I threw this up in Fresh Finds when I dragged it home a month or so ago.
Today I finally had a few minutes to play with it.
Pretty much all I did was put on some less crusty tires and tubes and patch the fender braces together. Other than that, it was just adjust the seat and bars, hose it down with WD-40 and see if it’ll ride up and down the driveway. (Spoiler alert: it did. Rolls freely and steers and the brakes even work.)
I’m thrilled that so far, almost everything I have tried to loosen or adjust has broken free without too much of a fight. The stem is the only holdout; the bolt loosens but the wedge seems pretty well stuck in there. We’ll see what kind of tricks I can use to get it to cooperate. Also, folks who know better than me have told me from looking at pictures that the chain and sprockets are REALLY worn. It does make the snapping and popping noises they warned me it would.
Gonna be a fun summer project. I suppose I might try stripping some of the previous owner’s paint off it (it was spray bombed black and gold in the ‘70s in honor of the Steelers) but the priority now is rebuilding hubs, BB and headset and seeing how what’s left of the drivetrain holds up.
edit: I will get to my Build-Off project soon, I promise. We had a water heater leak in the basement which forced me to reorganize the basement and garage, which was long overdue.
Today I finally had a few minutes to play with it.
Pretty much all I did was put on some less crusty tires and tubes and patch the fender braces together. Other than that, it was just adjust the seat and bars, hose it down with WD-40 and see if it’ll ride up and down the driveway. (Spoiler alert: it did. Rolls freely and steers and the brakes even work.)
I’m thrilled that so far, almost everything I have tried to loosen or adjust has broken free without too much of a fight. The stem is the only holdout; the bolt loosens but the wedge seems pretty well stuck in there. We’ll see what kind of tricks I can use to get it to cooperate. Also, folks who know better than me have told me from looking at pictures that the chain and sprockets are REALLY worn. It does make the snapping and popping noises they warned me it would.
Gonna be a fun summer project. I suppose I might try stripping some of the previous owner’s paint off it (it was spray bombed black and gold in the ‘70s in honor of the Steelers) but the priority now is rebuilding hubs, BB and headset and seeing how what’s left of the drivetrain holds up.
edit: I will get to my Build-Off project soon, I promise. We had a water heater leak in the basement which forced me to reorganize the basement and garage, which was long overdue.
