Whos doing a 'cheap' winter conversion?

iPete

Don't fancy using my Allez on ice again this year so I'm trying to source as much cheap stuff as I can to convert my un-loved and unused Kona Fire Mountain 08 into an ice monster.

Anybody know if it has mounting points for a pannier rack, its stashed away at another house!

Shopping list:
Cateye SP MODEL Flex Tight Bracket (can swap both my front lights between bikes) £4.50
Shimano A530 SPD Single Sided Touring Pedals (will add to Allez after winter) £45
TorTec Ultralite Rear Rack (anything cheaper out there?) £22.50
Smart Lunar R1 Rear Light (can't share rear lights, anything better for the money?) £16.19
Schwalbe Marathon Winter 200 studs (ordered from starbike germany) £72

Time to scour e-bay to find all the above for less.... am I mad or are other people doing this? :twisted:

Wish I had a CX bike with clearance for studded 700cc tyres.

hatbeard

iPete wrote:

Shopping list:
Shimano A530 SPD Single Sided Touring Pedals (will add to Allez after winter) £45

http://www.highonbikes.com/shimano-pd-a ... edals.html

iPete

Leg-end! Forgot about HighOnBikes.. 8)

Thats the pedals and light found cheaper!

hatbeard

My shopping tip is to use google's 'shopping' search for the product name, filter by price low to high, find the cheapest place, check it's in stock, print the page and get evans to price match in store.

you'll avoid any p&p charges that some places use to puff up their really cheap prices and you can save a decent wedge.

the smart R1 can be had for £11.95 if you do it this way...
http://www.parker-international.co.uk/1 ... n=pid16958

rav666

do i get a prize for the cheapest ???

Change road tyres (schwalbe city jets) to old nobbly MTB tyres (FREE)

Take off pannier bag and use rucksack instead to protect me from landing on my ass

Leave everything as standard (lights etc)

rolf_f

hatbeard wrote:

My shopping tip is to use google's 'shopping' search for the product name, filter by price low to high, find the cheapest place, check it's in stock, print the page and get evans to price match in store.

you'll avoid any p&p charges that some places use to puff up their really cheap prices and you can save a decent wedge.

the smart R1 can be had for £11.95 if you do it this way...
http://www.parker-international.co.uk/1 ... n=pid16958

OK to do that to a point but a bit unfair all the time! Something like a Lunar will probably fit through the letter box anyway (not that Evans seem to stock R1s) - so hopefully no frustrating cards through the door. Ribble very cheap for those too by the way (and post free if you are spending more than £25).

hatbeard

Rolf F wrote:

OK to do that to a point but a bit unfair all the time! Something like a Lunar will probably fit through the letter box anyway - so hopefully no frustrating cards through the door.

True, I do buy a fair amount elsewhere too but in this economic climate I feel no guilt about stretching my money as much as possible where I can. plus judging by the people I see paying full whack for goods in evans I'm one of the rare ones who shop around for the best price so I can't imagine the damage from my actions are too great (although I also get that small business do struggle a lot to stay competitive with the big chains).

Rolf F wrote:

(not that Evans seem to stock R1s)

doh you are right, just remembered I got mine from uk bike store not evans.

gtvlusso

Nope - Ditching fixie for the snow and using old 531 racer with Shimano Ultegra gears....Will "road" it.....

SamWise72

"Conversion" would be stretching it. Rode home last night on crisp dry pavement on my Brompton, woke up to 8 inches or so of snow. So, I had a putter in here:



Which is a veritable Alladin's cave; a bike for (virtually) all reasons, plus a pile of half finished projects, and I dug out this:



The Halfrauds BSO that reintroduced me to cycling about 8 years ago. I bought it when I was changing jobs more or less the same week my wife was leaving me. I had two weeks between jobs, the company car was going back, and the wife was taking hers, so I needed transport. I cycled all the time until 4 years or so before, so I thought I'd treat myself to my first ever new bike since I was a kid. Error. I bought this. Still, I enjoyed it enough that not too much later I was picking up a 531 road bike for £20 from eBay, and here we are today.

Anyway, at some point it acquired these MX motorcycle bars as a half hearted attempt to make a cruiser of it, and then I hung it up and haven't touched it for probably 3-4 years. So, dragged it down, dusted it off, 40 PSI both ends, and lubed the chain, and it's as good as new! Of course, new wasn't very good in this case....

Anyway, I'm actually working locally for once tomorrow, which ironically means riding further, so I took it for a spin, and it did well! Much more surefooted than any of my other bikes would have been. These were my thoughts

1) Glad I put the long stem and wide bars on
2) How did I ever think this thing was the right size?
3) Oooh, skidding the back wheel is fun
4) Yikes, skidding the back wheel accidentally is scary
5) This is going to get a proper service and a longer seatpost, and be permanently available for snow duty
6) I wonder if I have another wheelset around, so I can also stick cream Fat Franks on it as a cruiser?
7) Who cares? This is fun.
8) Ouch my legs. Why did I ever think this was big enough for me?

15 miles tomorrow will be an adventure

dhope

SamWise72 wrote:

:shock:

I mean, there's space for a few more in there, N+1 and all that :twisted:

SamWise72

Well. There's another wallhanger somewhere that I need to put up at the back, plus a nice vintage BSA near the front that's supposed to be eBayed for a friend, and an old tourer near the back that I'm giving away. Then there really WILL be room for a few more.....