About a year and a half ago my girlfriend and I saw this bike at a local VW event and she just HAD to have it. I knew NOTHING about vintage bikes at the time, so we ended up paying far to much for what I now know was a barely rolling pile of crap. It is of course Monark built, I'm guessing it was a Firestone because the vertical head badge holes line up perfectly with a Firestone badge I found (Monark ones are horizontal).
We did some work to it, she bought some cheapo white walls, got a free Monark rack from a good friend, and we took it to Tour de Fat last year.
Later, I found a much better seat, grips, and older pedals for it. Still hideous! Recently I rebuilt the ND rear hub and blew the rear wheel apart, re-spoked and trued it up. I found a correct front Monark wheel/hub and I'm in the process of doing the same to it now.
Since I (re)built my girls other Monark, I'm taking over this one. I usually have a vision for a project, but I'm having trouble on this one. I'd honestly almost rather sell it off, but no one would dare pay anywhere near what we've got into it at this point. I've thought about bare metaling it (been done), thought about painting it with old VW bus colors and giving it a 50's VW feel... but shiney bikes really don't do it for me, and neither does faked patina. It's missing a ton of original parts, and the deep fenders are seriously haggard... So I'm trying to come up with a relatively inexpensive way to give this old bike a new lease on life, and a bit of style.
Suggestions welcome!
We did some work to it, she bought some cheapo white walls, got a free Monark rack from a good friend, and we took it to Tour de Fat last year.
Later, I found a much better seat, grips, and older pedals for it. Still hideous! Recently I rebuilt the ND rear hub and blew the rear wheel apart, re-spoked and trued it up. I found a correct front Monark wheel/hub and I'm in the process of doing the same to it now.
Since I (re)built my girls other Monark, I'm taking over this one. I usually have a vision for a project, but I'm having trouble on this one. I'd honestly almost rather sell it off, but no one would dare pay anywhere near what we've got into it at this point. I've thought about bare metaling it (been done), thought about painting it with old VW bus colors and giving it a 50's VW feel... but shiney bikes really don't do it for me, and neither does faked patina. It's missing a ton of original parts, and the deep fenders are seriously haggard... So I'm trying to come up with a relatively inexpensive way to give this old bike a new lease on life, and a bit of style.
Suggestions welcome!
