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@FatManOnAFixie
Hello, I'm new here. This is my first thread, please treat me gently... if you must laugh do so discreetly :-)
About 19 years ago my elderly neighbour was having a clearout of his recently moved out kids 'stuff' and was doing a dump-run to the local tip. In his stash were 2 bikes, "do you want them for your kids when they grow up?" he kindly enquired knowing we were flat broke with 7 and 5 year old children. "You could probably make up 1 good 'un out of the 2" he said. I took 'em, stripped + dumped any really knackered bits and dismantled the rest and stashed what was left up in the loft where the remains have lived for almost 20 years. No point rushing is there. Funny thing is... both of our kids (now 24 and 26) have left home.
Time to build a bike then innit now I've got more time.
Down from the loft came this...
Its a 21" Dawes lightning frame from about (neighbour can't remember exact date) 1979-1981-ish. The rims on the Dawes were rusted to pieces and the chrome was all bubbly and lifting IIRC so they were dumped as was the seat and post as I can't find that in the loft either. The wheels you can see in the piccie are from the 2nd bike, a Girls Kalkhoff which are in remarkable condition. Story goes the neighbours lad rode about 10 billion miles on his bike whereas the daughter rode about 10ft. (ish).
The girly bike looked like this when it came down from the loft...
I had the foresight to drop most of the shiny bits stripped from the Dawes into a container of oil for rust free storage and covered all the frame tubes and bars of both bikes in a layer of thick engine oil...
Shall I carry on or is it a bit boring?
Dave.