I suppose our interest in bicycles started around the time our two children were diagnosed as having leaning difficulties. We were concerned that they didn’t seem to have much sense of balance, they found simple things like standing on one leg very difficult. This, we felt, was contributing to their disability in that they couldn’t perform like their peers in sport (mind you, both their mother and myself are hardly built for sport, more for comfort) etc which was having a knock on effect in the rest of their academic life.

In our infinite wisdom, we decided to teach them to ride a bicycle, I say we, it turned out that my wife had never rode a bike either and had been hoping I would drop the idea before she had to admit it !

We started with James the eldest, I tracked down an old bicycle and managed to get him up and running with little difficulty, soon progressing to a second hand BMX and finally to a mountain bike.

Paul on the other hand was a different kettle of fish. His mild cerebral palsey meant it was going to take time. Following conventional thought, we used stabilisers to hold the bike up, this was fine, except he just rode around leaning to one side or the other, still not gaining his balance. In desperation (probably more in temper), I took off the stabilisers and the pedals then dropped the saddle until he could easily reach the floor. Then I turned him loose on the front lawn, just scooting along, no pedals, no stabilisers, no nothing, just leg power. Pretty soon he was picking up speed and starting to coast, immediately gaining balance, almost as if by default. In less than an hour, I had the pedals back on and he was away. As most parents with disabled children will tell you, the elation from such a small triumph has stayed with us ever since. The confidence gained by Paul has undoubtedly helped in later years.

Not having the resource to purchase brand new bicycles for the whole family, we resorted to second-hand ones. We wheeled and dealed our way to at least one mountain bike each, trading up as nessaccery along the way. We brought spares from local shops and car boot sales but eventually managed to blagg our way into a warehouse and get stuff at trade price. It was then that we decided to start re-building and custom building bicycles.

Mountain bikes are all well and good, especially off road, their knobbly tyres coming into their own. On tarmac however, the aggressive tread patterns we were using took their toll. Looking through various magazines, we came across hybrid bicycles. Their low gearing and narrow tyres seemed ideal for what we wanted, easy riding and cycle tracks. Not being able to afford one, we looked at making our own.

We had been given a racing bike as spares some time previously (it's amazing how many people have old bikes hanging around and can't wait to get rid of them to you for bits). This came with the all the usual bits, dropped bars, vicious saddle, gear shifts on the down tube, high gearing etc, but it's saving grace was its 700c wheels.

The plan was to swap on some dual pattern tyres, mountain bike triple front chain ring, straight handle bars and brake levers, grip shifts and a sprung gell saddle.

I started by swapping in the triple chain ring. The original bottom bracket pushed this too far from the frame so that needed to be swapped as well. Luckily, I had an assortment and soon found one which would allow the required clearance from the frame but keep it well enough in to stop it looking like it was just stuck on. Those of you who have done this before will appreciate that, nothing looks worse than a sticky out bottom bracket. Bottom gear on these rings were 28t, middle 38t and top 48t, typical old mountain bike range. I then swapped the standard short cage rear derailleur for a long cage one then adjusted the chain length link by link until I just got clearance between the rear derailleur and chain on both front and rear small sprockets. Fitting the grip shifters was ok but I had to get a small bracket from the local shop to bolt onto the down tube in place of the stock shifters, this would act as a cable stop. It worked perfect. A pair of straight bars and a shallow rise stem from a mountain bike replaced the dropped bars and stem that were fitted. This required similar brake levers, easy enough to source but I hadn't bargained for having to change cables as the nipples differ between road and mountain bike (back to the shop). Lastly, the saddle was swapped for a sprung gell type, don't joke about this, with low gears, you spend a lot of time sitting down to climb hills instead of hanging over the bars like on a true road bike. All in, I reckon it cost about £70 using cheap steel bits. New ones at the time were about £250 ish.

The moment of truth, number one son was chosen as crash test dummy, (as an engineer, I argued that my talents would be better used in a rebuild situation). I needn't have worried, it worked perfect straight from the shed, and only slight tweaking of the index adjuster on both sets of shifters was required. Back indoors, it was stripped, much to my son's horror and re-sprayed in a light metallic green (looked better than it sounds). Following the rebuild, I started to use it more often and quickly relegated the mountain bike to the rear of the garage.

Then a strange thing happened, I had placed an advert in the local free newspaper (told you I was cheap) to sell my wife's mountain bike, (which was brought second hand with no wheels). I had convinced her that she should have a smaller frame and I had tracked one down and had started to rebuild it. A couple came round, she wanted a bike and fell in love with my wife's straight away, stating that the basket on the front (why do women insist on a basket to spoil the lines of a bike ?) was what clinched it. I noticed all the time though that her husband had his eye on the "hybrid" He hadn't seen anything like it (which I found strange) but he was adamant that he wasn't leaving without it. You can guess the rest.

Since then I have built many more, all to the same formula, one is currently bashing it out on the cycle tracks/tow paths around Brum, another looks likely to be used in an upcoming London to Brighton charity ride (no not with me in the saddle).

As for my next project, I have recently acquired a 20" framed racing bike (ideal for me as I am vertically challenged with short legs) which I have started to collect parts for. I might try and get some exotic parts for it, using alloy instead of cheap steel bits.  If anybody has any simiar frames suitable for 700c or even 27x1³/₄ wheels, please let me know !

I have a few cycles to repair for some neighbours.

I am also interested in electric conversions for cycles to assist disabled or easily tired riders. Some of these built into the front or rear wheels, I fancy one in each !

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