Make: Tiger
Model: ?
Year: 1970 something
Obtained: Sept 2011
Found: Bike Works co-op
Paid: $5.00 (Frame-set plus a few parts)
At the same time I picked up the
blue Peugeot UO-8 frame-set at my local bike co-op I found yet another lonely frame-set from the island of misfit toys, a yellow, dirty 10 speed with a very cool Tiger head badge. I had never heard of this brand, neither has the internets, and I ended up getting the same "
please take that thing and get it out of here" deal that I got on the Peugeot.
 |
| it's grrrrrrrrrrrrrrreat! |
|
So armed with two frames and a couple of used 27 inch wheel-sets I went home and inspected my haul. After looking at the Tiger I had to laugh, it appeared someone had been in a muddy cyclo-cross race with this bike and then parted it out without ever cleaning it up and to top it off it had sections wrapped in packing tape..WTF!?
Why would you put packing tape on a 10 speed frame I ask? Why! it took a while but eventually I got it all off and after some inventory realized that I had a BB, cable guides, seat post and faux velvet seat and set of no name center pull brakes to work with -in addition to a used wheel-set.
More importantly I had a vision for this bike. I had recently come across the Kenda K161 cyclo-cross knobby tire on Amazon in a nice fat 27 x 1 3/8 inch gumwall tire (that equates to 37c). As it was getting onto the wet season I though this would be a great rain bike build with the Kenda tires and some fenders. You can can check out this tire over at bikeman4u
here .
.
After doing some major cleaning and then waxing of the frame it was time to source some parts to get this baby back in the road. In my parts bin I had; derailleurs, 6 speed freewheel, a sealed bottom bracket, stem and a better seat as using a faux velvet seat on a rain bike is just not done. I hit
Bikeworks for; stem shifters, handlebars, brake levers, pedals, and a crank-set. As always the bike got new; rubber, cable and housing, chain and bar tape. I had been so pleased with how the red accents looked on the
white Peugeot that I took a flier and used red housing and bar tape on the Tiger too. I thought it worked out fine.
From ugly ducking to ..well not exactly a swan but at least a plain looking duckling, and it got snapped up on CL by a UW student so it all worked out. Now I need to build myself a bike around those fat Knobby tires some day.
Ride.Smile.Repeat.
