Cristina bike

[Hugo]

This is the bike my friends gave me 10 years ago for my birthday. It's a typical Portuguese old-people bike. You can still see a lot of them on the country side. It's got 26 inch wheels, dinamo lights, 3-speed SA hub, and rod-operated brakes. It's a women's frame, and the rear mud-guard has a lot of little holes all the way around so you can attach an elastic skirt protector. Won't need that!

I started disassemblying it for future restoration, but just stored it away and forgot about it. Today I got it back from storage and am going down to the garage for clean up and reassembly just as soon as I post this. Here are all the big bits:

Here's a detail of the rod brakes. They sure put the ROD on ratrod! Maybe I should call this one "the Rodrat"!

Here's a shot of the headbadge. You can tell that someone paintbrushed the bike already. The brand is Cristina, never eard of it. Some obscure little garage factory, probably. Cristina is a girls name, sort of like the Mercedes cars. The badge says "fabrico especial" wich translates as special/custom manufacturing/building. 8) Sounds good to me.

I hope I can make her look good.

Hugo

 

[musclebikes]

Christina? Ive never heard of one. maybe thats because we are from different knecks of the woods.

Christina..................Id'e make a christine bike out of it.

http://youtube.com/watch?v=1-WOUaBckzw

 

[Anonymous]

Thats a cool start.

I think I'd be cutting and welding that 'backbone' upside down and making it a boys bike.

 

[Markm]

:lol: :lol: Rod Rat!!! Thats Funny!! :lol: :lol:

 

[Hugo]

Sorry, no cuting or welding allowed on this one. First it was a gift, second it's got a lot of little cool details: there is a grease port on the bottom bracket, the BB says made in England, the master link on the chain also says England, and so on. I'm going to keep it as is, with its rough paintbrushed black finish and rusty chrome.

I'm going to try and find some wider tires, but I think the wheels are a strange diameter. Not really the 559mm 26 inch, but the 590 mm 26 inch (26x1 3/4). Not valuable enough to restore, not cheap enough to cut.

Hugo

 

[CCR]

COOL BIKE !! funky brake linkage, i agree to keep it as is.

 

[Hugo]

I'm ressurecting this old thread to talk about a cool part I found for this bike, a skirt guard for the rear fender (a bunch of small elastics that hook on to a bunch of little holes on the sides of the rear fender)

Wait, that's not the cool part. Anyway, they're usually pretty colourful:

I decided I wanted a set but in black. I looked all over but could only find the colourful ones, wich didn't seem to make sense since black is such a basic colour. Finally, I managed to locate a set of black ones:

I mentioned to the store guy that the black skirt guards were rare, for some reason, and that I was glad to find a pair. That's when he told me the significance behind the black skirt guards: they're only used if you're mourning! If someone close to you dies, you're supposed to wear black clothing to show your grief. Nothing colourfull is allowed, including... skirt guards! That's where the black (and rare) ones come in! It may seem a little far-fetched, but you have to remember that, in the Portuguese countryside, there are still a lot of old people that do things the old way. It's pretty common to see old women dressed from head to toe in black, because they're widows. Check out this pic: http://flickr.com/photos/miss_kcc/20678770/

Anyway, that's the cool bit. It's a bicycle part that you put on your bike only if you're in mourning.

Hugo

 

[CCR]

bicycle facts are cool !!!