Hack or Bodge?

[ironhanglider]

Hello folks,

One of my favourite parts of the GCN show is the Hack or Bodge segment. However with only a picture there is often no easy explanation for what problem was being solved.

I reckon some of the folk on here have come up with ingenious non-standard solutions to overcome various problems, and I thought I could provide an opportunity to show them off.

I thought I'd kick off with my latest effort.

The problem: My son has a perfectly good little track bike (24" wheels) but track season is over, and he wants to try road racing, and I'm too cheap to buy him another bike. I had already been doing a conversion to single speed to get to the track because it has a flip-flop hub and is drilled for brakes. However a road bike conversion is more involved.

I intend to convert it back to a track bike next season, so modifications have to be reversible. I wanted to put brifters on because they are more convenient to use, however the 120mm OLD for the rear hub is a sticking point, and I wasn't really keen to go and build another wheel.


Bike as purchased.


Flip-flop hub


The keys to the puzzle. A Suntour 'Perfect' cluster with 6 cogs at a 7 spd spacing, making it narrower than a regular 6spd cluster as well as compatible with 8spd shifters. The other little nick-knack that I bought was a derailler hanger that fits inside the track end. (I did have an old SIS derailler with a hook that I would have used if I hadn't found this).


A Shimano Adamas front derailleur with the useful feature of having the cable housing go all the way to the derailler. This let me run full length housings all the way from shifter to derailler, and I could then just zip tie the cables to the frame. Without this derailleur I would have had to either find a strap-on cable stops or run just a single chainring.


Microshift levers


The bike ready for action. For it's first outing we did 26.6km and Lachlan now has the hang of both shifting and braking from both the drops and the hoods.

Oh, another hack I stumbled across during this post is that I can post the photos via Strava.

Cheers,

Cameron

[10speedsemiracer]

Impressive, nice Dr Frankenstein approach to the build.

[foo on patrol]

Foo

[AUbicycles]

Doesn’t sound like a hack or bodge job, rather I would say, resourceful.

[ironhanglider]

Thanks Gents,

I have since learned that the "Ultra 6" spacing of 5.0mm came about so that bikes designed for 5spd (with 120mm OLD) could be upgraded to 6spd without having to adopt the new 126mm spacing. It also means that there are a few more clusters around than I thought.

However for all the hipsters who got a fixie who ride it as a SS with brakes, there is an easy-ish way to put gears on. At least if they can afford the cluster.
View item

However there has to be some more innovation out there.

Cheers,

Cameron

[stevenaaus]

Home welded bike trailer, used for timber lengths.

[ironhanglider]

Not the prettiest, but surely a hack for the spokey dokes alone.

Cheers,

Cameron

[10speedsemiracer]

Definitely a hack, nice work.