Well, I didn't wind up making it to last night's final MusicFest show, but I figured I might as well throw in one more non food related post before getting back on topic, which will happen soon, I promise...
My old Motobecane has been back in my hands for a while now, and I finally got around to giving it some attention this weekend. The first task to be undertaken was to strip it of all of its parts, save for the bottom bracket and headset:
I then set about cleaning up the frame with some steel wool and metal polishing cream. And I have to say, it cleaned up quite nicely:
The fork, which was pretty badly colonized by rust, cleaned up especially well. I'm VERY happy about this. Take a moment to behold its chrome plated glory:
I won't be restoring this bike. To try to build it back to its former grandeur would be a fool's game. The componentry is too worn. To find replacement parts would be next to impossible. And this being an old French bike, it doesn't make much sense to try and outfit it with modern componentry (which I couldn't afford to do anyway). So my project for this autumn will be to rebuild the Moto into a fixie. This will entail teaching myself to build wheels, repack the bottom bracket and if necessary, overhaul the headset. And I'm looking forward to all of this. It should prove be a great deal of fun, so stay tuned. In the meantime, I'll be getting back to the food post-haste.
Monday, September 10, 2007
Moto Rising!
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5 comments:
Is this bike porn?
I know some peeps here in town who are into bikes, so for them this probably is something like bike porn, I suppose...
That chrome fork is some serious bike porn. i look forward to the finished project!
Yeesss, the Motobecane has been reborn! And while its progress may be slow, it will eventually emerge, unto an unsuspecting world, its power more formidable than ever before...
BUWAH HAH HAH HAH HAH HAH!!!!!
The chrome fork, incidentally, is not original...
I just got myself a similarly aged Mercier frame that I am trying (with very little bike knowledge) to spruce up a bit. It came as a pretty true blue with white lugs and has chrome dropouts. It's super light and generally a great bike, but I want a new paint job and so am embarking on a DIY quest to achieve this end.
Good luck with the fixie project.
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