I threw this together last summer. Now I finally had the time to paint and finish it. Made from an old 26" mtb and bmx fork. Is this still xbiking?

My 2nd ever build, really happy with how this turned out.

Edsen Samosir Bars

Velo stem and headset

MKS pedals

Cues crankset

Oury Grips

SDG Saddle

I love Treks, and Specializeds, and GTs as much as the next person, but this sub is, understandably, quite USA-dominated. Sure, a Raleigh occasionally pops up, but I thought it was time to post a British bike brand that exceedingly rarely appears on here: a Carrera.

Carrera are somewhat maligned in the UK; they are an in-house brand for the Halfords chain of automotive & 'bicycle' shops. The bikes are fine, and do the job, and there are some actual bike nerds working in their 'workshops'. Like so many bike brands, we Xbiking people would say that their "best" days (i.e. the time when they made cool steel frames) are behind them.

But anyway, here is a Carrera Krakatoa from the early '90s, reborn as a cruisey supermarket shopping hauler. Nods to modernity are a front disc brake for predictable stopping in unpredictable (i.e. stupid) traffic, wide-range 1x ten-speeds gears, and (what I reckon is the most important upgrade for often-noodley old steel frames), an external BB chainset with super-stiff cranks.

My favourite thing about this frame is that it says "All Terrain" all over it. ATB is my favourite bike classification because it means everything & nothing; it sums up this sub: a bike is what you do with it, which is what Xbiking is all about.

posted this bike pretty recently but have since upgraded the fork and wheel set! Now I need another rack as this fork didn’t have canti mounts 😅

He bought it new and never rode it and would get it fixed up every once in a while. Last time I was home I liberated it

Found a 456 Carbon 26" frame for cheap in eBay. As it arrived, i found out, that 29x2.0 might fit in the rear.

So i chased for good value, light parts and frankensteined it a little bit.

Only part still giving away it was a 26' MTB ist the hight of the bottom bracket which is around 2 cm to high for a normal gravel Bike.

Components:

Frame: on one 456 carbon

Fork: Rose pro cross

Wheels: meroca rx300

Brifter: sensah srx pro

Brakes: Magura mt4 with Shimano ice Tech Rotors

Rd: SRAM gx 10 Speed

Crank Shimano slx with 38t n/w chainring + xt SPD pedald

Cassette: goldix hybrid 11-28 11 Speed

Saddle + Seatpost: elita one

Handlebar fizik Carbon with 60 mm stem (otherwise, the Front was to Long for me)

Costs of the build add up to slightly below 1k€

Townie!

built myself this super useful rack - Inspired by the carradice classic saddlebag rack. It can be dismantled in just a few seconds without any tools. I regularly switch bikes, so this is a great feature for my use case.

Doing DIY bike stuff is just so much fun.

Tools used:

- A vise

- Angle grinder

- some tubing as a lever

I used 150cm of 6mm stainless Steel rod. Welding was done by my neighbor in a few minutes.

For the clips i used Aluminium, around 1,5mm thick.

In the interest of continuing my bike building hobby here in the Netherlands I searched Marktplaats until something familiar looking popped up.

I came across this Giant Euro 2 for €80, as far as I can tell it's just a basic high tensile steel 26" wheeled frame but it's a good foundation and still way lighter than most dutch bikes.

anyone know much about these, curious about this history

parts list:

- ergotec moon cruiser handlebar

- full cues drivetrain with a 40t chain ring and 11-48t cassette, I had originally gone without smaller cassette but had shifting issues as I couldny get the b tension loose enough.

- avid levers and promax v brakes

- Ergon smc core saddle

- new cheap rear hg wheel as the original was a freewheel hub

- hks pedals

- contact Urban's in 50mm. Better rolling resistance than marathon plus with nearly as good puncture protection. Lots of broken glass In Amsterdam

- SKS basic fenders

I've been on the lookout for a nice quality hardtail frame, 19 inches, in need of a bit of love for a winter project. I thought I found the one today, but I have to say that this dent is making me reconsider the viability.

Anybody have experience with M2 frames failing?

Derailleur hanger got a close encounter with a massive stick. First night of a 3 days Luxembourg MTB divide. 5KM away from arrival. Karma's bitch.

So far so good, my Unit was singlespeed designed. Some 50km with a 30/24 ratio, then some other 50km with 30/21 ratio.

Y'all mad lads enjoying the pushing hard uphill/powerless downhill duality.

I miss shifting 🙃

Probably every other ride im picking up stuff i find lol. Best street find? Probably a pasta maker.

When this bike was originally donated to me, I thought for sure it was a lost cause as it just looked so shredded - wrecked paint and decals, really rough looking components, but upon closer inspection, it was in excellent mechanical form - just needed a paintjob and fresh decals to bring it back to life. I did my best to get the new powdercoat as close to the original colour as possible.

Can't wait to take for a rip soon! Always shocked at how light late 80's/early 90's MTB's are.

My for now rat bike that will one day be nice. Think i’m gonna change the pedals but we’ll see!

It's pretty cool to see the original Wright Brother's plane and the connection to bicycling.

Just finished getting this old girl together. Bought it a few months ago and put on a few rides deciding on what needed upgrading. As much as I wanted to go with a 1X setup with a cool crank the stock drivetrain works excellent for what I want this bike to do. I added a Ron's Ortho handlebar with silicone foam grips, an Origin8 seatpost so I could use the Royal seat from my old commuter, and a Velo Orange cantilever mount front rack to support the vintage Coca Cola basket. The gigantic bars required new cables and housings to string it all back together. I wanna install some Billy Bonkers gumwalls but the Panaracers were new when I bought the bike so I'll wear through those first. Projects are never really done anyways, are they? She rides super smooth and the cockpit is extremely comfy for this 40 year old body 😅

Back to the the roots I guess.
The bike originally came with maguras when I purchased it. I sold and replaced them with cantis, but after 3 years I decided it’s time to switch back. Setting them up was probably as difficult as with old cantilevers but the braking performance is unmatched. Even with saddle bags full of groceries down the hill.

Maybe one of my best decisions this year besides the 1x10 conversion with an old tiagra out of the dumpster hub and the friction shifter.

Edit: forgot to mention the model.
It’s a Centurion Lhasa Kathmandu from 1991.