Little paniers, I’ve found a bicycle! I spent a good many (5!) hours working on her last night, and while I would show you her greasy internal gear hub or her positively attrocious braking system, instead I’ll show you what I fell in love with – her beautiful vintage crossbar with her intact logo (her badge is intact on the front too!!). She is going to be a tonne of work (I’m in the process of searching out 26 1 and 3/8th wheels.. I know..) but she will be so incredibly wonderful when I’m done. So here commences the start of the before/during and after project of restoring a vintage Schwiin, where you will learn more about single speed conversions and handlebar varieties than you will ever want or need to. I forgot until last night exactly how much I enjoyed working on bikes, stripping grease and trueing wheels. Standing in the bike shop last night the hours flew by and the grease under my nails piled up and I felt so good. I can’t wait for you all to see her, in bits and pieces and in her glorious entirety.
ps – Job and skill # 476 that you didn’t know I had? Bike mechanic.
6 Comments
July 7, 2009 at 11:31 am
You are so talented, my dear! Congrats.
July 7, 2009 at 1:54 pm
Congrats on your new bike! Maybe I can pick up some tips to turn my one speed cruiser into a 3 speed….if that’s even possible!
July 7, 2009 at 3:01 pm
oh my she’s lovely!
July 7, 2009 at 5:41 pm
yay!!! i’m so excited to see it come along! i am in process of finding a good bike…well, not really, more like i am in the process of thinking about looking for a good bike. i’m too busy and don’t have any big chunks of time to really go look. lame. i think i dig you even more knowing that you have bike fixin’ skillz. i wish we were friends in real life!
July 7, 2009 at 8:08 pm
AWESOME. congratulations!
July 8, 2009 at 9:12 am
Holy heck, that’s amazing!! Very cool skillz you have there lady, I’m impressed!