Raleigh Sprite, Day 5, or: 'Back on Track'

The frame is primed, but will be on hold for a bit awaiting: decals, final paint selection, buying some big plastic things to hang from the ceiling to prevent dust during application, etc... More details on the process later.

Raleigh Sprite Detour, or: 'A Short Study in Compromise'

There comes a time in every man's life when he realizes that the dreams of his youth will not be fulfilled...

For some, this juncture passes with little conscious notice. As the great Waters once put it:

Tired of lying in the sun
Staying home to watch the rain
But you are young and life is long
And there is time to kill today.
And then one day you find
Ten years have got behind you.
No one told you when to run;
You missed the starting gun.

In the realm of vintage bike restoration, compromise begins with a slight dread of finishing the sanding job to prepare the frame for paint. It deepens as one realizes that perhaps one purchased the wrong wheels on E-bay-- at a great price, but wrong nonetheless. Soon, effortlessly, the idea of 'settling' develops from being distasteful and demeaning to being 'the practical thing'. If one adopts a certain face-to-the-wind, stoical attitude, the acceptance of "life as it really is" becomes almost enobling. One imagines oneself growing old, having given up greater dreams in exchange for "the middle way". And perhaps one looks back, calmly and steady-eyed, at a life of solidity and function....

No, I tell you! No! Bike restoration is a romantic undertaking, one which calls forth every fibre of impracticality one posesses! There is risk; there is uncertainty; there is the possibility of failure. If not here, then when? Tell me! In what part of life may we put it on the line and shout, "I will live to the utmost of my ideals! I will put aside all duplicity and doubt: I will make this bike perfect, if it costs me my fortune and my life!"

[All that to say, I found a Raleigh--a heretical, 1979, not-made-in-England Raleigh, but still a Raleigh--that is perfectly functional for all of Meghan's current transportational needs. It was a great price on Craigs, so I grabbed it. It will serve as surrogate until I finish the True Article. Incidentally, it has an internal three-speed Sturmey-Archer hub, which both Megs and I really like. So I'll probably do some sort of internal hub for the '76 Raleigh.]

Anyway, the Raleigh Sprite will continue its journey to perfection, but Megs and I will be able to ride together in the interim. (Enjoy the cameo: a special treat for my readers. Both of you.)

Raleigh Sprite, Day 2

Raleigh Restoration, Day 2

Man hours expended: about 1.

$0.00.

Project hours to-date: 3.5

I made some progress on sanding the frame.

Megs and I also talked about colours (she often visits me while I'm working in the garage-- if Jos is to bed and Wynn is in between feedings etc.) We're thinking a milky celeste green, but different enough from a Bianchi to make it different. It will probably veer toward the blue side of celeste. It will have a moderately wide Brooks in one of the darker, whiskey-hued brown leathers. It will be gorgeous. Those are the plans at any rate, should we live and et cetera.

I also installed a stem riser on my Felt road bike, making it fit me and making it look kind of dumb.

Raleigh Sprite, Day 1

~1970 Mixte Raleigh Sprite Restoration, Day One:

Approximately 2.5 man hours, not including strolling around Fred Meyer looking for tools and buying Dr. Pepper and Hostess chocolate mini-donuts.

Total project hours to-date: 2.5

At this point, the bike is disassembled minus the crankset, bottom bracket, and headset. I had to get a few tools to further the cause. I found a great paint stripping attachment for a drill chuck, which I tested out on the downtube.

Challenges today: getting the chainring bolts off. They were very soft and the corners got chewed up with the slightest force. I managed to get two of them out, but the third precipitated my buying the Vise Grip, with which I was able to get a sufficient purchase on the bolt to remove it. Another difficulty is/will be the cottered cranks. I gave it a gentle go with the method I've seen on the blogosphere, but nothing happened (other than some dents in the cotter head.) So... I'm going to have to use the escalating severities described by Sheldon Brown on "Retro Raleighs".

Incidentally, on my Mac at home I can't format my posts very cleanly; thus the pictures not lined up, the text all over the place, etc. etc. Not a big deal, but I'm an obsessive formatter/fontist/layout perfectionist. Oh well for me.

1976 Raleigh Sprite

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.

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...