Saturday, January 22, 2011

10 Speed to 3 Speed Conversion

For those of you who follow me I have converted an old ten speed to a three speed.
The Beater  as I call it has had its transfiguration.
I needed a replacement for my beloved "Victor"

I searched Craigslist and the dump to no avail, my friend Jon the Archeologist  was doing a site survey on some land and told me about a bike. Curious I walked the grounds until I had found it. This bike was a Huffy Timberline 3 speed missing the shifter, it had been ran over by a log skidder. I brought it home removed the decent parts and scrapped the rest. Next my frequent Craigslist searches had paid off, listed as a mens and womens comfort bikes the pics told another story. I found an old ten speed Free Spirit Greenbriar, not a great bike by any means but it is a lugged steel frame with fenders. Here it is in its original ten speed glory.

After trying to ride it as a ten speed I realized that it sucked and I missed my "Victor".
Having spare parts around is a good thing, I put a cheap crankset ( the old one weighed a ton!)
and built a rear wheel with the Huffy parts cold set the rear spacing. Now I had a single
 speed bike (no shifter)I didn't have a chainguard, I did have one for a little pixie bike. So I rode it like that

Then the brakes got changed, to old school center pulls, and I found another Huffy Timberline three speed and scored it for $20 just for the shifter and bellcrank, and added a UN-54 bottom bracket, now this thing is fun to ride. Here it is as I ride it.

2 comments:

Jenn said...

Hi, I found your blog while I was trying to do some research on the huffy 3 speed timberline. I saw that you used one for parts, but wondered what you think of that bike overall? I am looking for a comfortable road bike that doesn't weigh a lot for a good price and the timberline came up on my Craigslist search.

Luke Wilson said...

Hi, Jennifer this bicycle for "light"
city use only. the frame is really flexible and the older Shimano 3 speed is rumored to be weak, I used it without problems however. Thanks for checking in. I would be happy to field any other questions regarding the bicycles on the site, or about bikes that I have experience with.