Motobecane progress, cables and wires done.

I needed some down time so I headed off to work with the Motobecane yesterday for a couple hours and finished up cleaning the rear derailleur, the shifters and I got the cables/housings installed. I am still not done by a long shot and there is still a lot to do before the bike is done I did make some good solid progress on the bike last night. I chose Jagwire platinum braided cable housings to blend in with the frame a bit and I really like how they look on the bike! I did make a couple decisions on just how closely I was going to polish things up, I was thinking about the fact that I am planning to ride this bike and polishing everything to a mirror finish didn't make a lot of sense because of that fact, I mean if its going to get grimy anyways why make it shinier than when it was new?

With that said, I did not skimp on the polishing! I think that the bike is starting to look pretty nice even if this shot makes my basement look like a dungeon! who am I kidding.. it IS a dungeon! I still have to completely do the wheels (I just tossed them on to see how the bike looked) as I have not touched them other than a small test spot where I polished the rust off of the chrome and I do believe that the wheels will look pretty good after some elbow grease. You can see that I laid the rack on there just for a look at how it would play out and I think that I like it and will stick to the original plan of doing fenders and rack on this bike.

Above is a closer shot of the braided cables installed on the shifters, I think they compliment the silver frame pretty nicely! I am still on the fence with what color I should do the tape/hoods/saddle in but I am sure that it will come to me... eventually. I originally wanted to do the bars and saddle in brown/honey but that is more expensive than the other options and since I am not 100% on whether I will keep this bike in the long run I keep going back to just do the bars red, black saddle and brown or black hoods, I am very on the fence with the whole thing. I don't really ride road bikes let alone vintage road bikes! and that is why I am unsure about whether this will become a permanent ride in my ever growing fleet of bicycles even though I have put a good amount of thought and time into this bike.

Finally a shot of what I started with compared to where I brought it, I think there is a big difference and when I am done I think it will be even bigger! Next on the list of things to do will be the tape and saddle and I am very anxious to see how it looks with a bit more of a finished feel to it. Now the decision must be made on the tape, once that happens I can choose a saddle and finally hood color, some new tires and we will be off for a ride to snap a couple photos in a nicer setting than my dungeon... er I mean basement!

Until then, keep on pedaling!

Nothing mindblowing, just an am post for those interested.

Keeping my calories within range is increasingly easier as the days tick by, I am back into a groove with the intake and now its time to get the exercise back up to par. Riding on my trainer has been sketchy at best as I have had a cold for about 2 weeks, actually its two colds with a 2 day break in between them and riding the trainer is not fun with a stuffed up head so I have been passing on it lately. We got about 5 inches of snow on Sunday and we did make it out for a walk with the kids which was nice and at least it was movement vs hanging out in the house for the day and I'll take that any day of the week!

My weight is doing something odd, what I mean is that I am up in weight from Friday which I can't understand, I mean I know there is fluctuation but there is no reason for it. I am eating perfectly, exercise is lacking but that has been the case since about Christmas with me riding the trainer only a handful of times and I had been dropping since then. I am not too worried about it as I have been here before while losing weight but that doesn't make it any less frustrating to see a plus on the scale in the morning, it is what it is I suppose. Friday will let me know how I did for the week as I don;t usually dwell on the number that I se eon the scale, I try and focus on the over all results because I do have a long way to go and letting fluctuations bother me would prove a losing battle and ultimately hurt the forward momentum.

On bike related news, The hardware for the Pletscher rack that I am going to put on that Motobecane that I am working on came in the mail yesterday so I will do a test fit later tonight with the rack. I did get down stairs for about 30 minutes worth of polishing on the crankset on that bike but its far from done so I didn't take any pictures of what I did for now. I did add some tabe at the top of the page with photos and images of my bicycles, please feel free to take a look and find out more about them if you're interested.

Over all everything is on track and moving right along and I can't ask for more than that, the weather will be warm soon and back out on that trail I will go...... can't wait.

That's all I got for today kids.

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!

It's weigh in day.

I have decided that instead of a long post for today I will just post my weight this morning along with a short synopsis of how yesterday went. I did get a ride on the trainer into the day, 20 minutes seems to be easy which is no real surprise but I am finding that my junk is still falling asleep in that time, this confuses me because I have ridden for far longer than that without issue, I do need to mount that comfort seat that I have laying around to see if there is a difference. My calories were exactly where I wanted them to be for the day and I made an antipasto for dinner and my weight is in fact down from last Friday. The scale whispered to me that I had reached 364.0 pounds, that is a 2.4 pound loss for the week and is fine by me! I am planning on doing some work on the Motobecane over the weekend so there may be some pictures to look at come Monday possibly even by Sunday.

