Single-Speed Build

This was a rusty old Royce Union frame (circa 1978) that I found entangled in a bird's nest of rusty old bikes behind an apartment building we lived in when we first moved to town. The bike's owner, "Blade", graciously let me take any/all the bikes I wanted from that pile. For me, the main draw to this one was the old leather saddle it had. I stripped down the entire frame, painted it, replaced the bottom bracket, crankset, and rear wheel, and rebuilt the headset with new bearings.


The saddle was in bad shape, from sitting out in the weather for years. In fact, I broke the brittle leather on my third ride. So, I eventually replaced it with a new piece of leather and some copper rivets from the hardware store.