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My name is Toni Daniele and I would like you to have a laugh at my first attempt to customise a bike.

I would like to make mention and thank the Boneshakers , a local Outlaw Bicycle Club, whom I met, whilst on one of their Friday night cruises around town. Their custom choppers were very original and the first custom bikes I had ever seen. After listening to some of their bike building advice, I went home with enough incentive to try and customise a bike myself.

I asked my father in-law to keep an eye out for any old bikes at the local St Vincent de Paul store and it wasn't long before he found a bike or 10 dollars. Unfortunately, it couldn't have been any less cool. The bike was a 27inch, 10 speed, ladies racer. At first, I turned my nose up at it, but then, why not use the old racer as an experiment and test my welding and metal fabrication skills.

So the front was cut off and turned upside down and welded back along with an extra strut for strength. This process gave the front forks more rake. I also stretched the back end and used a can of Zinc-It(r) spray to cover the old paint and welds. I bent up new handlebars with a little

help from my wife and left them bare. This was the hardest part of the exercise. I learnt all about making pipe benders, bending techniques, symmetry etc. Overall the build was a good exercise and besides gaining valuable experience, I conceived some ideas of my own in the process.

All the original running gear was put back in various states, even the old perished tyres and seat. The original racing style brake levers were designed to follow curved handlebars, so I had to bend them out straight in order to get enough leverage. I fitted a new rear brake cable and

extended the chain.

That was when I embraced the uniqueness of the bike. I liked the concept of having a bike that I could leave leaning against a beach shack and use it to check the surf at the point or grab supplies from the shop without worrying about someone stealing it. It was then that the name

'Shack Hack' was coined. The handlebars were left uncoated to rust and my 5yr old son was commissioned to write 'Shack Hack' on the top rail, ith a blue paint pen. The exercise was complete.

Total cost was less than 30 dollars for the bike, brake cable, metal tubing and new handle grips. Free items were the oxy-acetylene, bronze,spray paint and extra chain.

Surprisingly the 'Shack Hack' rides well and gets positive feedback from the local crew when down the beach. My two surf buddies have also taken an interest and we have since made more custom bikes. We call our little fraternity 'The Hodads' and enjoy riding the custom bikes when the surf

is poor or on the odd Friday night pub-crawl.

Toni Daniele: Shack Hack, Cherry Roadster, El Toro

My name is Toni Daniele and I would like you to have a laugh at my first attempt to customise a bike.

I would like to make mention and thank the Boneshakers , a local Outlaw Bicycle Club, whom I met, whilst on one of their Friday night cruises around town. Their custom choppers were very original and the first custom bikes I had ever seen. After listening to some of their bike building advice, I went home with enough incentive to try and customise a bike myself.

I asked my father in-law to keep an eye out for any old bikes at the local St Vincent de Paul store and it wasn't long before he found a bike or 10 dollars. Unfortunately, it couldn't have been any less cool. The bike was a 27inch, 10 speed, ladies racer. At first, I turned my nose up at it, but then, why not use the old racer as an experiment and test my welding and metal fabrication skills.

So the front was cut off and turned upside down and welded back along with an extra strut for strength. This process gave the front forks more rake. I also stretched the back end and used a can of Zinc-It(r) spray to cover the old paint and welds. I bent up new handlebars with a little

help from my wife and left them bare. This was the hardest part of the exercise. I learnt all about making pipe benders, bending techniques, symmetry etc. Overall the build was a good exercise and besides gaining valuable experience, I conceived some ideas of my own in the process.

All the original running gear was put back in various states, even the old perished tyres and seat. The original racing style brake levers were designed to follow curved handlebars, so I had to bend them out straight in order to get enough leverage. I fitted a new rear brake cable and

extended the chain.

That was when I embraced the uniqueness of the bike. I liked the concept of having a bike that I could leave leaning against a beach shack and use it to check the surf at the point or grab supplies from the shop without worrying about someone stealing it. It was then that the name

'Shack Hack' was coined. The handlebars were left uncoated to rust and my 5yr old son was commissioned to write 'Shack Hack' on the top rail, ith a blue paint pen. The exercise was complete.

Total cost was less than 30 dollars for the bike, brake cable, metal tubing and new handle grips. Free items were the oxy-acetylene, bronze,spray paint and extra chain.

Surprisingly the 'Shack Hack' rides well and gets positive feedback from the local crew when down the beach. My two surf buddies have also taken an interest and we have since made more custom bikes. We call our little fraternity 'The Hodads' and enjoy riding the custom bikes when the surf

is poor or on the odd Friday night pub-crawl.

The second bike I have customised is called the 'Cherry Roadster' for obvious reasons.

This bike was originally a 10-speed racer, given to me by a work colleague, who saw the 'Shack Hack' I previously made. The bike was a little worse for wear and missing the front deraillieur but it was given specifically to customise.

