ryansu

I tried a trail-a bike with my daughter when she was little and she did NOT like it too much side to side motion. She did scooters in PE at school and that helped with balance I also made a balance bike by finding a free kids bike and removing the crank and lowering the seat so she could scoot around. Finally went old fashioned with a pedal bike and training wheels. I let her go at her own pace and then one day she says "Dad can we take off the little wheels?" We had gone to a school with a big flat blacktop for her to ride on and i was lucky to have an adjustable wrench in the car. Off came the training wheels and she solo'd that day. She had to learn that she needed to put a foot down when starting and stopping as the training wheels didn't require that.

Have fun that first solo ride is a pretty awesome moment to behold, I didn't even get a pic because I was so mesmerized by her riding away from me.

dweenk

It was many years ago that our son learned to ride a bike. There were no balance bikes back then as far as I knew so we bought the smallest bike we could find at Toys R Us. I made a tall "sissy bar" from electrical conduit so that I could push him around and still let him get to know how to balance. At first we started on pavement, and I never let go of the bar. Then we went to a flat grassy park area and I would release the bar for a short distance while having him keep his feet on the pedals. If he got wobbly he would just put his feet down. Finally we took his little bike to Goodwill with the promise that we would buy a big boy's 20" bike after the donation.We bought the new bike with caliper brakes and a larger helmet. I checked it over and we went to a nearby high school parking lot. I had to get him going, but after about 200 yards he was riding. Starting and stopping were a bit of a challenge, but he mastered that quickly. Happy days teaching a kid to ride.

seedsbelize 

I remember my first time (learning)

rustystrings61 

The seller was very firm on his price for this c.1974-75 Gitane Grand Sport that has been Frankenbiked beyond all belief - $20. I saw the T.A. cranks with blind pedal holes and got out my wallet. The cranks are the correct ones for my Jeunet 630 project, the Atom/Normandy/Maillard Schwinn-Approved hubs will probably also go there, maybe even the Huret shifters and front derailleur. The noseless saddle will probably go in the trash, unless someone out there needs it to complete a 70s bad idea bike, say something with Front Freewheeling and Positron gearing, stem shifters, turkey levers and lotsa reflectors ...



Though I gotta tell you, if this was a 60 cm instead of a 52 or 54 or whatever, I would be building it up for the Clunker Challenge.

madpogue 

^^^^ "If"?? "Build"???!? This would be the ultimate clunker to ride as-is. Three sizes too small, parts from far-flung corners, I can almost smell those rotting toe straps from here. If 100 km on it doesn't kill you, that is.....

Cycle Tourist

Frozen seatposts😬😬 Took me two days to get one out of a Jamis Quest. It was $100. Finally cut off the Ritchie post and hand hacksawed it lengthwise in two and a half places. Ugh! It was worth it though!😆😆

Slightspeed

Recent acquisitions. $20 '78 Super Course and bits. The CL guy wanted $30, but couldn't change 2 20s. Eroica Swap meet loot, stuff I actually need, for around $100. Coming home from Eroica, I stopped by to see a nice BF member who contacted me because he had an old Legnano that needed a good home. It's a Gran Premio that has lived in his shed for 20 years. We spent 2 hours having a great visit, and he pumped up the tires, which held air! It actually rides nice after all these years. It's a little small for me, but close enough to tweek a little. It's a perfect little brother to the '64 Legnano Roma Olympiad that I've had since new, same color blue too. We settled on $50, and he threw in a set of dusty Campy high flange hubs. Thanks, Richard. BF members are the best!

$20 Super Course, as found.

Started cleaning up, few paint dings, but no rust!


Looking more like a bike.

Eroica swap meet loot, Stronglight 99 for my Peugeot, bars for the SC, hat for the Legnano, handy pump mounts.

My $50 Legnano GP.

My first cottered crank.

First time for one of these, a Campy Gran Turismo.

Patina !


Legnano family portrait.

merziac

Great score, very cool.

Oscuro

Well, after my last post here was closing on 9 years ago....

Got fat. Sold all my bikes. Moved to Edmonton.

Finally have the money to get something again.

Find this on Kijiji:



Seller claimed it is a 1982 model, has some things that look original, but the cranks are obviously swapped.


Biplane!


A bit worn, but not bad, kind of like myself. Going to get myself back into shape on this old Stumpy.

