The summer 2016 clunker challenge has landed. See the product of too much free time at work from 2014 here: https://www.bikeforums.net/classic-vi...challenge.html


So, that Colnago is too smooth, fits like a glove and shifts too well. Your Pinarello with matching pantographed everything shines in the light a little too much. Your Reynolds 531 is a little TOO light and doesn't steamroll the pavement flat. Your aluminum rims are far too safe braking in the rain. You desire exhilarating change, but you're not sure how. Visitors to your house will admire your nice old bikes until that dark shape in the back corner catches their eye. Wait, you're telling me you keep that POS inside? Doesn't it attract flies?

The C&V Clunker 100 Challenge. The hunt, the build, the slog.

You have 100 days starting today, June 1, 2016 to complete the following:

- $100USD (or local equivalent) firm budget to purchase a C&V bicycle. This $100 includes initial bicycle purchase and all consumables/parts to make it go again. You may have to cut corners but this is all part of the fun. That wal-mart saddle just might have to be your hatchet if you spent all your money on new tires. Your time, tools, cleaning supplies, gas/transit to go get it and grease are free. If you are buying new or used, record that price. If you are using something you already have, use the fair market value of the item. If in doubt, ask. Shipping is a cost to be factored in. While anyone who wishes to participate is encouraged to follow the spirit of the game and go out and get a new bicycle, an untouched project waiting in the shed is ok, too. Swapping one part out for another does not cancel out the value added to the bicycle. As found = purchase price. adding items costs money, removing them does not give you money back.

- Keep a detailed list and updated before, during and after pictures in this thread on your purchases and progress. We fiend for this sort of thing.

- A minimum of 100km ridden on your new bike. Take photos of the rebuild and of the bicycle in the places you go and post them here. Perhaps you'll have a newfound admiration for stem shifters and solid axles. Or maybe you'll hate everyone after five minutes on the bike and start hundreds of POLL posts just to spite everyone.

- Arbitrary style and value points. You'll get style points for both the nicest finds/builds AND the bikes that make us say "That thing actually survived 100km?". Going as cheap and crummy as possible is a badge of honour. Bonus points for using a real POS in as-found condition (flipped bars, rusted cables, saddle at a 45 degree angle, etc.) and preserving the integrity of the previous owner's ingenuity and mechanical skills.

Judging: I will create hundreds (or one) poll post to determine winner or I will just decide on my own. Bribery and flattery is acceptable and encouraged. If anyone actually has too much free time and money bribes me I will post contents of mail bike related packages for others to covet and oggle.

Sign up below.

I'm in. i don't have a bike in mind, but there is a swap coming up this weekend and I bet I can find something.

Great idea!

Mmm. Tempting... I'm now off to the Retronde, but there'll still be ninety days left when I get back ...

Can I enter a 531 frame with Dura Ace EX and tubulars that I bought from a shop for $20 ?
They left it outside and didn't want it.

I'm gonna say I'm in. Maybe I can find a cheapo in the next month or so and throw it together. I've got a dream of the "That thing lasted 100k!?" type of ride.. heh

I'm in - looking forward to it!

I'm in. My wife and I were at the co-op yesterday for a slight brake tune-up on my commuter, but we ended up buying her an old Ross cruiser (step-through frame, fenders, Sturmey-Archer 3-speed) for $35. It would have cost $40, but we got a $5 discount for donating her old crappy Huffy MTB. The brakes need adjusting (and/or new pads and maybe cables), but otherwise it seems rideable as-is.

(We also got her an aluminum Trek MTB for $40 to replace her Huffy, but that's not C&V. N+1 syndrome... )

I'm also working on an old tandem (also bought from the co-op a couple months ago, for $20), but that might not come in under the $100 mark when I'm done with it (and more importantly, I might not be done putting it together before the end of the challenge).

So the bike I am thinking to use is from a CL score of 56 bikes for $200:



$200 / 56 = $3.57 per bike - so that is my starting point.



The bike was equipped with Shimano 600 that I got $100 for on eBay... but I know we can't make $$ back into the build, so just mentioning that for fun I guess. So I have the frame/fork/headset, here it is hanging in the shop:



The plan is to use the $40 Shimano Tiagra brifters/FD/RD from CL and try and build up a geared drop bar bike and then put the miles on it...

scored my first part at the local re-cycle/junk store this morning: $16.43 for ultegra flight deck brifters on a bent stick. LET THE BUILD BEGIN! though it may be hard to piece together 9 speed for less than 100.. its a good start and I will dang try.

