This build has been a long time coming, according to my 'Fresh Finds' thread, I originally found the donor bike for this in October 2013!
My wife quickly claimed it as her own, but wanted some modifications to suit her height (short) and riding style...
Here it is as found, as you can see a rather smallish frame with some huge wheels and tires:
Rough frame repair:
700A sized tires - 642mm ERD! Managed to find replacement tires and tubes for it after a bit of searching!
Grease nipple equipped coaster brake...
She asked that the seat be lower and further back, she is a fan of the flat foot style bikes, so that is what I was to aim for...
It took me a while to work out what to do, I wanted give it my own spin as well as make the modifications for her, the problem was giving it the spin without destroying any of the history and patina that the bike has collected over the last 50-60 years...
A few weeks back I decided the first step was to take some height out of the seat tube to allow the seat to go lower, if I did it correctly it would be hard to tell anything was changed, then I could add a layback post and it should be perfect right?
Here it is after the three inch chop to the seat tube:
I informed her that the seat would go back a bit yet and asked her to take it for a spin to see if I was on the right track...
The short answer was no...
The main problem now is that the bottom bracket is too high, the seat is the right height though...
I sat and looked at it for a while, and I agreed, the bottom bracket was too high, it was almost like an offroad bike... Then again, thinking back to when it was made and what most roads were like in Australia at that point, I can see why!
Dropping the bottom bracket would require some more 'intrusive' surgery, the easy way it just to cut some more length out of the seat stays and bend the chain stays up to suit, but that was pretty boring...
I meditated on it for a bit and then I remembered some curved tubing I had from a bed head... The gears started turning...
First thing I had to do was to check with my wife if I could modify the back end a bit more, she was happy with that provided I didn't mess with the cool pinstripes up near the headtube...
All-right!
I started cutting tonight, will hopefully be welding it all back together tomorrow!
Already dropped the bottom bracket by 1" and completely removed the seat tube and seat stays...
Here is where I am headed:
The curved steel will connect just above the top tube connection point with a nice sleeve and full weld, then continue all the way over the wheel and to the back to make the beginnings of a rack too, the seat post will be welded to the top of that tube, it only has to fit my wife and no one else so it can be a fixed height, that along with the dropped bottom bracket height, should fit the bill nicely!
Going to try my hand at some 'fauxtina' on the new steel with many layers of paint and some judicious sanding then hit the whole lot with some 2K clear to protect and preserve both the original and the new!
Pretty happy with the plan, and it should keep me busy until the OffRoad build-off starts on Jan 1!
Luke.
My wife quickly claimed it as her own, but wanted some modifications to suit her height (short) and riding style...
Here it is as found, as you can see a rather smallish frame with some huge wheels and tires:
Rough frame repair:
700A sized tires - 642mm ERD! Managed to find replacement tires and tubes for it after a bit of searching!
Grease nipple equipped coaster brake...
She asked that the seat be lower and further back, she is a fan of the flat foot style bikes, so that is what I was to aim for...
It took me a while to work out what to do, I wanted give it my own spin as well as make the modifications for her, the problem was giving it the spin without destroying any of the history and patina that the bike has collected over the last 50-60 years...
A few weeks back I decided the first step was to take some height out of the seat tube to allow the seat to go lower, if I did it correctly it would be hard to tell anything was changed, then I could add a layback post and it should be perfect right?
Here it is after the three inch chop to the seat tube:
I informed her that the seat would go back a bit yet and asked her to take it for a spin to see if I was on the right track...
The short answer was no...
The main problem now is that the bottom bracket is too high, the seat is the right height though...
I sat and looked at it for a while, and I agreed, the bottom bracket was too high, it was almost like an offroad bike... Then again, thinking back to when it was made and what most roads were like in Australia at that point, I can see why!
Dropping the bottom bracket would require some more 'intrusive' surgery, the easy way it just to cut some more length out of the seat stays and bend the chain stays up to suit, but that was pretty boring...
I meditated on it for a bit and then I remembered some curved tubing I had from a bed head... The gears started turning...
First thing I had to do was to check with my wife if I could modify the back end a bit more, she was happy with that provided I didn't mess with the cool pinstripes up near the headtube...
All-right!
I started cutting tonight, will hopefully be welding it all back together tomorrow!
Already dropped the bottom bracket by 1" and completely removed the seat tube and seat stays...
Here is where I am headed:
The curved steel will connect just above the top tube connection point with a nice sleeve and full weld, then continue all the way over the wheel and to the back to make the beginnings of a rack too, the seat post will be welded to the top of that tube, it only has to fit my wife and no one else so it can be a fixed height, that along with the dropped bottom bracket height, should fit the bill nicely!
Going to try my hand at some 'fauxtina' on the new steel with many layers of paint and some judicious sanding then hit the whole lot with some 2K clear to protect and preserve both the original and the new!
Pretty happy with the plan, and it should keep me busy until the OffRoad build-off starts on Jan 1!
Luke.
