The vacations aren’t all about new bikes:
So what else are they about? Spending time with household? Properly, positive, there’s that. However they’re additionally about engaged on the bikes you have already got:
Above is the 1989 Trek 1200, which I affectionately check with because the “Normcore Bike” as a nod to its aesthetic unremarkableness in addition to its total ubiquity. I imply significantly, they’re in every single place. (Truth I simply made up: there are fourteen bonded aluminum Trek highway bikes for each one individual in America.) Right here in New York Metropolis it’s virtually unimaginable to discover a road signal with out no less than one bonded Trek locked to it:
Actually, for a quick second final 12 months, bonded aluminum was even poised to make a comeback as the newest customized bike fad:
Although this was scuttled when the builder was unable to construct a motorcycle that neither the Desert Hipster web site nor the Escape Collective deemed passable. However, you recognize, tight tolerances or one thing.
Anyway, the Normcore Bike got here to me in 2022 through Traditional Cycle. See, I’d had a motorcycle precisely prefer it Again In The Day…
…so after I occurred to note Paul had one listed on the market on the Traditional Cycle web site I inquired about it, and earlier than I knew it I used to be experiencing the bike in all its adequacy as soon as once more for the primary time in many years, proper all the way down to the BioPace chainrings:
[The bike as it arrived from Classic Cycle.]
I’ve at all times been beguiled by how un-beguiling this bike is, and I rode it fairly a bit, savoring its Golden Age of Aluminum glory and lavishing extra consideration upon it than you’d count on from somebody who has prepared entry to a lot of far “nicer” bicycles. Most of that spotlight will not be evident from wanting on the bike, since aesthetically it’s so deeply boring that it has a method of swallowing up any visible enhancements like a black gap. Nevertheless, I can guarantee you that functionally it was buzzing alongside superbly due to my efforts, and was a pleasure to experience.
Nevertheless, ultimately my elder son appropriated it as his faculty commuter, in no small half as a consequence of its excessive anonymity. See, youngsters aren’t trying to appeal to consideration to themselves, particularly once they’re already doing one thing extremely uncommon, like driving a motorcycle to highschool. For instance, I’d been encouraging him to make use of the Homer for this objective, which appeared excellent given its fenders and dynamo gentle and capability for racks:
Nevertheless, he declined, noting that the looks of the bike was too “whimsical,” and it was then that I spotted that stuff like ornate lugs and cream-colored headtubes merely carry no cultural forex for the youth of as we speak. So the Normcore Bike it was, and he’s typically been driving it simply as you see in that opening picture of it, besides with flat pedals.
Just lately although a few issues have begun to manifest themselves. The primary was the approaching demise of the freehub physique, which isn’t stunning given the bike’s age and the truth that it now spends fairly a little bit of time exterior. Finally it started to grab up, and whereas I used to be in a position to resurrect it through considered software of premium Dumonde Tech lubricants, it nonetheless rumbled disconcertingly whereas coasting, and clearly its days had been numbered within the low-to-mid double digits.
The second downside was that the low-slung drop bars weren’t notably comfy for commuting. Granted, as a motorcycle dork this bothered me greater than it bothered him, however he did acknowledge it was one thing he wouldn’t thoughts being remedied. In order that’s what I did:
The bar is made by Nitto, and is what Rivendell used to promote because the “Dove:”
I’ve had it for who is aware of how lengthy, and it used to adorn the Scattante:
I attained correct elevation by deploying the Nitto Tallux stem that got here with the Homer in its authentic incarnation:
A noteworthy characteristic of the levers is you could set them up for each lengthy pull or brief pull brakes:
Determining how you can configure the shim thingy the place you anchor the cable practically broke my tiny mind, however ultimately I managed.
However the true problem was the freehub physique. The Normcore Bike is provided with cutting-edge late-’80s Shimano 105 expertise, proper all the way down to the Uniglide rear hub, and clearly I wasn’t going to supply an actual substitute provided that Uniglide is profoundly out of date. (You’d be higher off reverting to thread-on freewheels than urgent on with Uniglide or another deserted cassette hub system.) Now, with this specific 105 hub, supposedly it’s straightforward to easily substitute the Uniglide physique with a 7-speed Hyperglide one. Nevertheless, 7-speed can also be vanishing, and so far as I can inform the our bodies which can be presupposed to be direct replacements are not available. So I sourced one which appeared prefer it ought to work, however as soon as it arrived I had the hub aside I discovered it was fully improper:
I did watch a man on YouTube who made it work, nevertheless it concerned stuff like making his personal instruments, and I watched lengthy sufficient to resolve “Fuck that.”
Nevertheless, a few years or so in the past I’d changed the freehub on a 9-speed-era Ultegra hub, which appeared to make use of the identical spline because the 105:
So I pulled it off that wheel and whadya know, it bolted proper onto the previous 7-speed 105 hub, no downside.
For those who’re questioning why I didn’t simply squeeze that very same Ultegra wheel into the Normcore Bike regardless of the completely different axle spacing and name it good, in fact I attempted that first, however the dish was method off–like to this point off the wheel hit the body and wouldn’t flip. It was additionally somewhat off with the freehub physique from the Ultegra hub on the 7-speed wheel, however solely by somewhat, and it was minor sufficient that I didn’t even have to regulate the brake. (Not having to unfold the bonded aluminum body aside was a bonus.) And with the addition of some spacers salvaged from an previous cassette the 7-speed Hyperglide sandwich match on there properly:
Is it excellent? No. Does it work? Sure. Anyway, you don’t discover a wheel that’s just a few millimeters off heart, however you positively discover a clean, quiet freehub physique and the dramatic enchancment in shifting:
Whereas I used to be at it, I additionally went to downsize the unnecessarily-large-for-a-commuter 52-tooth huge ring, however the entrance derailleur wouldn’t go low sufficient for the substitute ring and so I simply stored it on there:
And with that, the Normcore Bike entered a brand new period of consolation and utility:
And due to that new freehub physique I’m not restricted to both Uniglide and even 7-speed cassettes:
Take that, Deliberate Obsolescence:
And I didn’t cease there! I additionally took the cockpit from the Normcore Bike and grafted it proper onto the Faggin, cables and all:
See?
This netted me nicer brake levers and a stem with a barely higher match, plus I put that second pair of Ultegra brakes on there whereas I used to be at it.
It now slots proper in to the house as soon as occupied by the Normcore Bike…
…although there’s actually nothing regular about it.
