You are reading a single comment by @Lewis62 and its replies.
Click here to read the full conversation.
London Fixed Gear and Single-Speed is a community of predominantly fixed gear and single-speed cyclists in and around London, UK.
This site is supported almost exclusively by donations. Please consider donating a small amount regularly.
@Lewis62
The Mrs has indicated she would like to ride l'Eroica (well at least she's guaranteed an entry) so she needs a retro ride.
More specifically she wants something she can 'get out of' quickly if it goes to custard on the strade bianche.
Fortunately, an elderly neighbour said she might have something so popped round for a look see and found this - a Carlton Courette, mixte circa '79 - '83.
I'm hoping it will do the business for her. It's the right size, which is a good start and everything on it seems to work OK - even the wheels run true. But the paint is a little tatty with large areas of surface rust. Of course there's the issue of 'patina' to consider, but because it's for a girl, such things are irrelevant. It must look the mustard, so off to Argos it has gone for a new look in something called 'burnt cream' with World Champs rings mimicking the head badge on the seat tube plus new decals.
More pics here:
http://s432.photobucket.com/user/Luigi1936/slideshow/Carlton%20Courette
Everything that came off it has been bagged ready for cleaning, so it should be relatively easy to have this sorted, although there might be some re-chroming required, particularly on the racks which I'd quite like to keep. Additionally, a new saddle and bar tape courtesy of Brooks will bloat the cost a bit.
I hope it turns out OK.