Most of those look like you should have been paid to haul them away. I'm thinking you may be over budget already.

Assuming this doesn't violate s-1, I'm in.

I dunno. Dollar-wise I've got three decent candidates:

1993 Raleigh USA RT600 Purchase price: $15

Pros: Made in USA! Technium! Alan fork! Cons: It just needs cleaning, bar tape and tires and it's basically done. The 105 brifters came back to life with a half can of WD40. This one is a classic example of the problem caused by actual purchase price vs. fair market value. Any one of us here would have likely paid $100 or more for this thing, if they were interested in this sort of bike. (Anyway, definitely not clunkerish enough.)

1988 Trek 400 Purchase price: $25

Pros: Bought it from a fellow C&Ver. Needs repaint. Needs everything. Cons: Nice a enough frame to build up right, rather than cheap.

1986 Cannondale ST500 Purchase price: $50

Pros: Had actual moss growing on it when found, bent rear wheel, poky old Suntour Alpha 3000 shifting gruppo came on it. Cons: too small for me to ride very far.

I've got an embarrassingly large hoard of pretty decent, free, 27" wheels for those second two. A fairly deep parts bin of grungy, midlevel everything to complete. But it kinda seems like cheating to start with something that isn't truly abysmal. Maybe I'll take some stuff out to the co-op and dig through their basket-case frames and see if I can unearth anything really awful.

Pandering to my sensitivities already. You know I'm fond of bikes found to be hosting plant life.

Maybe I'm just not frugal enough. The $100 budget is going to give me trouble.

I bought this recently and if it will make it 100km it could qualify for the "That thing actually survived 100km?" standard, but I got started without this challenge in mind and already blew $16 on a new headset and I'm going to need cheaper wheels (unless we can agree that the market values used wheels that I built myself at $0). The $20 frame would have been a good start, but the original fork was all kinds of twisted and I impulsively dropped $30 on a replacement.



Does it need to have multiple gears? I might be able to get this finished within the budget.

Hmm, if the candidate I spotted works out, I might be in for this one.

Will the cost of new brake shoes be included?

What about new inner tubes?

Is the hundred K accumulative, or one trip?

I'm on this.

AGREED!! 80% of them were donated to the local bike co-op and I think they used most of those to complete a fence they were making out of frames and rims!

This was the best flip I got out of it:

1997 Trek got $200 alone for it:





I built two bikes for wife's sister and her husband that we gave to them.

I flipped 3 other bikes from it for $100-150 each.

Mostly it was just fun to drive around with 56 bikes on a trailer...

Subscribing to see what people come up with.

If I put back the cockpit that came on it (all functional) and took off the racks (I paid him an extra $20 for them when he offered them), this would qualify. Cost exactly 1 benjamin and I could certainly ride it for 100k even if it's a size too small.



But doing that wouldn't give me an excuse to hunt for an back-from-the-dead bike.

Any purchases are not included so new brake shoes and tubes would be in addition to your purchase if you have to replace them.

The 100km is a total goal but bonus points for anyone who does it in one trip.

I've long since sold off my $14 Vent Noir II (complete with tubulars, it came from a thrift store where _any_ bike at the time was $14) so perhaps I'll try for a 'recycle bin' challenge. My local co-op throws out lots of usable parts even though it often takes multiple dives into the dumpster to get all the parts needed for say a headset. Still, I've hoarded quite a stash over the years and can probably get most everything together for 0$. I normally don't re-use their old cables and tires but in this case I'm sure I could make an exception. Tubes could be tricky but patches are cheap, so maybe $5 is a better goal.

I'm not the judge, or even in a good position to participate this year, but I have to think that stories involving terrible bikes that require mid-ride kludges to keep going through that 100km would make for great reading.

That's too bad - I was going to suggest you do a special entry for the Challenge which you would build up using a different source bike for each component.

In past years the timing hasn't been great, but this year I think I'm in. I was wondering when/if another Challenge would kick off. I just picked up something the day before the official start (May 31) which might make a good candidate. I got it mostly for the parts, but I'll have to reevaluate what it will take to get it rolling and maybe hold off on stripping it.

Pics to come soon...

Time to hit the thrift stores on half-price Tuesdays! One local goodwill has garage sale rejects for $25 - 30. Almost as good as free.

^ Nice. Although I've occasionally seen nice stuff at the Goodwill stores around here, more common is something like $70 for a Sears Free Spirit. I suspect with something like that, you'd be hard pressed to stay within the remaining $30 for stuff that would need to be replaced.