While the metallic red on Tigger is in fairly good condition, having lived most of its life at the back of the garage, it was also way too nice. Blue was nice too, but the name on the downtube was 'Smart', and thus it was decided that Blue should remain smart, while Tigger took another, ragged path, living for action. I have some plans for Tigger, such as a send set of wheels with off-road tires on them for the winter and replacing the handlebars.
At the moment I am still pondering whether to purchase a chain link tool. I do have a set of punches in the basement, but when it came to taking Tigger to pieces I had no plan for how I should manage to hold a ponderously large bicycle frame while I delicately pop a pin in or out of the chain. So there it was, no choice but to wrap up Tigger's chain in a plastic bag while respraying the lower frame and elements. Luckily my rat bike principles kicked in where looks should remain secondary to function, and that any compromises on the look, rather than being a negative, are a positive sign that activity has taken place. This is not the same as not caring for the look, far from it, as the look is very significant, just not in a putting-green lawn, prim and proper, or rusty steampunk kind of way.
One could say we want less steam, more punk.
Tigger lazing an afternoon away on a foam bed mat. Observe the stylish bag to hold my face mask, you don't see that down your local bike shop.
Then a few days later I broke up a pallet, one of the those that people were collecting to turn into trendy furniture over the last couple of years and which they are now abandoning. It was never a good pallet, too much bark on it, so it must have been dreadful as furniture. Still, I managed to rescue some useful wooden blocks, which with appropriate holes would allow me to lay a bike on the bench with the chain on the block and thus remove the pin through a conveniently drilled hole. I could still avoid the hassle and ask for a chain link tool for Christmas, but I have already requested a better tire pump from Santa-wifie.
Back to the painting, as an engineer one gets used to other people switching off the moment there is even a hint of gear wheels being spun into the conversation, unless they are nicely polished or painted, mounted on a brassy steam engine, to be viewed over a suitable system of protection that prevents any potential contamination while maximising photo opportunities. So I thought we should celebrate the grimy vibe through a satin black, with shiny glossy bike parts on top. If this is what people subconsciously expect, then so be it. On a practical level the lower half of a bike tends to receive more of a battering, and it is a lot easier to fix the chips and dinks with a non-glossy black. The hope is that not all the paint will remain on the chromed parts, such as the chain wheel, but will chip away as riding happens.
I even painted all the nickel plated nuts and bolts, and they chip even as they are tightened up. Great! The chipping is a sign of functionality, that assembly has taken place, that work has been done, so therefore the result is not a dead museum piece.
Did I mention my spray booth? The wrench I ordered the other day arrived from half way across Poland in a huge box for such a little thing. Rather than throw the box out I converted it into something I could use to spray all those small parts like brackets and bolts, with a lid to close afterwards, to keep the inevitable dust out.
How would you like your pizza, sir? Well done? Put the lid down, and slide it on a shelf out of the way - my home-cooked spray booth.
While Tigger sat around waiting for the paint to dry, unwatched, I could get on with other things. Important things, like thinking about how I was going to achieve whatever it was slowly forming in my mind slower than drying paint. I seemed to have spent a lot of time thinking about dynamos and lights. Tigger and Blue each came with a bottle dynamo mounted to run on the front wheel, but I have never used one before, even as a lad they seemed like from a time when old men were still young. OK, so now I am the old one, and yes today it now seems that such dynamos are no longer from the past, but from my future as an old git.
I fitted one of the dynamos to Blue, strapped the broken rear light from Tigger to the lower front basket support (each bike came with everything to mount a basket, but no basket) where I could see it, connected the wires and headed out into the wild world. The bulb glimmered, then grew in strength, finally shining bright like a beacon in the failing evening light - once I got going properly around the garages. The slight hitch is that the lights use incandescent bulbs, and I cannot remember the last time I saw any for sale. It looks like another ordering job, or finding something about how to run LED lighting on AC current. I have already been told that I could just fit a set of LED lights, but if people can tell me that then it is not a particularly original idea, rather one from the land of comfort. Anyway, now that I possess a pair of functioning dynamos it would be a pity not to use them. All that I think I need now is a pair of front lights.