Greetings from Latvia (intro included) UPDATE 8th july

[Krastins]

Hello!
My name is Arturs, I'm 17 years old and I'm from Latvia(maybe I'm the first one ). I love this forum, I found it because of this beautiful bike:
http://ratrodbikes.com/slides/1024_6231376634653035.jpg
This forum gave me the motivation to build for me a single speed bicycle and I can steal some great ideas from here too
I couldn't decide, where I should put my bike, so I decided to put it here, because it's going to be a bit ratty. You'll see

So, here it is:

It's made in USSR, in 1968, but I don't know the manufacturer and model, only thing that I heard about it, is that it could be made in Ukraine.

Here is the single speed coaster brake:

And NOW! Fear from the power of USSR

So, my plans are to leave the paint the way it is, but i will paint the rims, and change the spokes. The wheels are disassembled already, the chrome is sanded on them and they are ready for paint. I will paint them matte black.I had the seat reassembled, painted and studded. I will put more pictures soon Leave your comments and suggestions.


PS. To view pictures click right mouse button and view image, but that would be cool if someone from administration could help me with images

 

[deorman]

Re: Greetings from Latvia (intro included)

Click Img icon between subject and message. Type in address (URL) of image. Works for me.

 

[Krastins]

Re: Greetings from Latvia (intro included)

I tried that, but no results

 

[bikesntrikes]

Re: Greetings from Latvia (intro included)

As a fellow comrad, ex-Ukranian now living in the U.S., I'd love to see the photos of your bikes. Especially the one made in the Ukraine.

Please try to correct your photo links or give us a link to your photo album.

Thanks, Ilya

 

[Rat Rod]

Re: Greetings from Latvia (intro included)

Welcome to the forum.

I fixed your images in your post.

You were trying to link to the page that the photos were on and not the actual photos themselves.

If you right click on your images on your photo hosting site ad choose "View Background Image" then copy the URL in your browse's address bar, you should be able to paste that link in between the IMG tags.

 

[mastronaut]

Re: Greetings from Latvia (intro included)

Welcome! I love how bikes bring people from all over together for a common cause. Good luck and have fun here!

 

[Krastins]

Re: Greetings from Latvia (intro included)

As a fellow comrad, ex-Ukranian now living in the U.S., I'd love to see the photos of your bikes. Especially the one made in the Ukraine.

Please try to correct your photo links or give us a link to your photo album.

Thanks, Ilya

This is the one Here in Latvia these bikes are called ''Ukraine''. The headbadge is lost, so I can't tell anything more about it. I took off the fenders and rear rack from it too. I have one USSR bike made in Belarus maybe in mid or late - 80ies and it's my donor bike.

And thanks to all, I'm already having fun. OK, some photos were in the wrong places, so now you should see the symbol of USSR on the frame

 

[Galtbacken]

Re: Greetings from Latvia (intro included)

That bike looks cool already! It'll be fun to see what you do with it! Change the spokes you say, will you be doing a different spokepattern too?

 

[Krastins]

Re: Greetings from Latvia (intro included)

That bike looks cool already! It'll be fun to see what you do with it! Change the spokes you say, will you be doing a different spokepattern too?

No, I don't think so. I don't have a big lacing experience, but I have 2 wheelsets in my garage, on which I'll train. I don't have camera right now, so I can't get any pictures, but the rims are primered already.

 

[Galtbacken]

Re: Greetings from Latvia (intro included)

I bet you'd make it with a little practice! I've laced one pair of wheels, did them with a pattern called 3 leading 3 trailing, it wasn't very difficult at all. In fact I thought it would be much harder! So don't be afraid to try if you think it would look good on the bike...

 

[Krastins]

Re: Greetings from Latvia (intro included)

I bet you'd make it with a little practice! I've laced one pair of wheels, did them with a pattern called 3 leading 3 trailing, it wasn't very difficult at all. In fact I thought it would be much harder! So don't be afraid to try if you think it would look good on the bike...

I had laced one BMX wheel, but the truing was too hard for me but now I'll try to do everything by myself and if I'll give up, I'll give those to bike mechanic in my town, only ~3 euros for truing both wheels

 

[Galtbacken]

Re: Greetings from Latvia (intro included)

Sounds like a plan!

 

[Krastins]

Re: Greetings from Latvia (intro included)

Went to the bike shop today and unfortunately they had no spokes Driving back home, I came with an idea, I will repaint the whole bike. Today I started stripping the paint and I finished painting rims. Here are some pictures finally. Sorry for the quality, it was dark outside.

Seat. I think I will paint the leather just like in one thread in ''How to'' section, because that leather is scratched and looking ugly. The seat got repainted guts.

Rims:

And I found information, that this bike could be made in Kharkov, Ukraine.

 

[Krastins]

Re: Greetings from Latvia (intro included)

So, I finally got the camera again and I have made a very big progress on my bike. I loved how the primer looked with black and I decided to paint the bike pale gray and the lugged frame pieces black. I've put an old aluminum wedge stem from my old MTB bike and I like how it looks too. Bars are now further ahead and i hope, that my knees will not hit the bars. Here are some pictures:

Things, that I still need to do:
1) get new BB bearings,
2) Get new cranks and maybe a sprocket too,
3) Finish the rear wheel and true it (as one guy sad in this forum ''lacing the wheel is addictive'' )
4) Put on rear, front and side reflectors (it's necessary to have them on the bike in Latvia, or else you'll get fined)
5) Put on new grips, tires and tubes.