making old school comfortable today?

[bridgecity]

What kinds of modifications have you found made OS bikes rideable today for adults?

Any particular brand or model of bike that you feel is every bit as comfortable and versatile as a new school ride?


This is a frame type I always wanted to own as a kid.
The backswept bars and straight post made it ride like a tricycle. I was SO disappointed.
So I keep modifying it to make the best daily rider I can get from the geometry.

The laid back fixed the center of gravity.
The CW's were TOO tall and flexy.
The ProClass rims were WAY too delicate.
The curvey plastic seat was gawd awful to sit on, but the mtb seat is plush.
The Slams were better but too wide for good steering on this frame.
The CST Caesar tires handle much better than the previous 2 attempts.

I'm finally very pleased with the smaller newschool bars and brand new cheng shin tires with a fat tire up front.  It really stabilized the steering and now it's quick and responsive.
The Z rims feel like a weak point but I'm not ready to try something else yet so I just don't do any jumping on the bike.


So what have you guys done with these old bikes to make em daily riders?

[wildwood1971]

for me going to a GT Pro frame 19.5 top tube and GT pro bars feel just right - mind you im only 5'7 and 10 stone 

I found actually using the bike as much as possible was the key to getting comfy and bringing back some long lost confidence. 

[motomagII]

my assasin is built with new school bars,and i have also used set new school 3 piece cranks .the bars were a major thing for me as i love the shape and size of them and hate the old school ones as they are too big and too much back sweep mostly .

[bridgecity]

An Assassin is a good example.  It's a fairly large frame to start with so it makes a good adult rider.

This is a friend's Assassin, he's a bit larger so found the tall CWs were just right for comfort.

[tobybrown35]

in the process of buildin a pk xl as a rider will have old new and some se blue along the line if comes out as expected will b rad as hell. i am totally 4 mixin the best of both worlds and makin dope riders

[Bigplinky]

Get some kind of Pro XL or XXL stem on it that'll give you another inch of knee room (DK, profile or TNT do nice ones and the prices generally ain't too high £30 - £40) 

[oberonspacefruit]

slams, blue odi longnecks, 990 mounts welded on the rear seatstays, decent park tyres, 1 1/8th forks added by losing the bearing races, fbm stem, oddy slick cables,dirty harry's, oddy evolvers,  acs freecoaster conversion, all repainted and stickered to match up.

[bridgecity]

wow, that's quite a clean job you did.
If I passed you on the street, it looks so old school I'd probably not even realize all the new school mods.