Wednesday, July 28, 2010

Regina's 70s Azuki Mission hipster / grocery bike

on Orange Alley between 25th and 26th, unknown to tour buses

When we first moved to SF, Regina lacked the requisite hipster machine, so I found this cool ~70s Azuki frame, which had been recently powder-coated, for $60. Good deal. Since it was all-black and Regina is a girl, I figured pink accents would be good. Of course, it all went too far...

before I had my own headset press, I had to go to bike shops for some operations, in this case Valencia Cyclery, my favorite local shop

Spending $130 for a headset on a frame/fork that cost $60 is silly, yes, but it does look cool.

Here's the first iteration:

drop bars look good, but are really silly on a city bike

Later we decided this bike needed to be more practical, so the track-ish position had to go, and baskets were required. The finest handlebar for a city bike is of course the Nitto Dove, so that's what we got.

from hipster sled to grocery-getter, and better for it

Taking advantage of the awesome new sharrows on Scott St. (best street in SF)

The Azuki pauses to reflect in a new Scott St. sharrow

Component highlights:
  • Azuki 70s road frame, powder coated in ~2006
  • Chris King 2-nut (heh heh) headset, 1"
  • Velocity rims, Formula hubs
  • Giant track crank
  • Pink chain... thanks Davin!
  • Planet Bike fenders
  • Campagnolo ~70s single-pivot brakes
  • Shimano levers
  • Nitto Dove handlebar, alloy
  • Nitto Dynamic quill stem
  • Titec titanium seatpost, 26.0 mm (cheap on ebay)
  • Blackburn rack, Wald basket
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