Project No 1 : The City Bike

The very first project was going to be a complete build-up.  I had decided to put together a city-bike.  A bike that I would enjoy moving around with in a casual manner, serving my morning rides and looking great while I make a pit stop at the coffee shop.  No lycra padded bicycle tights, no clips, gloves or racing sunglasses… but just casual easy attire with only my cycling helmet as a sign that I was a cyclist if I’m off my bike.

I got some cool ideas thanks to Tokyo Bikes. Their range of city bikes are beautiful and minimalist serving true to the nature of casualness and effortless pleasures on two-wheels.

Tokyo Bike’s seemingly effortless bicycle culture setting had me inspired right from the start.  In contrast with the bike messenger’s of New York’s rushed and harried style of riding, TB’s styling was inspiring for my attempts to reflect a casual and “al-fresco” cafe experience.  I could almost say I was coining the term “cafe-bike”.

Well, as much as the fixie bike is one of the main essential style of this genre, per se, I felt I wanted a versatile ride, a city-bike with all the necessary gearing.  Plus, it was going to help me learn what I needed to anyhow.

I kind of liked TB’s Sport bike – a coined term by TB despite more suitable for commuting in the city.  What I liked about the bike :

1. Understated lines – clean and simple
2. Uncluttered setup – all the essentials of a bike and nothing else
3. Classic – a classic frame
4. Single toned – matte black and shiny bits only where you need it.
5. No distracting designs – seems like all new bikes nowadays compete for big bold splashes of colours, text and logos… mostly superficial of you ask me… :)

So, I headed out to my local bike mechanic. I had known this fella from my first beginner road bike.  Uncle Ong who owns an old style “papa-mama” bicycle shop (Well, that’s what I think of it as… ;P) I remembered his shop as having piles of old bicycle parts, his proud collection over the years albeit piled on like a mound of old junks.  But, don’t be misled by it’s outlook, hidden gems can be found among these, should you have the patience (and a high tolerance for dirt, grime and grease.. of course… :P

Scary, right?! :)  Well, anyway I was here to get a bike “built”.  So it started… Uncle Ong had a quick chat with me about what I wanted and the look I wanted to go for.  Sharing Tokyo Bike’s Sports edition pick, Uncle got the idea right at the start and after confirming the start of the build, the work began…

Yeah, I was excited, but at the same time I know this was going to be a slow process… No bike in a day or two, but it’ll probably take a month simply because uncle wanted to get some new parts and maybe sieve through the pile you see above to get what I need… lol. ;) But, no problem, I’ll wait and see how the bike comes together.

Okay, next update I’ll share some of the progress pics!  Wohooo! I’m on my way…

It all began from here…

This was how the idea all started.

I was thinking one day about getting another bicycle.  Considering of course I had a mountain bike before and now a road bike that I use most of the time for training and fitness purposes.  I was looking for a bike perhaps serves somewhere in between a cross between the hardiness of a mountain bike and the road riding nature of the road bike.  Oh well, cause I wasn’t in it to really get hard-core in any particular genre.

Naturally from the above, you’d deduce I’d go for a hybrid… Yup, guess that’s where I was headed but I suddenly had the idea of putting together one.  Hmm, like “fusion cooking” I thought it would be a cool idea to get a mash of what I wanted and made it a custom work.

That little bicycle light bulb lit up in my head and I started to get a whole bunch of crazy ideas about working on bicycle.  Well, as a hobby, if you’d like to think of it that way.  Wouldn’t that be cool?  Hmm… perhaps I’d experiment for a bit before I got seriously into it.

Hence, my first bike project began!

Welcome to Spokes 'n Brew

Do you wake up in the morning, feeling the morning breeze, the warmth of sunshine on your face and embrace the glorious symphony of birds greeting the whole scenery? Well, Spokes 'n Brew takes a moment to indulge in this pleasure while having your legs spin away at wheels which brings you towards the comforting aroma of brewing coffee that awaits you through your journey. It's a new blog of mine, sharing my passion of bikes and the al'fresco enjoyment of the outdoors.