I recently finished my Frankenbike beater for use as a badweather commuter/campus runabout. I started with an old rusty Rampar R-Two frame that I got in trade and a Sears 503.1 three-speed hub (license built Sturmey-Archer AW, only better!) that came off of the old Sears three-speed I bought back in September.

I built the hub into a 27-inch wheel with an El Cheapo Nashbar rim and DT Swiss spokes and slapped a 22-tooth 3/32" cog on it. I filed out the fork end dropouts and spread the fork blades to fit the 100mm QR front wheel from my nice bike. Then I replaced the drop bars with a 24" flatbar chopped to 20", put the old derailer back on the bike so I could shift the front chainrings, and voila! Hybrid 33% gear steps 6-speed goodness! Total cost? About $90, mostly for the wheel and new cables (S-A cables are NOT cheap!).

In the photos: profile view of the bike, closeup of the unconventional cable touring around the seat cluster, the head-on view, the hub, the derailer, the chainrings.