Phamilton

Snagged this from the curbside in our neighborhood for my daughter. She has been riding one of those Magna all steel Wal Mart MTBs. This one is all aluminum, quite a bit lighter, alloy wheels (the rear was bad but I had a spare in the shed), SRAM shifters, Tourney derailers, really pretty good for a kid. She wants fenders and a rack like moms and mine, and this frame has all the mounts. A big step up for her, she’s pretty excited, she’s not really into bikes so I’ll take it!

Kdogbikes

Freebie. Astra. Bonderized tubes. Keeping the wheels,sadle and pivo.

Gashepherd

I picked up this miyata a couple of days ago apparently one of the previous owners couldn't handle riding a bike with a pink head tube, so painted the head tube and the headbadge with black spray paint luckily they did no prep work so the original paint is still intact underneath does anybody know of any tricks for removing the paint without damaging the original paint underneath.

I was able to get this far by scraping the paint off with my thumbnails any ideas would be greatly appreciated. I will post more pictures when I have them. Thank you.

rdjohannes

I've used the solvent Xylene on 2 or 3 bikes that were (poorly) spray painted. Soak a rag, rub hard, and the spray paint "washes" off, and the original finish looks great.

treebound 

Marin San Rafael, I’m guessing around a 1998 model. Frame sticker states triple butted Tange. Weighs around 27 pounds per my luggage scale.
Seatpost was on the verge of being stuck, but got that and a few other problems/issues sorted out last night. Lingered on the local Marketplace for several weeks, guy said there was interest but many no-shows plus googlemaps wrongfully shows his address about 20 miles from where it actually is.
Short lap around the block last night, rides nice, not sure if it is a keeper yet.

SeanBikes

Finished restoring the old Gran Sport. Had to fix the bottom bracket, which forced me to remove the cranks... finding new crank cotters that were the proper fit was a real pain, but after much trial and error, I found some. Also restored grimy hubs and trued the completely mangled front wheel. New tubes, tires, cables, housings, bar tape brake levers, seat, and chain. Also added some custom vinyl decals that my buddy laser-etched for me. Rides like a beaut.


Restored 1978 Super Cycle Gran Sport (drive side)


Restored 1978 Super Cycle Gran Sport (front)

3speedslow

That’s a big jump up from where it started! Nice machine.

GregU

I successfully used Never Dull magic metal polish on an old Rossin. Results are here https://photos.app.goo.gl/gOR303uA4Ecizm3C2.

Gashepherd

So, I hit the spray paint with some lacquer thinner, cleaned it right up, looks great. Thanks for the help everyone.

3speedslow

Cool! No other pink tubes covered in black?

mkeller234

Wow, 27lbs is pretty light for a mountain bike, at least as far as I have seen. That's looks pretty nice overall. I always have a hard time justifying mountain bikes. I don't generally like to ride them, I don't generally like the bar hand position and I don't generally like the way they look. It would have to be a semi-special find for me to keep one. This one definitely has potential.

Gashepherd

No other pink tubes.



spring has finally sprung, it's not raining for the moment, and best of all, I'm not stuck at work, so here are the promised rest of the bike pictures. It's mostly original except for the seat and the front wheel skewer. The man with the can apparently swapped out the original pedals for these but,I found some original pedals to swap back.
Didn't look quite right

it is missing the brake lever hoods, I never realized how nearly impossible it would be to find hoods for the shimano 600 EX bl-6207 brake levers

juvela

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@SeanBikes -

Nice job!

How much engagement be there betwixt Messrs Sakae Ringyo San & Steerer San?


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zjrog

I had my son pick this up for me. 2006 Cannondale CAAD8 R1000 frame. Ad said "never used", $50... I'm in the process of losing weight. I need to decide at what point my reward is to build this up again... 110 pounds down so far...

ryansu

@zjrog congrats on the weight loss are you doing anything specific to drop the #s ? I could stand to be less of a Clydesdale myself.

zjrog

I had a bunch of health issues and weight related injuries that piled up and decided to have gastric sleeve surgery. I have another 30 or so I NEED to lose, put another 30 or so after that won't hurt either. Still keeps me firmly in Clydesdale territory, which being over 6 feet does that all by itself... Ninety pounds since surgery in October... But, my health is already drastically improved...