I'm pretty sure you remember the Thame bike, the blue one with the badly bent drop out on the drive side. It was the bike I'd planned to built for my friend Piddi, a surprise and thank you for being the friend she's been in the past. Okay, I'll admit that I've been looking forward to give this wonderful bike a new lease of life, too. You know me, little Miss Viscount, who can't pass on an opportunity to make something old look new again. Now that she was here last week, I finally can reveal some pictures. You see, she's secretly reading this blog and it wouldn't have been a surprise had she seen anything beforehand. Although, it still didn't click when I asked her to help me with the yellow bike (she always said she wanted a yellow bike) which I carried into my living room and clamped it into the stand. She was in awe about the colour and how nice it looked in general, so I told her that it was good she liked it as it was for her. The look on her face was priceless. I enjoyed it immensely.
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| The bands on the seat tube need to be re-done. Same goes for the gear cable. Sack that mechanic! :-) |
And because I'm a little bit mean, I thrust the front mech, shifters, and cable guide, along with a few spanners and a screw driver into her hands and told her to fit them to the bike. By the way she looked while dutifully following my orders, she seemed to love working on the bike more than the bike itself. That was the plan anyway: to get her involved. Not because I'm lazy, but so she 'bonds' with the bike, and learns a few things along the way. She's not a mechanic, but my hat's off to her; without any fear whatsoever, she just did it. I'm a firm believer in giving someone tasks they've never done before, a little bit of trust goes a long way and I've experienced the same when I started out as a mechanic. It's what I plan when I start with basic maintenance courses (particularly for women), nobody learns from someone who takes tasks out of their hands to do it quicker. What I found difficult, though, was to 'teach' her in German, as I learned mechanics in the UK, therefore I have no clue what all the stuff on a bike is called. My friend thought it was funny to be bi-lingual when it comes to bikes.
Not so funny, though, is that she didn't get to ride the bike. I'd hoped--expected even--that we'd merrily ride along the canal or River Lea, but those hopes were a tad crushed when the 118mm bottom bracket was too short to take the SR Apex chain ring, and I don't have a bottom bracket tool for Shimano screw-in units either, which posed a problem. I'm very much familiar with Viscount's original bottom brackets, but this one came with a sleeve in the shell and since I--in a fit of braindeadness--tossed the one that came with the bike, a cottered crank set, I had no clue what kind of thread this one is. Furtheron, the brake levers were the wrong ones for the old handlebar and the one we wanted to put on for the time being needed other levers. Then the saddle seat clamp didn't fit on the other saddle I planned to give her, and the list goes on. It's a valuable experience for me as I'd never built a bike where components were swapped; I even had to cut the new (rather beautiful) chrome fork as it was far too long. That went perfect, though. Phew!
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| New and shiny Tange chrome fork |
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| Really pretty, those Zenith hubs |
And the wheels looks rather stunning with their Zenith hubs. I didn't have a spare pair of Viscount or Lambert branded hubs and decided to use those I'm selling with my wheels. Must say I like it a lot; so does Piddi. Of course they're 27 1 1/4 and the hubs come with sealed bearings. What else could one want?
However, after much faffing we decided to enjoy the lovely weather instead of fiddling with the bike until the last minute; that'll be down to me, plus getting a few more things for it as I'm not happy with the head set (new Tange one, methinks), and I couldn't find a good enough (perfect shape) handlebar either. And I need to mirror polish all the components before I send it over to Germany. If you get the impression the bike was just slapped together, that's because it was. The aim was to at least get Piddi riding, then do the finer things.
Didn't happen, but here's a picture of her, pretending as if:
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| Piddi on the yellow flash |
At least the majority is done and the powder coating is amazing, apart from two spots which I'll have to raise with the company that did it. I'll post the next pictures when the bike is ready to be sent to Germany.
Edit to add pictures of today's test ride. Note: the cables haven't got ends on them as I'll have to take it apart to mirror polish the components.
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