• Although it's not entirely a project, I was looking for a small folding bike for my ungrateful sister who probably won't ride it, I found this italian bike in a poor state despite the lack of rust for not a bad amount of money (£30), the tyres were flat, the saddle was awful, the brakes doesn't work, the kickstand make the most almighty squeal loud enough to sound like it's coming from a 14 tonnes vehicle, and the Sturmey Archer is stiff as hell to the point that you need to kick it hard to shift gear instead of using the little miniature railway signal box levers on the handlebar.

    The rest are easy to fix with a couple of elbow grease and some spanner thrown in the mix, surprisingly the 3 speeds hub were the easiest, as the only problem was the chain in the hubs was stuck solid and was a little out of alignment.

    The only thing that wasn't original was simply the saddle, £30 is a pretty good value after a couple of adjustment, hell, the Sturmey Archer shift smoother and quieter than the Brompton one! the next step is simply getting a modern dynamo to power the rear light and find a replacement for the front light.

    P.S. does anyone know of a good modern brakes to replace the original? since it hardly have the stopping power for going down a hill.

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