Readers’ Rides #4

I used to have this hardtail. It wasn’t very good, but it was sure cheap!  I got a free frame that someone had put at the curb for the garbage – an old Specialized Rockhopper, and built it up for under $100.  But that’s not what this story is about.  This story is about the ‘booze bike’ that came later.

 Andrew is no stranger to the media.  Here’s the bike that started this journey – his 2003 Norco Fluid. Click the image to see a larger, readable version.

The story really starts with my old 2003 Fluid 1.0.  After three years of heavy use, it was done – cracks in the chain stays and a crack at the head-tube/down-tube junction.  Done – fini – finished.  Norco came through big time with a new 2006 Six frame and a DHX 4 Air shock for a really good price.  Well, the old Fluid parts just didn’t hang off the Six frame very well, so some “new to me” parts were purchased, freeing up some of the old Fluid parts.  Key amongst the now “free” parts were a Fox Vanilla 125 RLC fork, and a pretty swank, all mountain wheel-set.  That old free Rockhopper just wasn’t worthy of these parts, so the quest for the “booze bike” began. (BTW – the Rockhopper got built up with left-overs, donated to “World Community Bikes” and shipped to Nicaragua! Huah!)

 Damn right that’s a Slayer Sticker!

Enter Tom (he’s Tom on the boards – tricky eh!).  Tom owned about five bikes at the time and I had noticed a white Norco hard-tail frame sitting in his garage – I noticed it several times over about a year.  So, one day I asked him what was “up” with it, and he said “It’s been sitting here for about a year.” So I was like “Oh ya?” and he was like “Ya” so I says “Beer” and he says “Sure” and the booze bike was born.

 She may be old, but this fork is still going strong – 2003 Fox Vanilla 125 RLC.

For the low low price of a six-pack of micro-brew, I got Tom’s old 2003 Norco Bigfoot frame complete with crank-set and two rings, head-set, seat post and “Slayer” sticker.  Class!

 Turn of the century technology still functioning near its peak.

Next, the left-over fork and wheel set went on, and a seat I had picked up free from some bike event with some vee-brakes that were sitting around, a free handlebar from Johnny (well, he got a six-pack too – jbazzet on the boards) a spare big-ring off the work-shop peg-board, my old DX SPD pedals, STX-RC shifter-brake lever pods, a rear mech from a Proflex Frame I stripped down (I got this from SkiFreak for another six pack of beer), some grips and a Deore front mech from Trail Bikes and “presto-change-o” we have functional, fun to ride hard-tail.

 We have discoverd a way to magically transform whisky into disk brakes!

The next stage of the “booze bike” was braking – after being off vee-brakes for a while and then getting back on them, you realize how much better disks are!  So, I remembered that my bro-in-law (danski on the boards) had changed his brakes out, and knowing that he is a bit “Scottish” when it comes to financial diligence, I knew there was no way he threw out the old ones.  So – offer a bottle of Scotch and BINGO – Hayes 9 brakes with after-market lever arms and the “booze bike” really became a contender.  Unfortunately, this also meant the good old trusty STX-RC shifter/brake lever pods had to go, so a new set of Shimano 7 speed trigger shifters went on – probably the single most expensive part on the bike at $40.00!

 The Booze Bike in all it’s glory, and yes, that is a can of Lucky in the water bottle holder.

 Here’s the final build complete with costs of the parts:

Part	Description	Origin	Cost
Frame:	2003 Norco Bigfoot c/w Slayer sticker	Tom’s Garage	Six pack of beer #1
Fork:	2003 Fox Vanilla 125 RLC	Old Fluid	Free!
Head Set:	“Aheadset”	Tom’s garage	Included with frame
BB:	Truvativ	Tom’s garage	Included with frame
Crank Set:	Truvativ Five-D	Tom’s garage	Included with frame
Brakes:	Hayes Nines – 8 inch rotors	Danski’s Cannondale Gemini	Bottle of Scotch
Seat-Post:	?? – probably Axiom	Tom’s garage	Included with frame
Front Der:	Deore	Trail Bikes	$35.00
Rear Der:	XT	Skifreak’s old Proflex	Six Pack #2
Shifters:	Shimano 7 speed	Trail Bikes	$40.00
Seat:	BBB	Dublin, Ireland (old Fluid)	Free!
Stem:	Axiom DH	“The Bike Shop” Abbotsford (old Fluid)	Free!
Bar:	Brody house brand	Jbazzet’s Brodie	Six pack #3
Grips:	Cheapo rubber	Trail Bikes	??
Front Wheel:	Sun Rims Rhynolite on a Deore Disk Hub, “Vee-Racing” E-Compound 2.3” tire.	“The Bike Shop” Abbotsford (old Fluid)	Free!
Back Wheel:	Mavic F-19 rim on a Deore Disk hub, 7 speed cassette, Kenda 1.95 inch “pizza cutter” tire	Dublin, Ireland (old Fluid)	Free!

 Drivetrain side of the Booze bike – gleaming with bling.

Total investment (at $15.00 a six pack, we’re talking quality micro-brew here folks!):  $165.00!!!

But how does it ride?  Well – it’s a freakin aluminum hard-tail – it’s stiff and tends to hurt my lower back on extended rides.  It’s great for around town and the occasionally light single-track use.  Climbs like a rocket, but rattles your teeth out of your skull on any serious downhill.   That being said, I still take it out for a serious ride on the local trails in Cumberland once or twice a year, just to remind myself that this sport takes a certain amount of skill.

 “Damn I look fast!” – The booze bike in action.

But the story doesn’t end here… In 2005 I became a dad, and like any good dad I wanted my son to experience the things I love.  Enter the baby bike seat.  It came off craigslist and was one of those cheapo, minimalist ones that barely work.  One day, while taking the boy for a ride at Stave Lake, the poorly designed linkage that attached to the seat-stay got loose enough to send part of the seat chassis into my spokes!  ARRGGGGGG!!  So – a plan that I had been thinking of for a while came to fruition.

 Now that’s what I call custom – detail of the rear-fork to seat-stay connection for the “Suspension Seat Mk 1”

Ingredients:  One cheapo bike mounted child seat, one $10 old-school suspension fork, really long 1990’s era aluminum stem, miscellaneous aluminum plate from Home Depot and BAM!  The suspension bike seat was born!

 The Booze Bike transformed and ready for some urban action.

It was originally mounted on the Fluid, and the combination of the old fork and the pivots interacted quite well with the rear suspension.  When the Booze Bike got built, it found a new home.  The boy and I have clocked many happy kilometres of bike trail on it and will get a few more out of it in the next year before it gets retired in favour of a recently craisglisted trail-a-bike.

  It’s amazing what frustration, $50.00 in parts, 4 hours and a little imagination can produce.

If I have learned anything from the experience of building the booze-bike and my custom suspension seat it’s “Never let anyone tell you that you can’t do something.”  Or maybe – “drink enough beer and anything seems like a good idea”.  Don’t ever forget, we all ride mountain bikes because its fun!  Getting lost in the hype of the newest parts and bikes can get in the way of this, and a ride on the “booze bike” with my son on the back whooping it up is a great reminder for me of why I got into all this in the first place.  Cheers!

 “That’s a happy looking kid!” Riders: Andrew and Cole Gower.

Andrew ‘rewoga’ Gower

Ever traded alcohol for bike bits?  Turned a trick for a pair of cranks?  What have you got to trade?  Let us know what you think about rewoga’s bartering skills here…