stuff you're doing while at home
as we both need to lose some weight i've bought dawn a 70's bsa shopper 20. she showed me a hercules her mum used to have which is basically a copy of a raleigh shopper as is the bsa. only £50 and really in very nice condition. the tyres are cracked so i've ordered 2 new ones and while the wheels are out we'll go over it with some polish and oil. she's happy which as any married man will know is a good thing. for me i have my dad's old again 70's raleigh transit which he used to ride daily at work on a 5 mile loop taking in seasalter seafront. i've kept it meaning to 'do it up one day' as you do. this is that day. so far i've stripped it to the frame and stretched it so the wheelbase is now 18" longer. it's not a show thing so a quick go over the welds with a flapwheel on the grinder and a rub down with a couple of fine-ish da discs and it was ready for paint. 2 coats of rattle can primer and 4 of rattle can gloss black and that's good enough for me. i've ordered new handlebars and stem, gear and brake cables (red outers), 2 chains to get the length and i already have bigger whitewalls and a new comfy gel seat. so here's some pics of where i am so far. i had a quick mockup with the old rolling stock to see the proportions were right once it was all tacked up. the ladies frame beside the extended version was (apart from being a ladies bike) dimensionally the same as i started with.
neil.
as we both need to lose some weight i've bought dawn a 70's bsa shopper 20. she showed me a hercules her mum used to have which is basically a copy of a raleigh shopper as is the bsa. only £50 and really in very nice condition. the tyres are cracked so i've ordered 2 new ones and while the wheels are out we'll go over it with some polish and oil. she's happy which as any married man will know is a good thing. for me i have my dad's old again 70's raleigh transit which he used to ride daily at work on a 5 mile loop taking in seasalter seafront. i've kept it meaning to 'do it up one day' as you do. this is that day. so far i've stripped it to the frame and stretched it so the wheelbase is now 18" longer. it's not a show thing so a quick go over the welds with a flapwheel on the grinder and a rub down with a couple of fine-ish da discs and it was ready for paint. 2 coats of rattle can primer and 4 of rattle can gloss black and that's good enough for me. i've ordered new handlebars and stem, gear and brake cables (red outers), 2 chains to get the length and i already have bigger whitewalls and a new comfy gel seat. so here's some pics of where i am so far. i had a quick mockup with the old rolling stock to see the proportions were right once it was all tacked up. the ladies frame beside the extended version was (apart from being a ladies bike) dimensionally the same as i started with.
neil.
