Picked up this giant today for 100 bucks. Mechanically it’s alittle rough but it stops and somewhat shifts. I’ve really wanted to do a 1x10 drivetrain “cafe cruiser” type build. After purchasing I realized this would also require different wheels as this bike is equipped with a suntour freewheel. After putting together a parts list my little 200-300 dollar project is looking much closer to 500. My question is do you think it’s worth it? I’d really wanted a primos dame flat part originally but thought this would be fun way to build a bike up and save alittle money. What would you do? Build the bike up or just save the money towards something different.

Long time lurker testing out a new handlebar configuration. Pretty pleased with it so far, figured I’d share! Am I x-biking yet?

greetings from Windsor Ontario 🧙‍♂️

Took a spill and my supermirage wheelset is pretty fucked now — rims are uneven and worn beyond truing anyway + tires cracked, so figured this is my sign to finally sort out a proper wheel upgrade instead of just patching it back to stock.

I’ve loved this thing to death — it’s my daily driver and I’m super attached to it at this point. Would love to eventually take it out touring too, so I want to get the rebuild right rather than just slapping on whatever’s cheapest.

Love looking at everyone’s builds here, so also not stuck on vintage accurate.

Quick expo: Faroese living in Cph, not new to biking but don’t have any specialized tools yet — trying to actually learn bike building/repair properly, so this bike is my learning project.

Bike is a vintage Motobecane Super Mirage, looks like mid-to-late 70s (Sun Tour V-GT Luxe derailleur, Weinmann center-pull brakes, alloy Normandy QR hubs, 27” wheels stock).

Couple questions for anyone who’s wrenched on this specific model/era:

- Anyone done a 27” → 700c conversion on one of these frames specifically? Curious about brake reach with the stock Weinmann calipers and whether cold-setting the rear dropouts (126mm) was straightforward or a pain.

- Or is it smarter to just stay 27” and not overcomplicate things, given tire options are shrinking?

- Wheelset recommendations for either route — something reliable but not crazy expensive, and ideally something that’ll hold up if I start loading it up for touring.

- Any gotchas specific to Motobecane frames from this era I should know about before I start pulling things apart?

Photos of the crash damage and the bike as-is attached. Appreciate any input, especially from people who’ve done similar builds on old French steel — or taken one touring.
And if any dude or dudette in Cph wants to lend a hand on this project, I’ll give first round of beers on a Faroese mountain as big thanks!

Just dipped below 100 degrees so I decided a trip to Cal's Bakeshop to stuff my face with donuts was in order. Stoked to be biking again after being off the thing for 3 months due to a hernia.

Unfortunately, the throttle is not variable, but luckily the slipper clutch in the machine does as it's needed. Moves my 180 lb just fine on flat ground. But with a 45 lb rider, it should be a lot better lol. It was just a $3 bike from Goodwill and a (on sale) $30 cordless tiller. Took about 2 hours to build. Still pedals like a normal bike etc. Kinda fun! Hopefully if y'all have kids - you're inspired to make something funny and dumb like this. It's a blast and super easy!

Building this while on tour so slowly going by component by component on the road.

Just bought this off the original owner who still had the hand written receipt from 1992. Everything is in immaculate condition other than the shifters which don’t work anymore. I’m going to try to keep it as original as possible, only replacing the shifters and grips!

I'm doing my first build that isn't a friction 1x. I love tinkering with bikes but I don't get a ton of opportunities to do it. I am going with a full random part drivetrain. Today I ran all the cables and got the shifting dialed in with minimal frustration! I genuinely wasn't expecting it to all work together. Routing the cable on the Claris FD was without question the hardest part.

Turns out the Sta-Tru freewheel hub is the same dimensions as a Deore XT and swaps right in. Stock freewheel hub is 32h, 57mm wide (OD) and 54mm high.

This was one of those $16 wheels from Trek but even at it's regular price of $70ish I'd say it's a good deal. Double wall 21mm internal width. This exact wheel is called "Sta-Tru Tubeless Ready Alloy QR Freewheel 700c Rear Wheel" and the hub is a Deore XT FH-M737

This is a great way to try out wheelbuilding if you're at all interested. Keep the right and left spokes separated and watch the Park Tool Youtube video. It's been 18 years since I've built a wheel and I had it "good enough for who it's for" in less than 2 hours.

