I want to make my Trek 730 into the twin brother of that Surly.

That is a nice looking roadrat, Playdoh

Mechanicalron--your fenders are absolutely 100% brilliant. Well done.

love that roadrat!

I love this bike.......love the bags too:

That kicks ass. I love the fenders and the bags look top notch.

I take it you have a commercial duty sewing machine to sew up those heavy canvas and leather bags?
You should look in the C&V section there is some Randoneering threads you might enjoy. Bags like yours for the front are highly sought after.

Mechanicalron, did you highlight your head tube and bottom bracket in beige paint on your LHT ?

I make them at home one at a time and until now it has just been word of mouth. I have a myspace page called Alleycat Detroit and I do the alleycat races in the city, ron.

ha ha ha, yea i am a dork like that! I pulled the brand new frame set out of the box and took all the stickers off, eeeEEK! I like it though. I am more into the low inpact thing and not so much the Nike swoosh. It stil has it's head badge!

They ARE my front bags I just have them on the back rack. They expand and get huge! See the bars at the bottom of my front rack? I can pack the bags from them all the way to my handle bars! That is wy the front flap is so long on the bags. The top of the bags pull shut with a cord under the flaps.

[QUOTE=Sawtooth;8481449]I am a wee bit shy I spos but every one is so nice here, ha ha I love this place! But yea I had an old cruiser I made look like a moon walker with "white wall" fenders tha went just short of the ground! Not good to go up curbs, eeeK! For stays you can zip-tye the bead of to your frame and rack. I posted some pics of what I did with stainles wire so zip-tye don't eat through my paint. They make silent, strong and good fenders and it is fun to do with that tire a beer bottle gashed open and you spent good money on, ron.

Ron, I think we're all very impressed with your handiwork.

Tell us more about this bike...

I think you've convinced me to finally buy an LHT. I mean, I already wanted one... but, yeah...
And I think you could seriously make a lot of money selling those bags. Those things are beautiful.
And you had me thinking all day about doing the car-less thing. I don't really WANT a car, and could only justify a car for certain trips... I don't know. It's a beautiful thought, concept, and also a beautiful bike.
-Gene-

Gene you just made my day! I never planed on not having a car and (at the time) never heard of such a thing. One summer (going on 6 years back) I started riding again and my car ended up sitting in the parking lot for 3 months. when I went to use it the bat was dead and 2 of the tires went flat and it was filthy. It had 32000 miles on it and just looked like crap and it was totaly useles! 14 hours or so later it was gone for good! I took a deep breath and a smile went on my face I could not help. Sound silly? I felt free and a bit like I was doing somthing bad but no one got hurt as this was my thing! I love the forums to find more people like us! I did not know here in the land of Hummers and Escalades (Detroit). And yea the bag thing, I don't know how to start that. I am just some dude, ya know? Don't feel bad if you have to keep the car Gene. I live in a small orbit and can get away with it. i do love the weather now that I don't have to get into a cold car. You will find out what I am talking about in time, ron.

Thanks for the tip on making fenders, mechanicalron!
Ernest

My current ride around town is an '87 Trek 1000 with downtubes. I usu. don't carry a lot of stuff so I sling it all into a small backpack.


This is what I used to commute on but I'm growing to like the road bike much more. It's got police bike style Town and Country tires. (And is coincidentally for sale.)

Here's my Cannondale SM700 in IGH Commuter mode...

This is my Surly Pacer. 1x9 with a downtube shifter. 39t front ring w/Salsa bash guard. 11-34t rear cassette.

You have a beautiful bike. I am interested in how you took the LHT stickers off. I have an LHT and would love to do the same. Any help is appreciated.

Thanks.

OK, it made sort of a mess! I used my thumbnail and they broke up into(sort of egg shell like) tiny little pieces that stuck to everything! The frame was right out of the box and the paint was still soft.

Isn't the trick you cover the label in duct tape and then yank it off.

That would work with most but not with the Surly's I had. They were sort of like a thin, hard plastick and sort of like paint! It was a project and I wanted to order the frame set without them but was told I could not when I called Surly. I told them I live in Detroit and wanted to tone down the theft appeal but I just like the low impact look of the color, raw alloy and leather. It sort of looks old school to me. The theft thing did NOT work as I often come out to people looking at it and people stop me all the time to ask about it O-well, whatayagointodo?

You're overthinking it. Just scrape them off. You're not going to hurt the powdercoat. Plastic scraper or equivalent.

anyone know of any bike/frame that is matte/flat black without logo right out of the box besides the schwinn cutter?

I want to build a pretty much all flat black bike but want something that is better quality than the schwinn cutter and don't really wanna go through the trouble of getting a bike, stripping the paint, then painting it flat black...