The vacations aren’t all about new motorcycles:
So what else are they about? Spending time with circle of relatives? Smartly, positive, there’s that. However they’re additionally about running at the motorcycles 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 general ubiquity. I imply critically, they’re in every single place. (Truth I simply made up: there are fourteen bonded aluminum Trek street motorcycles for each and every one individual in The usa.) Right here in New York Town it’s nearly not possible to discover a side road signal with out no less than one bonded Trek locked to it:
In reality, for a short lived second remaining 12 months, bonded aluminum was once even poised to make a comeback as the newest customized motorcycle fad:
Although this was once scuttled when the builder was once not able to construct a motorcycle that neither the Desolate tract Hipster site nor the Get away Collective deemed adequate. However, you realize, tight tolerances or one thing.
Anyway, the Normcore Motorcycle got here to me in 2022 by way of Vintage Cycle. See, I’d had a motorcycle precisely find it irresistible Again In The Day…
…so after I took place to note Paul had one indexed on the market at the Vintage Cycle site I inquired about it, and prior to I knew it I used to be experiencing the motorcycle 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 all the time been beguiled by means of how un-beguiling this motorcycle is, and I rode it slightly slightly, savoring its Golden Age of Aluminum glory and lavishing extra consideration upon it than you’d be expecting from anyone who has able get right of entry to to numerous some distance “nicer” bicycles. Maximum of that spotlight isn’t obvious from having a look on the motorcycle, since aesthetically it’s so deeply dull that it has some way of swallowing up any visible enhancements like a black hollow. On the other hand, I will be able to guarantee you that functionally it was once buzzing alongside superbly because of my efforts, and was once a excitement to journey.
On the other hand, sooner or later my elder son appropriated it as his college commuter, in no small section because of its excessive anonymity. See, youngsters aren’t having a look to draw consideration to themselves, particularly once they’re already doing one thing extremely atypical, like using a motorcycle to college. For instance, I’d been encouraging him to make use of the Homer for this objective, which gave the impression absolute best given its fenders and dynamo gentle and capability for racks:
On the other hand, he declined, noting that the semblance of the motorcycle was once too “whimsical,” and it was once then that I noticed that stuff like ornate lugs and cream-colored headtubes merely raise no cultural foreign money for the formative years of nowadays. So the Normcore Motorcycle it was once, and he’s usually been using it simply as you notice in that opening picture of it, apart from with flat pedals.
Lately even though a few issues have begun to manifest themselves. The primary was once the approaching loss of life of the freehub frame, which isn’t unexpected given the motorcycle’s age and the truth that it now spends slightly slightly of time outdoor. Ultimately it all started to clutch up, and whilst I used to be in a position to resurrect it by way of even handed software of top rate Dumonde Tech lubricants, it nonetheless rumbled disconcertingly whilst coasting, and obviously its days had been numbered within the low-to-mid double digits.
The second one drawback was once that the low-slung drop bars weren’t specifically comfy for commuting. Granted, as a motorcycle dork this afflicted me greater than it afflicted him, however he did recognize it was once one thing he wouldn’t thoughts being remedied. In order that’s what I did:
The bar is made by means of 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 beautify the Scattante:
I attained correct elevation by means of deploying the Nitto Tallux stem that got here with the Homer in its unique incarnation:
A noteworthy function of the levers is that you’ll set them up for each lengthy pull or brief pull brakes:
Working out the way to configure the shim thingy the place you anchor the cable just about broke my tiny mind, however sooner or later I controlled.
However the true problem was once the freehub frame. The Normcore Motorcycle is supplied with state of the art late-’80s Shimano 105 generation, proper all the way down to the Uniglide rear hub, and clearly I wasn’t going to supply an actual alternative for the reason that Uniglide is profoundly out of date. (You’d be reverting to thread-on freewheels than urgent on with Uniglide or some other deserted cassette hub gadget.) Now, with this actual 105 hub, supposedly it’s simple to easily exchange the Uniglide frame with a 7-speed Hyperglide one. On the other hand, 7-speed could also be vanishing, and so far as I will be able to inform the our bodies that are meant to be direct replacements are now not readily to be had. So I sourced one who gave the impression find it irresistible must paintings, however as soon as it arrived I had the hub aside I discovered it was once totally unsuitable:
I did watch a man on YouTube who made it paintings, but it surely concerned stuff like making his personal equipment, and I watched lengthy sufficient to make a decision “Fuck that.”
On the other hand, a few years or so in the past I’d changed the freehub on a 9-speed-era Ultegra hub, which gave the impression to use the similar spline because the 105:
So I pulled it off that wheel and whadya know, it bolted proper onto the outdated 7-speed 105 hub, no drawback.
For those who’re questioning why I didn’t simply squeeze that very same Ultegra wheel into the Normcore Motorcycle regardless of the other axle spacing and phone it excellent, in fact I attempted that first, however the dish was once manner off–like to this point off the wheel hit the body and wouldn’t flip. It was once additionally slightly off with the freehub frame from the Ultegra hub at the 7-speed wheel, however handiest by means of slightly, and it was once minor sufficient that I didn’t also have to regulate the brake. (No longer having to unfold the bonded aluminum body aside was once an advantage.) And with the addition of a few spacers salvaged from an outdated cassette the 7-speed Hyperglide sandwich have compatibility on there properly:
Is it absolute best? No. Does it paintings? Sure. Anyway, you don’t understand a wheel that’s a couple of millimeters off middle, however you without a doubt understand a clean, quiet freehub frame and the dramatic development in moving:
Whilst I used to be at it, I additionally went to downsize the unnecessarily-large-for-a-commuter 52-tooth giant ring, however the entrance derailleur wouldn’t cross low sufficient for the alternative ring and so I simply stored it on there:
And with that, the Normcore Motorcycle entered a brand new period of convenience and software:
And because of that new freehub frame I’m now not restricted to both Uniglide and even 7-speed cassettes:
Take that, Deliberate Obsolescence:
And I didn’t prevent there! I additionally took the cockpit from the Normcore Motorcycle and grafted it proper onto the Faggin, cables and all:
See?
This netted me nicer brake levers and a stem with a relatively higher have compatibility, plus I put that 2d pair of Ultegra brakes on there whilst I used to be at it.
It now slots proper in to the distance as soon as occupied by means of the Normcore Motorcycle…
…even though there’s in point of fact not anything commonplace about it.
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