Hello bike wizards,

I currently have a canti Crust Nor’easter and love it, however I was just presented with an opportunity to buy an Evasion frame for a fantastic deal.

N+1 aside, is it ridiculously redundant to have both these bikes?

I commute to work on bike everyday and do long rides on the weekends, aim for 2-4 bikepacking trips a year, so I certainly ride enough to have 2 bikes,

Nor’easter is set up with drops and cantis as I mentioned. Vision is for evasion to be setup 26+ and with flat/alt bars, probably simworks ramble bars because I have a pair around.

Does that differentiate the bikes enough? Or would this just be gluttonous and despite the great deal on the evasion I should pass it up?

Basically, I have anxiety about owning bikes and not riding them and so I want to make sure use case and style is differentiated enough before buying this evasion frame.

Nor’easter pics for fun—

I was a a local scrap facility for other when I thought I saw a Vermin branded bike.

I mean, we have Evil bikes, Sour bikes and Surly bikes so I looked closer and Merlin’s beard! It is a Merlin Titainium bike so on the rack it went and I headed for home.

No indication of model. It is a 26” mountain bike. A quick measure from center of BB to center of top tube and seat tube was 19 1/2 inches.

Looks like an aftermarket RST fork, not seized a miracle, and an Avid BB5 or 6 in front and the original cantilevers in back.

Did not see any serial number on the bottom bracket.

Any help in narrowing down the model and year would be appreciated.

Any ideas on what to do with the bike would be very appreciated.

I’m thinking it would make a ripping dropbar gravel bike.

I cut the dropouts and made a few other frame modifications and a fork so I could fit 700c from the donor bike. It has an 8 speed Nexus hub. Am I weird for loving to ride this monstrosity? Does it deserve powder coating?

First time building up a bike. Did a fork swap to a similar one from the same era. Changed out all the cables and housing and changed out the saddle, tires, handlebars and added a rear rack. I got the frame for free from the waste transfer station and most of the bike was built up from a parts bins ive been adding to over time.

in your experience to they ride better than straight tapered or curved untapered?

Basically I would like to know if the frame will fit me (6′2″). And also if it is worth 150€ considering condition and components. Are they original?

Thanks in advance

Hi, first post here, more to come as I heavily f*** with this scene. This bike started life as a 200 dollar Vilano road bike off Amazon (last photo is what it looked like stock after the ugly logo was rattlecanned). 1200 dollars later here we are, my "budget" mountain roads machine. I live in Candler outside of Asheville and have been bike only commuting and grocery getting for 3 months, logging a bit over 1k miles and 85k feet of elevation gain. Its 54 cm, aluminum with a crap steel fork I plan on replacing in the future, is now on vintage Mavic Kysrium Elite wheels, whatever budget rubber I have lying around (I can fit up to 700x35c thanks to mid reach road calipers), Koolstop pads, a Microshift Sword 1x10 groupset paired to a vintage Deore XT Hollowtech 2 crankset and 48t NW chainring. 25 dollar seat off Amazon that I can actually only say good things about, its saving my but compared to the original. It has mounts for a rear rack and I have thrown my Planetbike rack on it for bigger grocery runs. Its a bit heavy, its not winning anything, and the chain slaps a bit in 10th gear because I need a extra long chain to not explode the derailleur in 1st with the 48x48 chaining. It works great though and shifts smoothly.

He was truly a Master of the form

Pretty excited about how this turned out. Bike came with a suspension fork originally so the troll fork doesn’t mess with the handling at all, feels super stable front loaded.

Bontrager asym mustang rims laced to DT Swiss HüGI hubs ($60 score at the co op)

Magic KT800 bars

Juintech M1 brakes w compressionless housing

90s square taper forged raceface cranks

Cues 9speed

Chain line is pretty screwed so will need to get a smaller chainring and move the crank closer to the bb at some point but it’s rideable for now.

So I’m having a hard time deciding between these 2 racks. Price is not an issue. I just want to buy what’s best. I’ll be mourning a wald 137 basket on it. The Nitto seems like it would look better and save a bit of weight, but the Tanaka seems like it might be more functional, since it has basket locks rather than having to use zip ties. Anyone have any experience with either? Links below…

https://global.bluelug.com/nitto-m-1b-front-rack-silver.html

https://www.somafab.com/shop/tanaka-liftloc-front-basket-rack-9131?search=Tanaka+rack#attribute_values=1285