Frankenbike Mutates Some More

Frankenbike. The name is an inspiration to continually tweak. I've added some French and Swiss touches, in the front hub and the rack. In addition, all this rack & fender stuff caused me to add the English fenders, originally used on my French bike.

A note on the fenders, for those nostalgic for old bike things. These are "Bluemels Popular" fenders; made in England. They were quite popular in the bike boom era. Made out of plastic, most have succumbed over the years, though you can still get new Bluemels fenders, at least in black. Old ones are often on eBay. However, give me a good set of modern metal fenders. In this case, "free in the garage" beats buying new stuff. Other than the plastic, one negatory on the fenders is that toe clips can foul the front fender if you're pedaling when making a sharp turn. I'd forgotten that.

A note on the reflector. It's an SAE, from an era when inferior CPSC reflectors had not taken over. I plan to replace it with a 3" amber SAE reflector that I'll pick up from an RV place. You can't get those at your LBS, but they're MUCH brighter than official bike equipment when illuminted from any direction from which it might make a difference. At night, I'll run Frankenbike with a rear blinky in addition to the reflector.

A note on the rack. This is a Pletscher CS rack. It's got a spring, which is convenient for holding stuff like the lock and my bike bag that's got my gym clothes in it. I'm undecided whether to get a rack with a spring in it when I get one for Buddy. The spring adds about 0.4lb, which isn't a lot, but the spring is only useful when you don't have a bag on the rack.

Now I've got utility for the weekend, even if the roads are damp. And yes, my behind was a little tender this morning (somehow, I think Chamois Butt'r would not have helped - visit the blog here), but it was GREAT to be back on real roads...