Wooden Fenders!

I've learned about some awesome new fender accessories made by hand our of wood!
They're gorgeous and super expensive, but they are sure pretty...



You can get them for a road bike as well, and choose what colors of wood you would like.
I want some!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Some websites that have cool handmade wooden fenders:

www.woodysfenders.com

www.sykeswoodfenders.com

www.fastboyfenders.com

www.velocebicycles.com

Leave it? Or paint it?

My roommate's boyfriend came over today and took a gander at Goldie. Benjamin is also learning how to fix bikes and has been eyeballing some off Craigslist as well. It must be Portland, we're all obsessed with bikes. I read a statistic that said that 7 out of 10 people who live here own at least one bike. I know so many people that own more than that, myself included. I couldn't bring myself to sell my old cruiser with the bear bell and the cushy seat.

Anyway, Benjamin comes over and we're talking bikes. He thinks I should leave the color just like it is. He says it gets mega points for style. I don't disagree, after all, I named her Goldie for a reason. But there's something in me that wants the pristine finish of a not-scratched-up bike.

We both agree that there needs to be some improvements, a new seat for instance. New brake wires for sure. Some metal things to hold the brake lines to the bike instead of the plastic zip tie things that are holding them now.

Apparently there's a place in town that will paint your bike for you for a mere $120 bucks. They dip paint it and you don't have to worry about the massive sanding and painting job yourself.

But painting the bike myself doesn't seem like it would be that bad. The worst part would be taking it apart and putting it back together. As for paint, I'd just take it step by step.

1) take bike apart
2) use paint thinner to clean bike of grease and all weird foreign things and dirt
3) dry it
4) sand it with fine grit and then use white primer
5) dry the primer, then sand the bumps
6) repeat last step
7) wet sand it with super fine grit
8) let dry
9) paint with desired color
10) let dry then finish with a clear epoxy

It's not rocket science. But Benjamin kept whispering "and don't paint it" between every little conversation about what needs to be done. Haha, she is cute, but I think I still want to paint her gold. Maybe a rose gold with a pearly lustre to it. Yeah. With brown accents for grip tape and seat...

Picture of Goldie

Here is a picture of Goldie! The only thing I did to her so far was to take off that aweful white grip tape that had cemented itself onto the handlebars. Annoying... I read that lighter fluid can take off adhesive residue really well, I'll be trying that.

Things I know I need so far:

* grip tape
* new paint job- stat! (Goldie's looking kinda orange gold, not GOLD gold.)
* maybe a new seat, we'll see
* fenders for when it rains like CRAZY here
* a tune up

I'll keep you informed!

In the Beginning...

In the beginning, a young woman named Jen wanted a road bike. She lived in Portland and one fine day she woke up and turned her comput... okay, enough with the third person crap.

I bought a bike off Craigslist this morning. It wasn't my dream bike. My dream bike is a Peugeot Tour bike in black with little orange rainbows. I want it in my size and I want it in a men's style bike. This doesn't exist, I've decided. Or at least, I can't find one in my size at my price (dirt cheap).

After looking for months for the *perfect* bike and not finding it, I finally decided to just build my dream bike from the ground up. Well, that plan had problems too. I don't know how to work on, fix, build, or really do anything with a bike.

So, I decided to find a middle ground. I searched Craigslist for an old bike that didn't cost too much, that I could fix up to look and ride like I wanted. I still wanted a man's bike, but I wanted it to be my size.

Then, this morning, I found her. She is *gold*, manly, a 10 speed, and isn't a Peugeot. That means I can strip the paint to my hearts desire and not feel like I'm defacing an artifact. It's a Dayton, which I've never even heard of and apparently doesn't exist online. (But it does in England; it says so on my new bike.) She was $75, which isn't a small amount of cash for me, mind you. But, I found some FRAMES for at least $50 clams and for a mere $25 more, I got the rest of the bike! AND, the frame fits me. Yay. I'm 5'8" by the way.

So, I've decided to repaint her, keeping her gold though, because I love that color. I've decided to do all the work myself, and fix her up to be a fine city bike that I can use every day from school to work to the bars and back home again.

Thus begins the saga of GOLDIE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

And, I'll talk about my process and the steps and everything I encounter here so if some other girl wants a Goldie for her very own, she can do it herself and feel proud!