That's it for today, a 2.4 pound loss on the week is fine by me and now to keep that ball rolling.

Thanks for reading.

Polishing, pedaling and a pre weigh in update.

Twenty minutes on the trainer later I decided that since I got a workout in that I would muss about with the Motobecane that I mentioned in This post, I pulled the front and rear brakes off and decided that I would clean and polish them up a bit. I did not use a wire brush or anything, just some automotive rubbing compound and an old sock, I am not going for show room shine as I plan on riding this bike but just clean and somewhat shiny and I think I accomplished that. My camera takes too good of photos and the brakes look way nicer than the image shows even though they look good in the image! The plan is to each night after dinner do something small on the bike in the hopes that one day I go down to pull something off and find a completely freshened up bicycle.

I did not take a photo before I cleaned the brakes so this is all I have to compare.

A shot of the front brakes after cleaning.

Onto the Fat guy part of this blog, I have been keeping my calories at no more than 2200 calories since re-starting down this road to better health and honestly I am finding that many days I don't even reach that 2200 mark. The lowest day that I have had so far is about 1800 and I have not gone over 2200, this calorie range seems to be working for me as the weight is coming down nicely right now at what I consider a great pace. My intake is pretty much at about 90% whole foods, I do eat Turkey pepperoni along with a couple of other things that I just don't want to give up and I have been trying to eat a big salad for dinner at least four times per week. Giving up my morning cup of Joe has proven more difficult this time around, when I started down this road back on 07 I was completely off of the good stuff but it's just something that I really enjoy! not to mention in the warmer months I like to have a half of a cup before a long ride, either way I would like to have it less.

Onto the trainer, when I first began riding the trainer I felt it in my knees a bit, now I am unsure if that was because I had not ridden in some time or if the weight that I put on was affecting me more than I wanted to admit. Now that I have been semi regularly riding again via the trainer my knees have not bothered me at all for about a week which is always a great thing! Getting my legs back is important to me because once the weather warms up I want to get back out on the bike again because I am really missing my long rides on the rail trail, having to ease back into it because of knee pain or extra weight would take the fun out if it for sure.

Over all things are on track and I honestly believe that I will reach my goal of hitting 305 pounds or below by May 25th is within reason, as long as I do my part, so that's what I'm going to do.

That's it for today kids.

A new old project, 1976 Motobecane Nomade Sprint

Since this is a cycling related blog along with a fat guy losing weight blog I thought it appropriate that I post up a sort of project that I bought about a year ago and never started. This is a 1976 Motobecane Nomade Sprint and it is in what appears to be 100% stock condition besides the seat, did I mention that its very close to my size? I picked it up one afternoon while dropping some items no longer needed at the Salvation army when I saw it collecting dust in the back room hidden behind some children's bicycles. The price paid was a mere $13 and that's rounded up, it was $12 and changeand the photos below is exactly how I got it, everything is there and it pedals, shifts and brakes as it should but the bike needs a lot of work before I would call it reliable.

I decided that I would work on it this winter to see if I can get it on the road for the spring, the old Namade will need at least cables, bar tape, tires, tubes a new seat and lots of elbow grease to get this old bicycle where I envision it. I put it in my bike stand this afternoon and am planning on starting the take down and scrubbing of the components in my spare time, like I have much of that! I am on the fence with a couple things like what color cable housings and bar tape to use, if anyone is reading along would care to either comment or send me an email with suggestions it would help. My options are to either stick with the stock red and call it a day or I am thinking that black housings, tape and hoods would look good on a silver bike but as I stated, I am on the fence.

Another project that I have is an early 80's (1982 -1983) Zullo Criterium pictured above, this frame is very much too small for me which is a shame as it is a pretty cool little bike. My initial idea was to get it in ridable condition and flip on Craigslist but the more that I think about it making it into a nice little gift for my wife sounds like a better idea to me, she does not ride right now but I hope that one day she will head on out with me and if she has a nice bike to head out on perhaps she will be more likely to give it a go.

My weight loss is on track and the weight is still coming down, I am lighter than I was on Friday which is always a good thing! The plan for this evening is a spin on the trainer, a big salad for dinner and maybe I will head on down to that Motobecane to start taking stuff off to polish it, then I will need to start tracking down some tape and cables for it so that sooner than later I can have it ready to go. if you are reading along I hope that you are enjoying the blog so far, it helps me to write things down that have to do with the weight loss and I always enjoy sharing my bicycle obsession.... um I mean hobby.

That's it for today kids.