Hi, everyone...I know we already have a lot of "Post your bike" threads going...I would love to see some Frankenbikes set up for commuting!

I'll start: It's a Schwinn Tourist I bought at Target in 2008, back before I knew enough about bikes to make a truly informed decision/buy the right one. Since it's too small for flatbars/drops/bullhorns (at least in my case), I've set it up with parts from the "miscellaneous" bin. The only parts still "stock" besides the frame and fork are the stem, seatpost and the rear derailleur. Pretty much everything else has been replaced over the last few years, and it's now a comfortable "upright" bike with an easy-going posture at 8 speeds.



So how's about it? Anyone else have a Franken-'muter they'd like to share?

You asked for it...!
Maybe not that odd appearance-wise, but both bikes have been taken down to the bare frame, & resurrected with a complete set of non-original components.

197? FrankenCILO... I'm not the original owner, so it's possible that a few items like the wheelset, headset, shifters, FD & BB are original to the frame. All the other base components I introduced to the frameset for the first time with my own hands.




1982 FrankenVega Viva Touring. This one I acquired as a bare frameset including headset. Everything else I added myself.

I got this as a frame and built it up with a weird mix of parts...mostly stuff I pulled off of a donor bike Stump Jumper I got at a yard sale. It's a relatively cheap build and it works very well for the most part (shifting could be better). I turned it into a rigid commuter, but it's been through a few configurations.

Okay, here you go. Even though it's not all that easy to see the bike. And it's somewhat different now. Still riding it. Just got home from work on it, for that matter.

It's a very basic and cheap Roadmaster that I bought from the Beast of Bentonville in the spring of 2008. Got it for about $50.00. Just after that the price of fuel topped $4.00/gallon and the price of these bikes shot up about $30.00.

The rear 'saddlebags' are plastic coolers with a foam lined, vinyl fabric cover. They're bolted to a few strips of aluminum that are, in turn, bolted onto the basic rear rack.

The front 'cargo rack' is one of those cheap front baskets. I cut the front and sides off to allow a long duffel bag, and things like that, to lie across it bungeed down. I added a couple of struts down to clamps on the fork ends for support. Up front I mounted a set of straight handlebars to act as a light rack and mirror mounts. (Now that I've reached a state of Advanced Youth I need a whole lotta light. Or else it looks like I'm riding into a pond filled with India Ink.) Those mirrors are in an excellent spot; very easy to look into. But they also shake. So it's not quite perfect.

I think that my bike could surely be called a Franken-bike.

Loving the Frankenbikes so far, everyone! A few thoughts:

Old's'cool: Those bikes certainly qualify, but I must admit, they are quite beautiful--especially on account of being Frankenbikes!

KonAaron Snake: She looks sturdy and dependable! And oh man, that headtube badge got me rolling.
bluegoatwoods: That is most certainly a Frankenbike! The beauty of them is in their utility and ingenuity.

You mean like this one that started life as an Orange Stumpjumper Pro in 1998?



and then morphed into this in 2013?



All of my bikes are "Frankenbikes" made from various parts. I just happen to use modern biotechnology rather than grave robbing

Salsa Las Cruses

Moots YBB

Flashback


I have a few others that are just as Frankenbikey but I don't commute on them as much. All of the above see regular commuter duties.

Cycco! I saw your flashback over on the cruiser forum...very nice! All of these are great! The Specialized needs a touch of red paint on the fork, IMHO! That bike is hot! Out of all these, the Moots and Salsa are my favorites.

All of my bikes get tinkered with in some way, but the one that's most representative of a frankenbike is my '89 Rockhopper.

It started out completely stock and I added Eggbeaters and Country Rocks:



Shortly afterward I built some custom wheels for it (Tiagra hubs with Mavic XM317 rims), switched pedals and installed some Avid SD5 V-brakes and Deore XT derailleurs and shifters I had sitting around:



But that's still not much of a frankenbike.

Later I decided to move it over to drop bars. In this configuration I believe it had at least one part donated by every other bike I owned.



It had Ultegra 6500 brifters with the shifting mechanism ripped out as brake levers, Avid Arch Rival brakes with Travel Agents, SL-BS64 bar end shifters, and older XT rear derailleur, the original Mountain LX front derailleur (!) and a old 8-speed XTR cassette.

At this point I may have overshot frankenbike and gone into the realm of something the mean kid from Toy Story would have put together.

I'm currently in the process of putting it back together with a flat bar and 9-speed components. Most of the good parts above have moved on to other bikes, so this is getting left overs from my parts shelf, including a lot of the original parts. The primary frankenbike feature of the new configuration will be the rear wheel. I'm using the original wheels, but I removed the 7-speed freehub and put a 9-speed freehub from a Tiagra hub on there. No pics yet.

Voodoo Bizango frame, rhyno lite rims on xt hubs, race face crank, xt disc in front, scott at-2 mtb bullhorns. It's a constantly evolving ride. Soon to be changing the drivetrain to 10sp SLX.

I like how even titanium bikes aren't safe from being Frankenstein'd.

I really like this one. Interesting spoke pattern, almost perfectly straight out from the hub (unless the intersections are shadows on the wall).

I enjoyed frankensteining my ti frame BECAUSE it's ti...no one notices what it is, and I don't have to worry about paint chips or corrosion!

Why thank-you!
The Univega has major patina, which is actually a good thing, since it is my official beater, for bad weather & leaving locked up in town.
The CILO had lots of patina also, when I acquired her, but since it was already repainted, I went with a full sandblasting & re-powdercoating, which turned out very nice. I made no effort to restore to factory appearance, (a) because I have no idea what that was, and (b) it is actually quite a high end bike with 531 frame & components, so if I have to leave it locked, at least it's less of a target than it might be otherwise.

96 Cannondale mountain bike. Added a front basket and put original pedals with toe clips back on the bike.

I guess my favorites are:



or...

I would definitely hate to think of my Frankenbike as a thief's target, especially after all the modifications/time put into it, whether it was expensive or not. Gotta say, those bikes are still gorgeous in their own right, and if you hadn't labeled them as Frankenbikes yourself, I would have never known! Well-done.

She's beautiful; yet, has a very sturdy look about her. And I can't see the details well enough, but what tires are you running? I really like the look of those!

More Moots Beaut's! That Trek is nothing to sneeze at, either. Love the 'stache bars on the Moots, and are those Rando bars for the Trek? I have a set of cheap mustache bars at home; I just can't decide on what to use them for, but if I acquire a 26" MTB to turn into a commuter, that's probably what I'll go with.

Also: Are you running those Friction or Indexed?

Challenge Accepted:
I present to you "Special Ed"

That's a cool one, I like it.

My old hybrid in the franken mode:

Both bikes use friction shifters.The Moots has SunTour Sprint shifters on Shimano pods, where the Trek has standard SunTour ratcheting Bar Cons.

It's a radially spoked wheel. I'm not sure why the double image on the spokes. The area where I took the picture is in shadows.

I wonder if this roadified hybrid would qualify with these before and afters ...

I was telling a friend of mine how there weren't many original parts left on my bike, but mines not in the same league as most of these. Unless you count converting a 7 speed to 8 speed with an upgraded derailer and shifters enough modification.

Post it! All of my bikes are Frankenbikes in some way or another...the only time I'd say a bike doesn't "count" as one, is when the only things different are the tires/tubes. Components count (at least they do in my eyes)!

There you go.