This episode features the Tillsonburg Titillator, the Orange Animal himself, Jonathan Macdonald!
While my main inspiration for this series is still Motortrend's Roadkill show, I want to do it a little differently. Almost everything they do on Roadkill falls under the "do not try at home" category, but I want my videos to encourage people to try working on their own bikes. I love the idea of reviving old vehicles, whether that's cars or bikes, and I love seeing non-profit shops in Toronto like Bike Pirates and Charlie's FreeWheels using donated and damaged bikes to build the cycling community. Bikes are not just transportation for them, they're a tool for opening up new doors and learning new skills. Mississauga's cycling community seems to work a little differently, and even most Mississauga commuters choose to buy new, brand name bikes. I want to use these videos to encourage cyclists here to take a look at the used market, not just as a source for new bikes, but also as an opportunity to experiment and test, and to better understand bicycles and cycling in general.
In this episode of Project: Used Bikes, I finish my current build and return the favor to Jonathan by rebuilding his old bike. It's been around and has seen some rough days, so this time I'm building it to last Jonathan as long as he wants it to. It's built on a budget but uses brand name parts (except for a few small things here and there) and matches his car and general orange aesthetic. All the project bikes I buy are between $100 and $200, and new beginner level BMX bikes retail for around $400 or so. So for the price of a fairly cheap new bike, we've got two fairly high end bikes that will last ages. After filming this, Jonathan took his bike home and I sold the Subrosa to a guy who was SUPER stoked on it. I literally doubled my money on the old green project bike while still setting Jonathan up with good build and we have a good frame to build up later. I'm filming episode 3 at the time of uploading this episode. Unlike the first two, episode 3 will be about mountain bikes. I talked about the Jamis and Rocky Mountain mtb's that we play with in my "Defense of Cheap Bikes" video, but now I'm going to show all the details that make the 10+ year old Jamis keep up with a 2017 Rocky Mountain.