I wanted to build on some of the ideas I had toyed with on the 'Shack Hack' experiment and create a cruiser-style bike. As I had not seen anyone customise an old racer into a beach cruiser at that time, my mission statement was to make it as practically cheap as possible and raise awareness to the plight of old unwanted racers that could be recycled. There is an abundance of these bikes and they usually end up in the trash.

So I shaped the bike using most of the original framework as possible,adding extra pieces and bends to achieve a smooth shape that the original angles permitted. All the joins were sleeved and collared then bronzed old school. I made the handlebars from scratch as previously then painted the bike frame and handlebars with some leftover cans of paint from a previous job. The forks were already chrome.

All the original running gear was put back after a good clean. The original tyres were reused. The seat was not presentable so I used one from another discarded bike. There was no front derailieur to start with so I left it as a 5 speed. The original racing style brake levers were designed to follow curved handlebars, so I bent them out straight in order to get enough leverage. I fitted new brake cables and passed the rear one through the top frame rail. Last, I put some cheap red handle grips on to contrast the black handlebars.

Total cost was about 40 dollars for the brake cables, metal tubing and new handle grips. Free items were the oxy-acetylene, bronze, spray paint and extra chain.

As the bike does not have wide tyres and one particular bike shop owner objected to this style bike being called a cruiser, I have formally deployed it as a roadster. The 'Cherry Roadster' sat around the yard for about a year while my Hodad mates and I were making our current rides. I gave it to my brother who says he attracts lots of attention when he rides it along the boardwalk between Semaphore and Largs Bay.

Hope I can inspire others to convert an old 27-inch 10 speed. They ride well, believe me. 100 psi in large diameter tyres, makes for easy riding on the road.

All the original components were put back after a good clean. The original rims were polished and reused but with new tyres. I purchased a cheap mattress spring saddle. The original brake levers were bent straight to accommodate the new handlebars. The old gear levers were remounted under the seat post, as I did not want them detracting from the front of the bike. I fitted new brake cables and passed the rear one through the top frame rail. I was lucky to find one of the last set of alloy bear trap pedals in town to finish off the bike.

The front derailieur gave me hell. Mounting it back in the original position was unsuccessful as the new angle of the frame meant it

This is the third bike I have customised of this genre. I have called it 'El Toro' because in profile it has a similar shape to the front of a bull.

This bike was originally a 12-speed racer, given to me by another work associate, who saw the 'Shack Hack' and 'Cherry Roadster' from previous builds. Typically, this bike was a little worse for wear but surprisingly it had good components on it. My work associate was not frugal when he purchased the original bike 20 or more years ago. I felt a little guilty and gave him a carton of beer for it to clear my conscience.

My mission statement for this build was to make a roadster with speed as the theme, utilising the lightweight alloy components as well as savoring some of the bikes original heritage. Happy with the previous roadster shape I was confident that if I applied the same formula to the larger frame it would look different again. Once again I wanted to prove that these old racers could be recycled into something more desirable.

This time I took all the measurements of the original frame along with the intersecting angles and made a CAD profile of the bike. Then using CAD again I drew all the changes I wanted, to make sure it was possible as well as getting a preview of what I was about to build.

As with the 'Cherry Roadster', I shaped the bike using most of the original framework as possible, adding extra pieces and bends to achieve a smooth shape where the original angles permitted. All the joints were sleeved with an oblique theme then bronzed. I made provision for twin bottle holders on the frame for those long rides and made the handlebars from scratch as previously.

When I started making the handlebars I had no idea what shape to make them. After making preliminary bends, I bolted the wedge style handlebars onto the roadster and was surprised to find them comfortable and in keeping with the speed theme, so left them as they were. Because the original brake cables were concealed in the handlebars I had to maintain the same on the wedge handlebars. My fear of weakening the bars where the brake cables dropped out, through holes in the front, led me to adding a small strengthening bar. In turn, this meant I needed a two piece head stem.

I sourced some acrylic paint in aerosol cans, from a motor shop, similar to the original bike colour. Hand sanded the entire frame, undercoated and top coated it before giving it a few coats of clear.

was now further away from the crank and had less influence on the chain. So I tried making a new longer chain lever but due to flexing that idea was unsuccessful. So I had to make an extended mounting for it out of aluminium. This works well and fits in with the alloy theme.

Since the original build, I have purchased a more comfortable saddle. I also borrowed alloy 27inch rims from my old racer, until I scored some neat 700C racing rims for nothing. The black tyres have been replaced with red racing tyres because everyone knows red is faster. A later model Shimano® rear derailieur was found and added as well.

Total cost was a little over 250 dollars for the brake cables, metal tubing, handlebars head stem, hand grips, tyres, tubes, bear trap pedals, saddle and paint. Free items were the oxy-acetylene and bronze from my old man.

I really love riding this bike. A great bike to hit the road on when riding with the 'Hodads'. It is comfortable, fast and turns heads. I finished in the front pack in the Tour Down Under - Fun Tour. It was wild, slip-streaming expensive racers and keeping up. I wouldn't say it is the most attractive bike but it sure is different.