Anyone else commute on a true junker?
 

I've seen a lot of threads about what people ride, and it seems that most people on this site ride really nice bikes (if you think your $200 dollar bike is a piece of junk, your included.) I was just wondering if anyone out there rides a true 'junker' on a daily basis.

For example: I built my daily commuter from an old Schwinn World (Chicago) frame that was dumped on me by a friend, a set of steel rims from a Varsity, one crank arm from a new Giant, the other from God knows where, an el cheapo Cloud nine seat (surprisingly comfy),a used BMX freewheel, totally mismatched tires and a set of 'trekking handlebars' from a mid 90's comfort bike (look on ebay, you'll see what I mean.) All these parts were bought at my LBS based on what they had in their junk pile, with a total cost of maybe $50

At first, this bike was depressingly ugly and heavy, but the steel on steel make this thing a tank that can take some serious abuse.

I consider myself a serious cyclist, regardless of what I ride. Is there anyone out there like me? If so, I would love to see what you ride. I don't know how to post pics, but if you do, lets see some!

Thanks,
Joe

If I had to lock my bike outside it would definitely be a beater. I used to have a beater fixed/ss conversion but I found I wasn't riding it so it had to go.

I don't commute yet, I'm working on it, but the bike I keep at the office to ride to lunch on is a $10 Goodwill beater.

It's pretty junky. Falcon (?) brand shifters, no-name brakes, front derailer is busted, so I took it, and the front shifter, off. It shifts sometimes, but only 7th, 8th, and 9th gears. Plastic pedals. No idea what brand the bike is, it was originally light blue, someone painted it black, and then I painted the bright neon orange on it. I keep thinking the front wheel is going to fly off, but so far it hasn't. :)

I bought a yardsale bike for $40 last month (an old Specialized Rockhopper) for the purpose of pulling my kids' trailer and bopping around Tahoe. I'll probably use it as a bad-weather commuter when the fall arrives. It's a very solid bike with perfectly functioning 7spd components. Probably the best bike value I've ever gotten for $40.

EDIT:

I should add that it looks really, really cheesy. As in 80s vintage, Miami Vice color scheme. It even has an aqua colored bottle cage. And lots of little rust spots and scratches. But mechanically, it works perfectly.

My junker before fenders and good headlight. I love the busted Schwinn seat on this, it's comfy as anything else! I got this for $107 from BICAS (Bicycle Inter-Community Action and Salvage). Takara frame, Shimano Deore rear derailleur, front derailleur has been turned into a chain guide and doesn't exist (as there's only one ring up front!). Five gears on the rear cog, but the derailleur only gets the smallest four. I love this bike...especially for this sticker!

does a $20 Schwinn Racer(?) 5 speed with still-sorta-true-but-permanently-pumpkin-orange S-6 rims count? I have more in the tires/tubes than in the bike. One of the rims has a small hole rusted on the inside. I put extra strapping tape over that :-)

My little secret: It's actually a lot of fun to ride. Park it next to the Brand Spankin' New disc brake Trek at work. 'Cept when it rains and he drives.

Yeah, I ride what could be called a true junker, but many many bikes should aspire to ride as nice as this one.

I have a 12 yr old chinese mountain bike (no suspension) that lives outside in all weather and is used as an inner city run about/commuter. I can lock it up and not worry if it gets stolen. A few years ago, my mate's bike got stolen and they left mine. Both bikes were locked up together. It is as heavy as a piece of lead, but great for secret training. It makes me really appreciate my full carbon racer.

Hey, my whole frame is pumpkin-orange! I don't think they're quite "beaters", but my two current bikes were both bought used, a $100 Trek and $75 bastardized Jamis Quest (that's the orange one). They are in okay shape, though, so I don't know if they qualify as junkers, just cheap.

I used to commute on a 1976 huffy "road bike". If it can even be called a road bike. I got it at the thrift store for 20bux and put new tires on. It had steel rims, so it couldnt stop for nothing! It couldnt shift for anything either. But I sold it to a friend for something like 20 or 15 dollars, and he still rides it alot. I now commute on my suteki, which is marginally less junky.

