The Tide Ride

The Tide Ride

Cool Blue

The Story

The Tide Ride is only the second “commission” for SBC, but it is significant because a couple of different approaches were taken during the build. Some of these were for cost, some for time, and some for design.

The Tide Ride started out its life as a 1996 Trek 930 SHX. For the time it had a respectable component list and overall decent mountain chops. It was offered to me by the owner of The Mediocritatum. If I had passed on the bike, it would have found its way to the local thrift store. I noticed that the paint was in great shape, and that the Cro-Mo frame was in good condition as well. Even the 25 year old fork still worked.

A family friend’s son is starting medical residency on the coast of southern California this summer, and they wanted to give their recent medical school graduate something special that they could use down there. Perfect use for a Shitbike!

Design Goals

In a nutshell, the goal of this build was to create something unique and special for this graduate. However, we wanted to be careful not to craft a flashy ride that would be a quick target for theft. A simple and timeless silver on blue color scheme would look good without being over the top.

This bike will be spending its next life on boardwalks, beaches, hauling things around town. To that end, parts need to be simple, effective, durable, and cheap to maintain or replace when they wear out. This sounds like a perfect fit for a Box groupset, which is what ended up going on the build.

These goals are overall simple, but it’s builds like these that make for fun challenges. Sometimes putting as much color as you can in between the lines is just as much fun as throwing buckets of paint at the wall.

This bike will be spending the next chapter of its life a few blocks from the beach in southern California, so the name Tide Ride was an easy fit. T-Bone was one of the rider’s childhood nicknames. He is also a big skier, and it was easy to make a special decal callout. Put it all together and we get T-Bone’s Tide Ride!

The Problems

Old Geometry

This bike, like most shitbikes, starts off as a bit of an oldie. It had current geometry for a mountain bike, when it was brought out in the mid 90’s. Things have changed more than a bit since then in the MTB space. But, this old mountain bike was to be repurposed as a townie type ride. The challenge here is to bring the cockpit up and a little bit back for a more comfortable ride. The way this was accomplished was with a steer tube extension. While maybe not the prettiest thing in the world, it was exactly what this build needed to be a little more comfortable for daily use.

Timing

Most shitbikes are built on a very lollygagging schedule. In between rides, other projects, trips, or beers with friends. This bike however, was a little different. In this case there was a due date to shoot for, which is when this doctor-to-be was due to head out to San Diego. The timing also contributed to some cosmetic decisions, like whether or not to give the bike a custom paint job.

To paint or not to paint

Shitbikes are assembled by one weirdo in his garage in a mountain town that is subject to, well, winter. This mostly impacts painting because said weirdo lacks a proper climate controlled paint booth. Paints will only adhere and cure properly at certain temperatures, and 20 degrees Fahrenheit is way out of this range.

The fact that the ideal due date for this build was in April, when there were still feet of snow on the ground, was in part what drove the decision to not give this bike a custom paint job. Custom decals would be faster, easier, cheaper, and more likely to fly under the radar than a custom paint job.

Another factor that mattered was that the original paint was in overall good condition. I was a huge fan of the original blue color, and with a small amount of touch up, it was perfectly serviceable.

The Outcome

Overall, I would chalk this bike up as a success. There were a couple of things that were different than some of the other SB projects, but the goals were different as well! Since the objective was to create something unique, durable, practical, and cost effective on a relatively tight timeline, I think the overall outcome was a win.

Hopefully this bike will be enjoyed on the sunny streets of San Diego for years to come, and will serve this doctor well wherever his journey takes him.