow enamel pinstripes. I chose a rather matte yellow and used a wide brush for fat stripes to try and get a bold look with colors reminiscent of muscle cars.
To make the paint more resistant to daily abuse I put a glossy clearcoat over it. Besides protecting the paint this coat also looks shiny and smooth, matching the surface of the plastic rims.
After painting I reassembled the kick scooter. I cleaned all parts beforehand and put the white plastic fender guards back on, which make nice contrasting details.

I found a company from Japan that builds 700c (this is a common wheel size for road and track bikes) bikes by hand, most of them with a fixed gear. They even built a foldable frame and have suitcases for their foldable complete bikes with, indeed, 700c wheels. The suitcases look like something in between a travel bag and a messenger bag and are very stylish, as are the bikes, and are basically squares that fit neatly around the wheels.
The company is called Kinfolk and the style of their bikes is very authentic, resembling bikes from the seventies and eighties, sometimes bold and eccentric, a other times very subtle and classy.
Bikes that leave the workshop are fitted with a logo badge on the top tube titled "kinfolk metal" and most graphics on the bikes are done by hand. Seeing their work inspired me to do more elaborate paint detailing on future projects.


LeCarton

In true re-cycle philosophy I just started on constructing a chair from French architect Le Corbusier, using only cardboard. Until that's finished, here's a small model to give you an idea:

Kick scooter #1

Yellow solid rubber tires on black plastic rims pretty much define the paint scheme for our new project: a kick scooter. These wheels are size 12 1/2 and were looking really mint compared to the rest of the kick scooter. The scooter frame has now been completely stripped and repaired and just got a fresh coat of black paint with yellow striping. In a few hours I can start assembling the thing and it should look just as rad as these little kick scooters right here:

Berlin, 1955

(picture taken from Deutsches Bundesarchiv)

We RE-Cycle things

Welcome to H-Town a.k.a. Hasselt, capital of Limburg, Belgium.

Everything on this blog is somehow connected to H-Town, because that’s where it all happens.

One of the best things in H-Town is Kapermolen park, a great outdoor concrete skatepark with a pool and a street course, one of the biggest in Europe!

A lot of the locals skate or ride bmx and off course there are some occasionall inliners.

The bmx-scene over here has exploded in recent years, with a lot of kids getting good fast at freestyle bmx. Flatland is virtually dead, but we don’t mind that :p

This is a video from last year featuring some local riders. All of them have improved in style, most of them even in bmx!

There is however potential for some more crazy shit on wheels. Most riders have their bmx as a secondary ride. If they would change their ordinary daily drivers for trick bikes or tricked out bikes, even riding to school can become a lot of fun!

That’s where RE-Cycle comes in. We recycle things, like bikes and stuff. We build simple but unique bikes, always looking good and riding smooth.

At the moment, work is going great on a number of projects. On this bike the framework is complete now and ready for a paintjob.

RE-Cycle, your one-stop bicycle shop for parts and completes…

since three weeks ago.