I bought a $30 bike off ebay that may very well be stolen. Had to drive down to the ghetto to pick it up. "Next" is the brand - Wally-World brand- i've seen them there. It doesnt shift other than the front 2 big gears. back doesnt shift. Back wheel is crooked as a politician.brakes barely work. Good news- it weighs about 50 lbs so i'm pretty sure no one is going to steal it. Plus i get a hell of a workout riding it 10 miles roundtrip to work. Rode it almost 40 this weekend. great for rail trails, and gravel trails, as i dont care if it gets messed up. It's a total hunk of crap!

If it wasn't stolen the guy robbed you when he sold it to you, I think those bikes are $30 new! Just kidding, it great that you realize you don't need a 300 dollar bike to ride to work.

My 3 speed I bought for $18. Has served me for two years.

I commuted on my '72 Schwinn Super Sport till someone offered me $75 for it... I paid $20, put on tires, tubes, 1 brake cable, and a seat. (CHEAP seat... from Walmart!)

Then I got a Raleigh for $50... And I changed my mind about selling the Schwinn... so now I have two bikes!

Put tires, tubes, cheap pedals and a rack onto the Raleigh, as well as the tools... I've probably got $300 invested between the two bikes.

The most serious work I've had to do on the Raleigh was replacing a couple spokes on the rear wheel when an SUV clipped me... other than that, it's been pretty painless... only one flat so far in the month I've been riding it everyday.

Bought a Skykomish in need of repair at a thrift shop for 10 bucks. Fixed it up a bit and it rides well.

Also have an old blase orange huffy that I started out commuting with. I am pretty sure I could leave either one unlocked at a bike rack and not have to worry about theft.

The skykomish is ugly, but it shifts really nice and is comfortable to ride.

LOL!

I just posted a few days ago in the Vitage thread about my Urban Assault Bike.

My bike is a lot like the OP's bike. The frame is a Schwinn Le Tour. Save for the Vittorias and the new spokes,this bike is completely put together with spares off of curbside finds:

Rear RD: Suntour AR. FD: Shimano Altec. Shimano Lightaction shifters. Cranks: Sugino Super Maxy. Frame 1982 Schwinn Le Tour. Wheelset: Miche Competition rear/Maillard front hubs that I laced to Araya rims.

I also chopped the bars and mounted them like a reverse bullhorn with mt bike brake levers tied to the old Weinmann 605 calipers. Then I went wild with a rattle can and blasted the bike in two tones of blue that I had sitting on my shelves.

http://s77.photobucket.com/albums/j7...dt/letoura.jpg

http://i77.photobucket.com/albums/j7...dt/letours.jpg

The bike is now sporting a detachable seatpost mounted rack.

I LOVE the way those bars look Silversmith. I would never have thought of doing that. I may even do that with the single speed I'm building to leave in London - it'd be a lot cheaper than moustache bars...

My commuter was free, through freecycle. It's a great bike - an old 531 Falcon tourer, but the freewheel was busted, the forks were rusty, and it was filthy. So, I didn't clean it, threw on a set of rusty chrome steel wheels from an old Peugeot, tweaked up the brakes and derailleurs, and rode it like that, knowing nobody would steal it. I've now put cork handlebar tape on, (the old cloth tape was fraying off, and sticky underneath), added some brake levers with hoods of a kerb find (it had suicide levers), and cleaned the rust off the chrome fork. I'm starting to get worried that it looks respectable now, and next week, when I replace the brake cables and blocks, my investment will top £10!

