Rainy Day Project

A couple of days ago, I was on my way home from riding and saw a pile of bikes propped up next to a trash can. One in particular caught my eye- it was a bright blue geared bike of some sort with moustache handlebars. Noone was at home, so I left a note at the house asking if I could come back and get it. Later on that afternoon, the homeowner called back and said she didn’t mind at all, so I brought this home:

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As luck would have it (for the bike, at least), the next day was cold and rainy. I spent most of the day with some rust remover and steel wool trying to get rid of a majority of the rust. I also dropped by the bike shop & picked up some new cables and a chain. After a day of dissassembling/reassembling, here she is…

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The only thing I was worried about not working with the restoration was the front of the drivetrain- seems it took a hard fall on the drive side that bent everything up enough that the chainrings wobble as the cranks turn. It took a LOT of fiddling with the high/low limit screws, but I finally got it to work (though it’s still pretty noisy and not incredibly smooth). Now I’m waiting for a set of new tires (the old ones were rotten beyond recognition) from Harris Cyclery (the rim size is an odd one- 26 x 1 3/8). I plan on strapping some milk crates to the rack and turning her into a grocery getter. Hopefully once they get here, I’ll get some good out-of-garage photos!

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