It’s spring! That means it’s time to ride your bike (though it’s always time to ride your bike). But, odds are good that your bike needs a bit of a tune up. Thankfully, I can help with that.
A great first “real” mountain bike for a teenager or someone just getting into the sport. I know its nothing groundbreaking, but it’s a solid bike and there’s nothing wrong with that.
n my ever-ongoing quest to make the Ute the best it can be, I came across a problem. The bike came with one giant pannier when I got it. The big, waterproof thing that looks like a stoned pumpkin is great, but the problem is when I load it up all of the weight is on one side of the bike, making it so I basically have to ride sideways to keep from rolling over. It also makes standing the bike up under load basically impossible with the stock kickstand.
For Christmas, my wife got me a big box of vintage bike bags. I’m going to do a bunch of MYOG (Make Your Own Gear) shit with it in the future, but my first order of business was to balance the Ute’s load.
A repair cafe is an event where people bring their broken stuff to a group of volunteers, who do their best to fix said thing. It’s free, it keeps stuff out of the landfill, and it’s a lot of fun.
I don’t have the money to actually get another bike for racing. While I could have just thrown down on one of my 26” bikes, I did want to do a bit of tinkering. I also wanted to make it as cheap as possible, and to show you how to do the same. So this is what I did. I’ve included a price break down so far.