After becoming a member at the bike kitchen in San Francisco, I found this old Lemond Alp d’Huez frame in the trash. When I asked about it, they told me it had a hairline crack on the down tube near where it hits the head tube. I took it upon myself to fabricate a gusset and save the frame. This bike became my mind basket bike for getting around the city and running errands. The repair seemed to work great, I had no issues and got tons of enjoyment out of this bike.
Another small welding project was to modify this 90’s Rockhopper to fit 700c wheels. This involved messing around with the location of the canti studs and chainstay bridge. Additionally I put a more modern fork up front that was pre-sized for 700c wheels. I raced this bike at Grinduro in Chico CA and had a blast, but eventually wrecked it when I buckled the fork while doing laps at Laguna Honda. In retrospect – a fun learning experience, but not worth the effort + the finished result did not handle nor feel exceptional. Let old bikes be old bikes 🙂
nadav hendel 