My Girlfriend's Bike...continued
Dec 19, 2007 · 09:14 PM · permalink
So I just finished up with assembling the Kappa frame for my girlfriend. If she likes it, I’m gonna have the braze-ons for the sissy bar added to the stays and then have the frame re-powdercoated. Also, tomorrow the Redline straight seatpost will come in to replace the current layback post. Eventually, I’ll get a different banana seat and new wheels too.
How does it ride? AWESOME!!!!
This frame is a 20” BMX race frame with a 21.5” top tube. That’s about 2” longer than Old School race frames and at least 3” longer than an original Schwinn Stingray. The head tube angle is much steeper than the older bikes, which offsets the increased wheelbase a little. The fork and frame are in another league of stiffness compared to a Stingray. The net effect is that the bike tracks pretty wheel but is still pretty agile.
I’m pretty excited about the bike. I told her if she doesn’t like it, I’ll ride it. Keep in mind that I’m a road and track bike kind of rider, so a bike like this represents pure unadulterated fun.
Sweet machine. If she likes that I could definitely see adding a flowery wicker basket at some point.
i was thinking of getting a basket, but she hates the banana seat with flowers. we were thinking of getting a Schwinn Stingray reproduction banana seat, but we haven’t found one in the desired colour and price range.
her old bike is a schwinn skinny tire with steel frame, steel rims, and steel fenders. in a word:HEAVY.
the kappa weighs 26.75 pounds right now.
Ta Ma Duh! That looks good!
What color powdercoat? I’m thinking orange…
Tai
Campy Athena Crank? Is-Nice!
Tai: yeah, we’re thinking orange too.
Andrew: that’s a 2nd gen chorus crank. that forging was a hand-me-down from the Croce d’Aune gruppo.
she took it for a test ride tonight; she said it was cool. and she hates the seat.
With the orange powder coat and grips I can really envision sparkly orange vinyl in the place of the flowers. No clue where one would find something like that, though.
yeah - you’ve got to go for the “bass-boat” sparke-encrusted Vinyl seat cover material. I’m sure you could go to any apolstery shop and have it recovered with a custom color. You can make that think pretty sharp! Can you re-anodize those rims orange too!?
See this photo and related photos for the bass-boat cushion Pam made for the Bettie.
die flowers! die!
did i mention that she really hates the flowers?
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