Project Two-Six

Yes, it is a full moon, and you aren't seeing things. The title says "Project Two-Six". There is a good reason for that, so read on, if you dare!

Old. Reliable. Works.

The deal here is that I was asked to test something out. A pair of tires, to be exact. The tires in question were available at one time in 700c size, but stock was out and not likely to become available in a timely manner for the purposes of this test. (Not that it matters so far, but read on....)

The question was asked: "Don't you have a townie to put the other size tire on?" Well, I said that I had an old Schwinn that I had "Xtracycled", maybe that would work? And the deal was on. Tires were sent out, and I would put them on the old Xtracycle. Or would I?

Enter in an old, ancient, long forgotten project I started almost ten years ago. Of course, the Xtracycle is a 26"er, and at the time of the question about the tires, I thought it was the only 26"er I had left in my possession. However; then I recalled that old, forgotten project bike. Hmm.......maybe this is what I need to finally get that thing back together. I had all the old parts in boxes yet. Should be simple. But, I can't leave well enough alone!

You see, this bike, another old Schwinn, was a geared mountain bike I got that I had stripped down to bare metal, had powder coated, and then I had designs on really doing a "custom-modified" restoration. Kind of a hot rodded version of the stock bike.

But that was all out the window now. This was going to become a "winter time commuter bike", or so I thought.  I had intended on not putting derailleurs on this bike, and keeping it single speed seemed the right thing to do. However; after two failed attempts at single speeding rear wheels for the project, (One had a stuck on freewheel, the other a sealed bearing set up with an off-set axle), I decided a 1 X 5 would be okay.

So out came an old SunTour top mount, a MounTech rear derailleur, and SunTour 5 speed rear freewheel. Everything going on this bike, sans the grips, tires, handle bar, and tubes, is older than 1990. Probably older than 1988! I may end up putting on some fenders though, so there will be another newer part. But this will be pretty vintage stuff all around, for the most part.

Stay tuned for the final build, which should appear soon. Now, back to that test I mentioned. The tires are Continental's Top Contact Winter tires. These are "stud killers", supposedly. The idea is sort of like those Bridgestone "Blizzak" car tires. Very sticky-soft rubber with tons of working edges to grip ice and snow covered surfaces. So.......I am sure you see what the problem is! 

Since there hasn't been much of a winter, (yet), this test may be still born before it starts. But, there still is plenty of time for something of a winter to happen, so I will get this together and test ride it to de-bug anything needing de-bugging. Hopefully "Project Two-Six" will see the light of day before the weekend.