I have to admit, I've had the song "Bicycle Race" by Queen stuck in my head since Tuesday. Why, you might ask? Well, check out my new bike!!

 

In a previous post, I mentioned how it might be a good project for Jared to fix up a cruiser bike for me. He was actually really excited about the idea, and we decided that if we find one, he could get it for me as a Christmas gift.  Since then, we've been watching for any cruiser bikes that might show up on Craigslist or anywhere else. Last week, Jared found a great bike, but by the time he called it was already sold! Then over this past weekend, we had another disappointment. I found the perfect bike at an antique mall in Howell for only $36. Full of excitement, I dragged Jared and his parents there, only to discover that I had failed to notice the 1 before that number, and it was actually $136--not quite the price we wanted to pay for a bike that would take a fair amount of fixing up. It was quite the let down. But on Tuesday, this beauty popped up on Craigslist.

 

She's a 1950 Schwinn Cadillac Women's Cruiser. You can kind of see the Cadillac logo on this head badge.  

She's been hanging out in someone's shed for probably 20 years now, gathering dust and a whole lot of rust, but she still has a sturdy frame, some awesome fenders and curves in all the right places. Needless to say, we decided to give her a new home.
Unfortunately, there's still a lot of work that needs to be done before I get to ride my bicycle. She may be a beauty, but right now she's a bit of a monster. 

Fortunately, I know just the guy to give her a little love. She'll need some work, probably a bunch of new parts (white wall tires, anyone? yay!!) and obviously a new paint job (yellow, please), but I'm so excited for my new bike! Happy Christmas to me :)

Hello! 

Jared is off gallivanting around in Langley right now, touring apartments, meeting  people, talking to banks and cell phone companies, enjoying the beautiful views of Mt. Baker and the Golden Ears mountains, and apparently getting very very lost. On Monday, he flew into Seattle , then took a bus from the airport to Surrey, the next town over from Langley. He flew out to attend Young Life in Langley's annual dessert fundraiser, which is this evening, so cross your fingers and wish him luck that everything is going ok!

And over this past  weekend... he finished his bike! It is now all painted, polished, and reassembled--so all those little baggies of parts somehow found themselves back onto the bike where they belong. The bike looks great, but unfortunately he has the camera with him in Langley so I can't post the after pictures! Next time...next time. There are still a couple things he hopes to do with the bike, like change it into a single speed, buy new pedals, and get fenders (which will probably be important to have in Langley, since it rains a lot there!). But for now, it works and looks great!

I'm pretty sure once he finishes this project, he'll be itching for another. I, personally, wouldn't mind if he made me a bike like this one:

only in a pale yellow. And maybe with a gray seat instead. It's not that I love bikes that much or anything, but maybe if I had one that was pretty and lovable, I would like to ride it more--at least I think that's Jared's hope. There's a bike just like this one parked outside the library every Thursday, and every time I see it I just want to give it a little pat like a pup. It's just so cute! I can picture myself riding it around with a basket full of flowers on the back and a packed picnic basket. Maybe next week I'll try to take a picture of it...I've been tempted to take one with my phone for a couple weeks now, but I'm always scared the bike's owner will catch me and be suspicious.

So I guess this turned into more of a "hers" post anyway...oh well ;) I promise pictures of his completed bike in the near future.

  

Hi Everyone! 

This is the first "his" post, but I've got to admit, he's not the one writing this. Jared's been putting a lot of work into fixing in his bike, so I'm here to show off all that work to the world! 

The "Before" Picture

A couple weeks ago, Jared adopted this 1979 Schwinn Traveler from my dad. He had originally purchased this bike before marrying my mom, before the kids came along, and most definitely before me. He got a lot of use out of it, but eventually it just became an ornament hanging on the wall in their pole barn, collecting dust and, unfortunately, a whole lot of rust. When Jared and I were in town on a visit, we saw this beauty sitting outside, ready to be donated to a rumage sale. Ironically, though, Jared has been searching Craigslist for a road bike for months now--when we move to Vancouver, we're not planning on bringing Vanna Green (my old green minivan) along, leaving us with only one car, so instead Jared's planning on commuting via bicycle. So he immediately snatched the opportunity to adopt this bike. Considering its age, this bike was in pretty good shape. There were some issues though:

Worn tires, a little bit of rust

More rust...

And more rust...

And a couple spider webs too :)

 Jared started out by stripping off parts of the bike, piece by piece, to decide what all needed to be replaced, and what just needed a whole lot of cleaning. Within a couple evenings, Jared's bike was in pieces.

Baggies of parts--all labeled 

With the help of WD-40, steel wool and a whole lot of elbow grease, Jared was able to scrub the rust off the bike. Eventually, the wheel spokes and other parts were actually shiny again. 

Jared was able to remove most pieces by himself, but found that, for those pieces where a special tool was necessary, many bike shops in the area were willing to help out--most of the time for free, too. And the one shop that did charge got a nice little surprise--apparently, at one point or another some bees decided to make this bike their home, and unfortunately, the shop ended up with a floor of dead bees. Oops! A couple parts did need replacing too, like the tires, but Jared was able to find some great deals shopping at nashbar.com. 

By the next weekend, the bike was down to just its frame, ready to be sanded, primed, and painted.

 

That's all for now, but check back again for an update on the painting process!