That '99 Trek 800 Sport I've mentioned a few times here was once a derelict.
Before my Free Spirit Beachcruiser was put out of commission by a Scion XB back in February, I performed a substantial amount of junk recon along the California Aqueduct.
While riding towards one of the filter-like sections, I noticed the Trek just lying beneath some tumbleweed piles. I picked the rig out of there and found the frame in really good condition.
Both rims, the fork, handlebars and shifters were all damaged beyond repair.
I just decided to strap the entire thing to my Topeak mountain rack on the beach cruiser with some bungee cords. I hauled this thing all the way to the house and got to work cannibilizing other odd bike parts I had in the backyard. I found some decent rims to swap on the still-good hubs, and threw on some flatbars from a Wal-Mart junker I had.
However, the shiftlevers, bar-ends, grips, brakepads, tubes/tires and seat were all purchased from various LBS's in the immediate area.
After I slapped on various Cateye electronics, the total refurbishment cost me $100 even.
As for the loss of the beachcruiser, I'm still saddened by that.
That thing was my personal M1A2 main battle tank.
I had a forward mount for a fully-auto, electric-hopper-feed, 1200 rounds per minute, Spyder XTra paintball rifle on the bars!!
Glad the gun wasn't on the bike at the time of the crash thankfully, I had the thing at home for cleaning.

I used to use this Kynast for commuting in Germany and still could but I have other similar bikes I like better.

Cost=Free, found thrown out on a Sperrmüll (free municipal pickup of large items) day in Germany. Replaced the guts of the Sachs Pentasport 5 speed hub and shifter mechanism with the internals of another Pentasport hub and shifter mechanism found on another junked bike. Seat was replaced with a Brooks B72 that cost $10 (found in an LBS seat replacement box.) New rear tire 37 x 622 cost $2 at a garage sale. Works fine and I currently use it for towing my utility trailer for various chores. The trailer cost new either $40 or DM 40, I can't remember which currency I paid but I know it was 40 something.

Click to enlarge
http://img486.imageshack.us/img486/8...ler25fv.th.jpg http://img113.imageshack.us/img113/1...iler1fs.th.jpg

Probably that was a Japanese import and not a Chicago bike. The "World" mark was used by Schwinn in the 1930s to sell balloon tires and wasn't used much after that until they started importing and rebranding bikes.

No bike that starts with a Chicago Schwinn frame can be a junker. They're too well made. ;)

Good point. Between that frame and the Varsity wheels (which, by the way I am convinced Schwinn bought as Army surplus from some experimental battle field bike program because I could break the concrete from a curb before these would warp!) this bike will last forever. Plus I live in a walk-up, so lugging the bike up and down the stairs is great practice in case I decide to become a fire fighter. (I don't do smilies, but if I did there would be a little purple face winking here.)

I'll see your Schwinn World, and raise you a Schwinn World Sport, which I purchased on ebay fo $50. It was made in Japan in 1986. It's now single speed, with an orange milk crate on back. :)

In fact, I totall want to do my bars like that. I have some mountain bike levers (and I'm guessing that they must pull a lot of cable, perhaps meaning even better braking), but I have a question. In your experience, would they be likely to fit on the portion of the bars that's pointing back towards you, and still have room to pull? I realise that I'm going to have to check this on my own bars regardless, but it'd be nice to know what you found. You've just saved me about $50!

Whats even better is that i've used it for about 2 months- and i'm going to sell it to a guy at work for $20. So with an actual cost of $29 it only cost me $9 for 2 months of commuting to work. think how much gas i saved too! And i think the bike new may HAVE only been $50 brand new! HA! It is time to move up though- I think i'm buying at Trek 7.2 or the SU100 this week. Next week i'll be riding in style!

Sammyboy,

I don't think you could use standard mountain bike levers, unless they are a short 2-finger type. Or you could cut them, but that might not be a good idea. Either way, you wont be able to use them with your hand on the curved rear portion of the bars.

Your best bet in my opinion:

You should look into interrupter levers like cyclocross riders use. They could mount on the straight portion of the bars that points at your knees and they are made to follow the curve of drops, so they would leave plenty of room to brake. Plus they would look awesome in this setup. They would feel very much like brakes on moustache bars, but curved. I just spent $25 on a cheap (but nice) new set.

Now I want to do it, too!

Jeez, I have no idea if I can consider mine a junker. I did get it for $45 off ebay so the price was right. It was already rideable but I slowly added stuff it: first lights, lock, and pump. Then a handlebar my friend gave me for free, and finally a drivetrain upgrade and racks.