farfarbicycles

[farfarbicycles]

The inaugural Far Far. 56cm c-c fast "3 speed" riser bar bike! Intended to be mainly ridden like a single speed, but have a turbo and a granny gear for those outlier situations.

@whiteind track hubs @sapim_official race spokes @hplusson hard anodized TB14's 28h @sellesanmarco Concor Supercorsa saddle, gold rails @bikethomson seatpost A classic Suntour derailluer and shifter (though it's setup friction) @ergonbike grips @panaracer_world 28mm T-serv's @mkspedal Gorditos Vintage Suntour friction shifter nice little bell @origin8cycling cranks, stem, bars A cheapo 3 speed freewheel and corresponding 1/8" chain and chainring.

I built the fork with @reneherse crown, @cycles.toei special blades, and Campy drops. The frame is a Sekai of some type. It seemed like a crit bike. This bike here, is another blank canvas upon which I could try ideas and further develop Far Far models to be built and priced for sale. on this bike, I spent $1,170, minus $170 for the fork I built, and just running a single speed freewheel and ditching the gears, that's minus another $100, the Far Far single speed could be built for $900 in materials and supplies. Obviously I want to make money on it, and I would say that taking anything less than $450 would be a robbery. So that puts a nicer Far Far single speed at around $1350, which within the range I figured from Ryan's Surly project I posted before. This model could be cheaper with less expensive components as well. I'm just wondering if someone considering a single speed which is priced at a grand, wouldn't also consider a much nicer one at $1,400. There's also the question of whether or not it's proper to put so much work into a bike and building it with cheap parts. Anyway. Right now, bikes built up with existing frames and forks I think will be called "peasant king," but I'm still workshopping it.

[farfarbicycles]

A dope Surly Steamroller fully modified for the client's smaller stature and utility. He wound up being absolutely thrilled with the bike and loves it. I  raised the rear bridge for fenders and tire clearance, added fender mounts front and back, built 650b dyno wheelset, add mid blade rack mounts, sourced a 160mm cranks and built out a dope all weather city single speed commuter with some delicious parts. This ticket was worked up charging mostly retail for all parts, and charging a much lower labor rate. Paying around $1,400 for the entire thing, and he didn't even get the bars/stem/saddle from me. Anyway, the idea is that this ticket lays the ground work for developing Far Far's single speed model. In this case, I took $300 for labor, but made more because most all the parts were sold at retail. I didn't repaint the frame at all, but that would have added about $180 in paint, and another $100 in labor. Complete bikes are sold at a price which do not equal the sum of their parts, as a rule. Far Far Bicycles will be hand made complete bikes sold off the floor, so it is natural to devise a pricing method independent of the retail of the parts but rather upon total time spent in labor. So for this reason, I believe the models which re-use existing frames, the model name for which I haven't settled on yet, will wind up hitting the $1,000-$1,200 range, possibly less. Anyway, there will be more custom tickets which will more closely reflect what I'm trying to develop.

[farfarbicycles]

One of the earlier paid efforts fall2023, I built up this fork and found an aerosol can of acrylic which almost perfectly matched the frame. If I remember correctly, I was able to ride no hands on this one and it felt great all around. the axle to crown was within 2mm of original, but I did tweak the rake a little bit. I don't think I could notice a change in handling really. Thanks for looking!

[farfarbicycles]

Here, the results of a restoration project brought in. The wheels had actually already been updated to modern aluminum make, so I did not have to respoke with stainless and re-rim with aluminum, so that was nice. This got new paint, decals, and gold enamel lug lining. Diego paid me a good wage for this job, I spent a lot of time on it, and his son got a sweet vintage bike for commuting to class in college! I honestly don't know what model this is, sorry. My passion for this work doesn't extend into an encyclopedic memory of each era of classic brands. LOL. I look at the bike and say, yes, that's cool enough to warrant the work, or not.

This only qualifies for this blog because of the re-spray. The re-spray went well, decals came in and they were all correct. I'm still trying to figure out how best to cure paint jobs before letting the client pick up, but this when pretty well and looked great afterwards. I think the client spent about $800 total with all the new parts and extra work and paint. Made about $300 in labor. Thanks for looking!