Project Blackbird

My last bike was supposed to be just that, the last bike. Now that I think of it, the last two were supposed to be the last one. Oh well.

This project is one I've had in mind for over a year, but every time I would build a bike, I ended up putting gears on it. Well, I have my racers and my foul weather commuter, so there's no reason not to see this project through. I'm finally going to build a fixed gear. I feel like a Johnny-come-lately, even big corporate names like Trek, Specialized, and Giant have fixed gear bikes in their product line.

In Portland, I've noticed most of the fixed gear bikes are assembled from bits and pieces found at places like City Bikes. City Bikes is a great source for parts, and you can get on the road without spending a fortune. I intend to visit the two locations regularly for goodies.

While I want to keep it low-tech and inexpensive, there are two pricey items that a lot of folks find their way to owning, even if they are on a tight budget: Velocity rims and an Italian racing saddle. Velocity makes a fantastic deep V rim. I have a pair on the Somec, and they're the best wheels I've got. Velocity rims are to Portland fixed gear bikes what Edelbrock and Flowmaster are to Muscle Cars. As to the seats, I have both Selle and Fizik and prefer Fizik, so it looks like I'll have to get another Fizik Arione.

Another trend I see in town is to match the color of the tires to the color of the bike. The Blackbird is going to be a high gloss black (what else?), so I can go two ways. Black tires, or whatever color I want since everything goes with black. I'll have to think about it.

Hard core fixies ride without brakes. After soaring down Mt Hood at fourty five miles an hour on Cervelo-1, I've gained a deeper appreciation for good stopping power. I'm' not going to apologeticaly install one front brake, no sir, I'm going to have two of them.

As to the name, my bikes tend to emerge unannounced from the shop, like the projects from Lockheed-Martin and their Skunk Works. Wifey-Do knows I have another bike under construction, but neither she or anyone else has an idea what's going to emerge in the end, nor is the real cost ever revealed. Don't get me wrong, all of my projects are funded exclusively from overtime pay. I leave the budget money alone and there isn't any fighting about it. As for the Skunk Works, the SR71 Blackbird spy plane is probably the best known product, and that's where the name came from.

This project is going to take a while to produce, as I intend to do a lot of customizing, and I won't be receiving a lot of overtime pay until January, but I've learned patience over the years, knowing that good things take time.