Tuesday, January 26, 2010

If you build it

It will come. That is my hopes and thoughts. So what am I building? More like rebuild, clean up, pimp out, make some bling. I've pulled down my bike path tour to the pub fixie for some artistic creation.


This bike has gone through lots of different lives starting out in the hands of my sister many many years ago. The early 90' s (not sure what year Jenn got it) custom built Gardin spent a good many years with my sister pedalling, well everywhere. Columbus tubing meant a really smooth ride. As nice as carbon some many say nicer, some may not. I came into ownership with it after I helped Jenn get setup with a new Giant frame, yes there happen to be some carbon in that frame.

From there I started a buildup as a crap weather bike. It was a great build for what it was to be used for but I found that it never was used. When you have a cyclocross bike to beat on you know this is only going to get dirty with dust. Well the latest creation has been the fixie setup. Now I just want to take it a step up. I've stripped down the parts for the who knows how many times. A fresh paint job is now in order.

The original British racing green paint is pretty good but 15 plus years old it obviously has its fair share of war wounds. I'm back and forth on the colour but right now I'm looking at pearl white or burnt orange. With so many wonderfully bright cars out there the premixed colour options in the Canadian Tire auto paint department is going to be the only limitations. Heading in there will bring back memories to my custom car days with hours spent building stereo systems, forming body panels and tweaking little strung out 4 cylinder Acura's and Honda. There is less chance of me being pulled over by cops randomly while riding a pimped out bike.

That little break in the weather on the weekend has given me thoughts of warmer times, tours down the bike path to the Quarter Deck for beer and dinner. Cruises on the flat pedals with no training regiment. Rides when your not spending 20 minutes putting on layers of clothing wondering if you will be warm enough or if you could overheat. Both are bad. Well that old saying of if you build it they will come. When I finish the build up spring sure as hell better be here.

3 comments:

Jenn said...

it's from 1994 and cost me a crazy $1500. Came with full 105

Anonymous said...

Never ruin a good frame by painting it a different colour and turning it into an ugly "don't steal me" bike. Honor the bike with it's original colours and get some custom replica decals made to match.

Matt Spak said...

It will not be painted the don't steal me colours. It's going to look amazing when done. I won't ride an ugly bike.

Just finished stripping it done to the bare metal, first coat of primer is drying.

Pretty wild that $1500 now will get you a 105 ranked bike now. HMMM cost versus inflation? Nice fully Ultegra carbon bike?? Close