Monday, January 23, 2012

New bars and some polishing on the Moto.

This weekend I made some progress on that Motobecane bike, I rode the trainer and kept my calories where they needed to be so overall it was a good solid weekend of doing the right thing. Saturday I went down stairs into the dungeon... I mean basement where my park tool stand resides currently hanging onto the Nomade. I was suppose to go down to relax for a bit and get a couple things done on the bike, as it turns out I spent hours down there, missed a meal and disassembled the whole front end of the bike. everything that was chrome was polished with aluminum foil and rubbing compound, the paint was polished with an old sock and the polish and the bike again has chrome lower forks.




When I pulled the chrome drop bars off of the bike I polished them but did not like the way they came out so I looked to the frames hanging on the other side of the basement and I found an aluminum set that looked good. I pulled them off of the old Schwinn and noticed they were stamped with e GB logo and said "British Made" the bars are a little more flared and a tad wider than the chrome bars that were on there and they polished out nicely. I removed the safety levers from the brake levers and now the pivot bolt sticks out, I will cut it flush the next time I get a chance to spend some time on the bike and since I plan on putting hoods on the levers I think it should look good when completed.



Sunday I did not spend too much time on the bike but I did pull the crankset and kick stand off, I will polish these up and just from wiping them of they looked a lot better so when they get a bit of elbow grease applied I have a feeling that they will look great. In the spirit of doing this bicycle as budget friendly as possible I am going to stick with the stem shifters for now but I really like the clean look the bike has with them removed and am looking for a set of Bar end shifters if I can get them on the cheap and I still am unsure about the color combo that I will use on the bars and saddle.

Any suggestions or opinions on tape and saddle options is welcome, The bike is silver with low key red lettering on it and originally came with a black saddle with red bar tape and cable housing, here are some of the ideas that I have as I type. I am doing grey or silver housing for sure and then the tape/saddle combos that I am thinking about are as follows.

1.) Red tape, black hoods and a black saddle.
2.) Black tape, brown hoods and a brown saddle (when I say brown I mean honey/brown/amber)
3.) Black tape, black hoods, black saddle.
4.) Shellacked tape, brown hoods, brown saddle.

Option number 4 will be the most expensive option but I am thinking that it would give the bike a classic look, especially since I am mounting a Pletscher rear rack and with hope some hammered fenders but I keep coming back to the fact that I wanted to do this as cheap as possible. I like the idea of the red bars because its how the bike came stock and then I like the all black too because I think it will give it a slightly more modern look, I really can't decide.

Now onto my weight loss regimen for a paragraph, I am doing wonderfully on that front, I am eating mostly whole foods well within my calorie allotment, riding the trainer as often as I can and am feeling good about everything that I am doing for my health. We are looking at a possible 50 degree day here tomorrow so even though its suppose to be wet out I think that I may pull the Trek out for a quick ride around the lake but that will be something that is played by ear as it would have to be a night ride because of the schedule with the new kiddo and wify's work day, we shall see.

We're on track for another loss this week as long as I do my part and this old Moto may be completed earlier than expected, all in all its been a good week.

That's all I got for today, I hope someone is reading along and if its you, thanks!

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