The San Francisco Bike Kitchen is where you find mechanical magic. This local non-profit, run by volunteers, offers a build-a-bike program for $40. This lets you build a bike with the used parts lying around the Kitchen. From frames to wheels to handlebars, patience is all that’s needed to assemble a custom ride.

I fully intended to bike everywhere when I moved to SF, and even picked an apartment location that would let me do that. I found myself visiting the Bike Kitchen within a week of moving in, and spent a prodigious amount of time there for the next 2 months. Building a complete, functional bike with my own hands was an idea that deeply spoke to the engineer, craftsman, and artist in me. I was rewarded with a beautiful friend that now follows me everywhere I go.

I was committed to building a fixed gear bike of my own (one of the volunteers warned that it would be 20+ hours of work), and Murphy’s law hit hard. I ended up reworking nearly every inch of it. And I loved every second that I spent struggling.

The first real challenge was choosing a frame. This was the biggest decision to make, and would impact how the rest of the entire build would pan out. I had to balance many constraints, some of which I had just started learning about. The bike had to fit me well. It had to either already have a fixed gear hub, or be able to accept one. I had to love the look. Sturdy, but light. Brands, lugging, butting, forks, material, dropouts. It went on and on.

This black fixed gear bike was donated while I was in the Kitchen one day. It was tempting but I was on the fence about the quality of the material and didn’t want to deal with removing the stickers. Despite it already being a functional bike, I decided to take the fixed gear back wheel instead, with some remorse. I felt like I should have given the bike thanks for its life of service. Its legacy will live on through its parts. 4+ hours.

Time skip! Unfortunately, I was engrossed with the work and did not take enough photos. I ended up picking a very pretty frame by “Normano Milano”. I’ve found a grand total of 2 mentions of this brand on the internet, both on bikeforums.net. They indicate that this is likely a B-line branch off of Bianchi in the 50s or 60s. Some speckled rust had formed on the blue and chrome, in a pleasing way, and someone had carved what seems like an SSN into the top bar. Just quirky enough for my tastes. The frame didn’t seem overly heavy despite its age, there was a matching fork, and someone had previously liked it enough to throw on a Shimano 600 crankset. I installed the back wheel that I had harvested and picked up a front wheel and Grand Randonneur handlebars that seemed comfy and matched the aesthetic. 2+ hours.

Struggle #1: I had a 16 tooth sprocket, and wanted to find a suitable chainring for my only gear ratio. 45 seemed perfect, especially for skid patches, but just wouldn’t fit on the crank arm. On the advice of Deming, who often operates the Kitchen, I ended up hand filing the chainring. Seems safe enough. 2+ hours.

I was lucky enough to find that the chainring and sprocket lined up! I even found a wide, used chain that wasn’t too worn. Cleaned it up and threw it on. 1+ hours.

This seat post gave me hell. The frame did not fit anything the Kitchen had. It was a very thin diameter, closer to 24.8mm. Insanity. I ended up realizing that the frame was essentially shimmed to this diameter by the original manufacturer. You could feel the metal ring that was bonded into the inside. I hand filed it out until the thinnest seat post I could find was able to fit. 3+ hours.

First rideable state! I was ecstatic for days. Ended up trialing a bunch of fits, cycling (heh) through a bunch of handlebar positions and seats. The first seat I tried seemed to fit the best, but ended up getting snatched by someone else. So it goes. I was digging the look of this suede seat but there was just too much friction. Also tried a bunch of pedal options. And stems. 2+ hours.

I wanted at least front brakes, and possibly even back brakes. I loved the chrome aesthetic and tried bare handlebar + unhooded drop breaks for a while. Didn’t work out and forgot to take pictures too. I was also having trouble finding nice calipers that had a long enough reach and a long enough bolt. Ended up catching some nice Zeus-2001s that fit decently! However, the threading on the bolt was weird - it was the same as as the threading on Presta valves. I actually ended up using 2 nuts intended to secure valves to hold the brake. Seems safe enough. 3+ hours.

Surprise! The bike fits 27" inch wheels, not 700c as I had assumed. Had to find a new set of wheels. Front was easy enough to find and definitely helped with the fit of the brake. Friend who I convinced to also build a bike is featured in the background. I was also starting to feel some trouble in the bottom bracket and headset. Ended up taking both apart and replacing all the bearings and some spacers. 4+ hours.

The old hub on the rear wheel was also giving me trouble. Solution? Build a new wheel. I saw this as an opportunity and took the wheel building class, also offered by the Bike Kitchen. Unfortunately, with the combination of hubs and rims available, I ended up building another 700c, not 27". At least it’s a shiny blue aero rim! 5+ hours.

The running total? 26 hours or more, so far. The volunteers definitely know what they’re talking about :). I would one day like a 27" back wheel. I’ve also been feeling a bit of friction from the bottom bracket and hearing some clicking…