My bike is reverse-engineered
by Ed Zacharek, age 16
Howdy there. I’m Ed Zacharek. I’ve been going to school at the Center for Appropriate Transport for around five years now, and I’m writing to tell you about my latest project, a bike I built from parts and tubes donated to CAT by Burley.
What happened was, Burley decided to stop making bicycles and still had tons of parts and precut lengths of tubing in their inventory, so they just donated all that stuff to CAT. At the time, the bike I had was getting smaller and more inadequate with every passing day. When I stood up to pedal, the chain stays would bend and flex until they started rubbing on the tire. It was ridiculous!
One day, my classmates and I were looking through all these tubes that seemed to magically appear out of nowhere. My best friend Nolan pointed out that there were enough pieces to put together a really nice bike, so we began to do so. It was a challenge because we had to look at all these different sized tubes, compare them to pictures online and to bikes in the shop, then completely reverse engineer Burley’s original design. Lots of math, geometry, and patience were involved.
I brazed the entire frame together because, well, I’m not the best at TIG welding. Brazing is just as strong and perhaps even stronger if done right, and I’ve had lots of practice with the torch.
I had been working at CAT and bike valet parking events over the summer to pay off my bike when it would become complete. I needed to decide on a budget for the parts and factor in the powder coating and tubing. It came out to roughly $400.00. When the school year started, I learned that I had around $950.00 saved up from working. I went a tiny bit insane and started buying the best parts I could find: Chris King headset, Dual drive system, double-butted spokes, etc. The bike ended up costing about $800.00. It was totally worth it though. It’s nice and tall, fits me well, it’s not as heavy as thought it would be, and it’s really fast. Also I named it Charissa.
Possibly Related
- May 2007: CETMA racks are on the attack
- January 2007: ActiveTunes iRide stereo system
- September 2008: Ashland welcomes custom framebuilders
- January 2007: The farm pedaler
- November 2006: Making treasure out of trash
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