Can I Convert It? Specialized Crossroads
Greetings! Ever since our abode and community went up in flames about a year ago I've been dreaming about bikes. Most cyclist may be aware of the n+1 equation of how many bikes one person should own. Well I went from having a mountain bike, road bike, cyclocross/commuter bike, and access to my brothers TT bike whenever I liked to having 0 two wheeled fun machines. After moving in with my parents and really feeling the need to get out and burn off some stress, I was quick to look for something to get me spinning. One of my Mom's friends stepped up and offered me her husband's old bike and who am I to turn down something to use? I used it awhile until I found a great deal on a very nice mountain bike that I use everyday now. BUT, I still have a desire to get back to having multiply bikes for multiple disciplines and because I have the Ol' Crossroads (as the guys at the local bike shop called it), I would like to turn it into something that I might use on a more regular basis rather than just dump it off or sell it for a little bit of cash.
I enjoy building up bikes, so that's what I want to do with this one. I want to covert it into a time trial bike. My goal is to keep it pretty cheap because I'm a "starving" college student (kind of). Really I'm a grown man, husband, father of two, college graduate x 3, who is living with his parents and currently unemployed - the unemployed part and just not having money to spend excessively on "fun" things right now are pretty good reasons to keep it cheap.
Can I do it? I really don't know. I've looked at ebay for inexpensive parts that I'll need and most of it will be in my price range. The only really expensive parts are TT wheels - especially the rear wheel which I hope to be a disc wheel. I'm not concerned with weight so much so the wheelset won't need to be crazy expensive and I'll probably have to go for china made or used everything. In fact pretty much the only thing that I'll keep is the frame. Maybe I'll be able to sell the parts for a few bucks to pay for some bullhorn handlebars and some aerobars or something.
Has anyone out there made a conversion of this sort before? Commuter to time trial bike? Any advice from builders out there?
Here's a picture of the Ol' Phoenix that helped me rise out of the ashes of Paradise:

Comments
Post a Comment