Your latest bike project?

[hozn]

Have been meaning to start this thread for awhile.

I am working on a 24″ MTB project for my son.

Starting with a Kona Hula frame that was given by a friend.

Project goals:
– convert to disc brakes
– drop ~10lbs (original bike just under 30lbs, goal 20lbs)
– as much as possible do the build with my son — the recipient of this bike (including the wheels; he’s good at helping lace).

Original frame, stripped down:

This A2Z adapter looks promising. I might modify it and drill into frame dropout if I am not able to easily solve the unit rotating when braking while rolling backwards (I know this will be an issue otherwise):

Committed:

Topic

[hozn]

@hozn 167088 wrote:

Picked this out of a neighbor’s trash.

And the project is completed!

Huge thanks to Vicegrip who was key to the disc-brake conversion (grinding, drilling/tapping threads for bolting on the a2z, etc.)

It is a bit large for my son (and he has a bike that fits well), but he was super excited to ride it on the street this evening.

[hozn]

@hozn 178017 wrote:

So, I have a couple of in-progress kid bike projects. They are slow loving because I am constrained by birthdays. My wife doesn’t think it makes sense to give presents as large as bicycles “just because”.

I am building a road + cx bike for my soon-8yo son. He’s asked for one a few times and he’ll love having something faster to ride on pavement. And he can use it for CX team next year.

I’m starting with a Raleigh RX24. Which by itself is probably just fine. And at $340 on Amazon, is a really great value! But that wouldn’t be a project, would it?

Claimed weight is 21lbs; I haven’t weighed it (I haven’t even fully assembled it.). This really is a brilliant bike. The disc brakes open up lots of opportunities for having it serve different purposes. I will be exploiting that heavily as I look to fit larger wheels than the oddball British “24-inch” 540 etrto stock wheels.

Goals of this project are

(1) to improve the brakes to something that can be stopped quickly with (hopefully) single-finger braking — with small hands — from the drops. Better calipers, better housing, better rotors.

(2) Convert to a wheel size that actually has non-wheelchair tires available.

(3) to bring that weight down to something respectable for a road bike, even with the disc brakes. Less than 1/3 my son’s weight (60lbs) seems reasonable. Well shoot for 17lbs and see how close we get.

Build done! Writeup here: http://snakesthatbite.blogspot.com/2018/05/raleigh-rx24-24-kids-roadcx-bike-project.html

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