Last night, Megs and I acquired a ~1976 Raleigh Sprite mixte. For free.
The catch of course was that the rear wheel is destroyed, and there is a lot of rust on various components (not the frame, though, as far as I can tell.) I've been looking for a 70's mixte Raleigh to fix up for Megs, and this one will be perfect. It even comes with an authentic vinyl Brooks saddle.
The catch of course was that the rear wheel is destroyed, and there is a lot of rust on various components (not the frame, though, as far as I can tell.) I've been looking for a 70's mixte Raleigh to fix up for Megs, and this one will be perfect. It even comes with an authentic vinyl Brooks saddle.
Now every bike has it's own persona-- or soul, if you will-- and it is crucial that one chooses a bike that is compatible with oneself. If this bike had spent its formative years in a local backyard, rusting away its young life in the company of Camaros and pit bulls, I might be concerned that it wasn't a match for Meghan (an adventurous but always classy gal). Don't get me wrong; a restoration of the frame described above would be just as beautiful, but it might be more comfortable 'neath a slightly bigger-boned biker gal who would ride it to and fro' the local mini mart carrying 'packs of PBR in bags slung from the handlebars. Just saying.
However, such was not the youth of the Sprite that we rescued. This bike was lovingly used, and by that most bikeish of humans: the Portlander. It met its untimely demise in a most fitting way. The previous owner had taken the bike to Burning Man, and on the dirve back, in the middle of the lonely Arizona desert, the bike fell off the back of the car.
I like to think that Megs is the kind of gal that (if she didn't have other reasons not to) would be a carefree hippy with a bike on the back of her 1989 Toyota Corolla driving to Burning Man. Except something better than Burning Man. But some big gathering in the middle of the desert.
The bike had plastic flowers in the spokes.
So anyway, I will be resurrecting this bike. My methods are more Matrix-like then messianic. It will be a long process, with many of the parts spending time soaking in various chemicals. Then, like Neo, the bike will slowly awake to the world. First it will see "men walking about as if they were trees"... and then it will hear a voice...
