Hello, my name is Jeff, I love bikes, and this is my story. Well, to be more precise, I think I love working on bikes a little more than actually riding them, but that’s the (admittedly large) engineer part of me. I have been lurking on these forums for a while, and posting a little. I am living proof that someone can learn almost anything they need to learn about road bikes on this forum without asking any questions (for all you proponents of the search function, I am the model citizen!). Anyway, most of my experience has been dealing with mountain bikes, but when my (not mechanically inclined) brother-in-law and father-in-law both asked me to help them find good road bikes on a pretty tight budget, I was glad to help out. For my brother, who is much more serious about it, we decided to put most of the budget into frame/fork and wheels. We found the Griffen shown below on ebay for $450.

It’s a late 90’s Griffen Classic frame and full carbon Winwood fork w/ Cane Creek Aerohead wheels and an interesting mix of 8sp Shimano 600/105 parts. Since the paint was pretty beat up and looked pretty pedestrian, I decided to strip and repaint it for him. That ended up being a lot of work as the old paint was really difficult to remove even with the nastiest paint stripper I could find. You can see the final result with the red/silver paint job and yellow decals. I replaced the tires, brakes, chain, cassette, bar tape, cables/housings, rear derailleur, and put on a longer stem (the picture still shows the original). Total cost for the bike: about $620. Not bad when a new Griffen frame costs around $2500.

My father-in-law just rides around for fitness, and wanted something a little better than his old beater rust bucket mountain bike. I found him the 1992 Schwinn PDG series 5 Paramount with full 7sp 105 and the nastiest paint job I have ever seen on a bike all for $160. The paint alone is probably why the bid activity was pretty low. I didn't care, I was planning on painting it anyway.

I did the full rebuild on this one too. The bike had obviously not been ridden very much as the frame was practically pristine and the components looked great. Knowing the downtube shifters were probably going to be difficult for him to use, I started looking for some other options. Thanks to the awesome Recycled Cycles in Seattle, I added a set of old 7sp RSX STI shifters for cheap. You can see the "after" picture. I replaced the cassette, chain, BB, pedals, bar tape, and the cables/housing and added the CX brake levers. Total spent: about $290. The shifters put him over budget, but he needed a father’s day present anyway (as if a total overhaul wasn’t enough).

I apologize for the crappy quality of the pictures, but it’s all I’ve got right now. I’ve ridden both these bikes to/from work and they ride great. The Griffen is awesome. It treated my very well on my 20 mile round trip commute. The ride was not “harsh” at all. That Metal Matrix Composite frame is pretty sweet. The Schwinn rode just as I expected a good lugged steel frame to ride. Like butter. Perfect for an old geezer looking for a little speed. I delivered the bikes last weekend to them in Sacramento and they totally loved them. What do you all think?

The biggest problem with doing all this for my family? Now I want a road bike…bad. I’ve already started collecting some bits for my own project, the centerpiece being a '95 Davidson custom steel frame I am going to work over, but I’ll save that for another post.

-Jeff

It is nice to see someone who likes to build bikes as much as he loves riding them, what I do is I work, make my paycheck, look at what I want to do, then with the help of my local bike shop, I rebuild them with a list of parts. Well unfortunately this has cost me somewhere in the neighborhood of 1000.00 in labor and 2000.00 for the bike and the parts. But now I ride a 2005 Trek 1000 with 9 speed 105 and 9 speed Ultegra on it. I am sure over time I will rebuild it up again or start another project bike but for now I am content with my current ride. Happy riding to you.

RacingPain

racingpain, I've read about the upgrades you have put into your Trek (and also some of the flak you've received for doing it). There is something very gratifying about taking something that needs some work and putting in effort to make it better, whether it is overhauling a bike or upgrading a lower level bike to something of higher quality. You don't get that when you buy a brand new bike outright. My first "real" bike was a Schwinn High Plains MTB from '95. That bike went through three paint jobs and so many part upgrades over the years that the only thing original left on it was the frame and the seatpost. Interestingly that was the first and last time I bought a complete bike from a shop. Everything since has been a "project" of some sort.

-Jeff

Glad you are enjoying building up your bikes. Unfortunately I'm a little of the same way--I like making my bikes nicer almost as much as riding them.... Those look quite nice by the way, I like the paint on the Griffen too.

Thanks, Jeff. Good name by the way. Hey, how do you like the shiftmate on your Gunnar? I will be using one for my Campy/Shimano mix of a drivetrain.

-Jeff