I have a weird passion for small wheeled bikes. I own a couple of reasonable folding bikes (A Dahon and an older Brompton) and whilst the Brompton is semi retired for a big overhaul one day the Dahon sees some use (photo below). It's a great holiday bike when camping, running around campsites on errands, or for a run to a local shop. It's also not a bad machine for a longer ride out for pleasure.
This love of small wheels has led me into ogling more expensive waters. In cities there's an interest in "Mini Velo's" which are non folding small wheeled bikes in reasonable sized frames. They get very hip and very expensive very quickly and there are a couple that I'd love but could never justify, the Orbeau Katu 20 (below) and the Velo Orange Neutrino (top image).
The Neutrino is gorgeous, rugged and nimble and quite capable of all but the most demanding performance riding. However it's a price. I think just the frameset in the UK would cost around £900 so it's a £1500 bike by the time you've put decent bits on it.
Everyone knows I'm a packrat, so I knew there must be cheaper ways to explore none folding mini velo style builds. A few years ago I saw that Argos in the UK sold a kind of mini velo bike, the "Challenge Urban Camper". When I saw it I was blown away with how similar the frame geometry is, in particular to, the Orbeau Katu. It's pretty identical. It's angles are also really similar to the VO Neutrino, but it's £250 when new!
I let the thoughts go as I (reasonably correctly) assumed that the Challenge Urban Camper would be a BSO (Bike Shaped Object) made from poor quality parts, but every now and again I kept thinking of it as a potential for a donor frame for a mini velo project.
Cut to now, a couple of years later and I came across a couple of projects that have done exactly this. One is some skant comments in a reddit post and the other is a 3 part youtube video from Second Life Cycles. The realisation I am not the only nutter is powerful! I also might have a bit of work running some basic bike repair skills workshops and a small packable disc braked bike suddenly became a handy option there as well. At £250 I was considering purchasing a brand new Challenge Urban Camper, but then.. one appeared an hour and a half away on marketplace, for £60!
So I am NOT starting this project for a couple of weeks as I need to get EMF camp out of the way and a few bits and bobs of work. However let's look in this post at the state of the Challenge Urban Camper (CUC) and see whats what.
Picking up the bike, it's clear it's not had masses of use. The lovely chap who sold it said it belonged to his late mother who only road it a few times. It's obviously come from the factory partly assembled as it still has evidence of plastic wrap under screws and bolts on components. It has a few small scratches, I'd imagine mostly from storage rather than dings and crashes. SO it's an aluminium frame, pretty rugged, with some pretty unrefined welds that look solid but with no artistry! The 20" wheelset look OK, disc brakes feature 160mm rotors and "clark" mechanical brakes. I haven't come across clarks before but they are functional and stop the thing. I'm probably going to do a few runouts on it with these brakes and replace em when they show they need it. I'm less concerned about 20" wheels as by definition, smaller wheels are stronger than their larger counterparts. I'd imagine the wheels on it are pretty tough, they run true and, apart from one little tweak, all the spokes seemed well tensioned etc. It has mudguards and I'd totally presumed these were plastic jobs.. I was shocked to find that these are pressed steel... they are rugged and shockingly well built.. they probably add a kilo to the weight, but they can stay for now!
It's got a 6 speed cassette on there and the godawful Shimano grip shift... I imagine that will be replaced with an equally cheap Shimano lever shifter, which will be a big improvement. The derailleur seems to shift and index OK so it again will stay until it shows itself not fit for purpose. I live in a very hilly region so gears are very useful.
The bottom bracket is a pretty standard looking affair and again seems to work. The cranks are awful looking! Weird angular cast stuff that looks cheap and also is the rather odd 150mm length. They sort of offend me so even though they work I imagine they will be replaced sooner than other parts.
Handlebars, there is a folding setup on here and it does make it very easy to slip into a car. I'm a little torn on this as I always feel on my folding bikes that the folding bar/stem/quill setup on folding bikes is the weaker link. The steel forks are 1" threaded and the quill is a standard clamp in device so there are a few options to replace it. Second Life Cycles went with a converter quill to break it out to a 1 1/8" and then added a BMX stem and bars which is a rugged solution. I probably have a better Dahon style folding set up in a shed, or I could go for a long vintage stem and bars... we'll see.
The bike arrived with the most awful saddle I've ever seen on it and also a small (but quite good I guess) basket system. It also has some terrible russet brown grips that are horrid! I've actually already swapped out the saddle and chucked on one of my growing collection of Charge Spoons, which are an excellent saddle for not masses of money. The seat post is distinctly retro in 27.2mm steel with an oldschool seat clamp. I can imagine swapping this out for a Lofty Gussett at some point.
Tyres on it are cheap and functional... after watching Second Life Cycles I have fallen in love with the gum walled billy bonkers tyres they put on their build, so I'm watching evilbay for if I can find a bargain set.
There's always a weirdism with 2nd hand bikes. When loading this I glanced at the drive side pedal and realised it was a folding pedal. I have cheap folding flat pedals on my Dahon and they dramatically reduce the packed size of a bike and also really reduce the storage width of a bike when the bike is unfolded. I folded the pedal and the chap selling the bike was amazed as he hadn't noticed. Then... the non drive side... lol.. totally different non folding pedal?!? I can't quite believe it came like that from the factory? Dunno!
Finally, I could imagine getting to the point of stripping and painting the frame, but maybe not until I've got it set up in a way I like. I deffo want to make a frame bag for it so that's a DIY project in itself.
