Building a new girlfriend/Obligatory girlfriend bike build

• #1

Miitch

I GOT A GIRLFRIEND (woohoo!)

Whilst perusing this site my new squeeze spotted this build

and said she liked it. Which got me thinking maybe my girlfriend could also ride a bike.

My girlfriend hasn't ridden a bike in ages, so the idea of a brakeless fixie is not on the table yet - so my plan is a fairly sensible porteur build with hub gear and front basket etc.
I'm thinking Sturmey Archer 5 Speed Rear Hub with Bar Mount Thumb Shift
Velo Orange Bellville Bars, and Bar End Brake Levers
Wald Front Basket

So I set about buying a sensible frame and came up with this:

It's a refurb job by Argos, it's got Dawes rear drop outs, and the BB is stamped with DA8794, I'm fairly sure it's a Dawes Imperial - though this is a guess from matching pictures.
While the fadeeezzzz are cool I'm not mad keen on either colour so I'm thinking of getting it re painted (I know this is perhaps an unpopular opinion, however since it's not an original paintjob I don't feel too bad)
I shall update as and when a paint scheme has been decided.

Extra:
In a moment of madness today I grabbed this for £60:

My plan is single speed conversion, ditch the gear and what-not and chuck on a freewheel. Even though my girlfriend hasn't quite got her head around the concept of a beater she now has one!

Work will commence on this ASAP...

(P.S. I got a girlfriend!!)

• #2

PhilDAS

Congrats on the girlfriend, argos is rad. Will look great if kept clean and simple a la the rosin

• #3

Miitch

Not sure how I feel about the wide riser things on it but the hack bike went down a treat

• #4

tallsam

Congrats on the bikes and the GF.

She seems quite tall. Will the Argos/Dawes be big enough? Raleigh looks a tad small.

Sorry, not trying to dampen your enthusiasm.

• #5

Miitch

The Raleigh is a funny fit, I had to put the saddle down (a couple of inches) after the second picture so she could ride it - I'll have a fiddle with bar shapes and positions and see what happens. And I hope so!

• #6

PhilDAS

Non-cycling girls tend to prefer a more upright position anyway I think so if its a tad small, it'll only bring the bars closer in which is probably better, just have to have the stem a bit higher

• #7

Miitch

Just to be double sure before I got the frame painted I built the bike up with parts bin bits

This is absolutely nothing like the finished build, but good news is - it fits, so paint work is going to go ahead

• #8

MultiGrooves

FFS makin me look bad....

• #9

Tenderloin in reply to @MultiGrooves

You still not got her a bike mate?

• #10

Tenderloin

u slippin

• #11

MultiGrooves

I slipped like Freudian....

I'm waiting to hear back from Scheritt re measurements and bike cad stuff....

• #12

russmeyer

What are the brazeons under the downtube for?

• #13

Miitch

The braze ones are for braze on shifters, gonna cut them off before painting though probably

• #14

PhilDAS in reply to @Miitch

That means no cable stops if you ever want to run it geared though. But if that won't be a problem then never mind

• #15

russmeyer in reply to @Miitch

I mean these, are they cable guides? Surely not for the shifters :)

Nice couple of projects and congrats on relationship btw.

And don't respray it.

1 Attachment

• #16

Miitch

Yeah, yeah they're cable guides

• #17

JT

wouldn't usually say this....but.... paint it! She'll like it way more.

• #18

Miitch

It's looking more than likely that the frame will be painted, I visited Cole Coating's today and he gave me a good idea of what could be achieved with a white/glitter coat with a subtle orange detailing - not dissimilar from the Rossin posted at the beginning of this thread. Also he talked to me about custom head badges... Which I'm very tempted by now.

My vague plan for the moment is to use the Charles Rennie MacIntosh font to write "Dawes"
I was thinking about getting the Charles Rennie MacIntosh rose put on the headtube, but now I'm maybe thinking about getting a custom head badge of the rose instead...