Homemade Cruzbike Copy(MBB)

Made a cruzbike copy from two bike frames:

Real fun to ride!

Complete picture log of the build here:
Flickr Set

ak-tux -

First of all ...



Second: what were the two donor bikes you used for the build?

Third: any other parts you used from the donors? Or are a lot of the components (wheels, drive train, etc.) brand new?

Thank you BluesCat for your response! I shall try to describe the build components here. It may be a bit lengthy though:

The main frame was a new single speed rear suspended Female/Step-Thru Y-frame as you can see from the pictures especially on the Flikr Set. I bought it from a SuperMarket Store for about $70. It is a steel frame with oversize tubing. Great for welding and modifications. It is a Chinese-made frame that was just labeled "Beijing Super Classic Vogue bicycle "

As for the front triangle I cut it off from an old hard-tail mountain bike steel-alloy frame(oversized tubing) that a friend of mine sold to me at a throw-away price of about $23. The frame came with the crankset , chain and 7-speed freewheel, all dusty and slightly rusted having spent some time exposed to the elements. My friend retained the wheels.

I used the triangle and drivetrain as is, apart from the shifters which I replaced with Microshift 8-speed ones I purchased for about $17. I also later replace the 7-speed(14-28) freewheel with an 8-speed (11-32) DNP-EPoch one from ebay. The crankset is what came with the mountain bike, a triple 48-38-28 riveted block. The reason is that I was spining-out pretty quickly on the 14-28.

I had to convert the front wheel of the female bike to a drive wheel type using a freewheel hub with the help of a bike mechanic with wheel building skills. He basically almost charged me nothing! Barely 2$! I was surprised and thankful!

The handlebar was also changed to a steel one from my son's single speed kid-bike. The original aluminium one that came with the Female bike actually failed! (It bent suddenly when I was attempting to climb a grade!).

It's truely pure fun to ride this bike, but being all steel, it's quite heavy at around 19Kgs! Most of that weight is upfront: about 56% on level ground with me on it. (I used a bathroom scale to estimate this with the kind help of my wife ) . It therefore makes for a good workout machine!

Hi Ak-tux,

It's a pretty sweet looking bike (and only a smidge heavier than a Sofrider)!

Very well done!

Charles

cplager wrote:Hi Ak-tux,

It's a pretty sweet looking bike (and only a smidge heavier than a Sofrider)!

Very well done!

Charles

Thanks Charles! Thought it appropriate to share it in this forum.

That's such a cool bicycle!