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@james1234
Ok, I'll set the scene.
5pm in the middle of April, weather is just starting to get a little nicer and I'm just servicing my bike. My phone rings.
"Hello?"
"Hi, I was given your number because you like old bikes. I've got one"
"Ok, sounds interesting, what exactly do you have?"
"Well, it belonged to my late son and was built here in leicester, I don't want it anymore because I'm saving some money for the grandchildren"
"Ok, could I come and have a look at it?"
"Sure"
I arrived at the house a hour later and I found this:
It's a J Fern racing bike from the late 70s (?) with basic simplex gearing, weinmann brakes, royal saddle and aluminium mavic clincher rims. As you can see from the pictures it's in a sorry state, but I just fell in love with it. It does have loads of scratches, marks, wear etc plus a small dent in the top-tube.
The very kind old lady told me about how many miles this has done (lands end to john o groats, leicester to london, leicester to skegness all when the sadly departed gentleman road this as a small chap. I asked her how much she would like for it, she said £10. I then explained I had to go to the cash machine to get some money out. As I was at the cash machine the screen came up with the numbers of cash to draw out. £10 £20 £40 £50 £70 £100 - I drew out £50. Why? Because I felt this was the value of the bike and in all honesty I felt quite sorry for this lady and her grandchildren, I felt it was the least I could do.
By the time I had arrived back at the house, she had left the bike outside and kindly asked me to post the money through the letter box. I felt good walking away, everyone loves expecting a tenner and receiving 50, right?
I was originally just going to spruce this up a little, get it running and sell it as-is, but then it gripped me. For the last month or so I've had a real itch which I just gotta scratch, the classic steel in original condition, mudguards, pannier racks, gumwall tyres and newbaum's tape. Don't really know where it's came from as I've never been keen on that look, without offending anyone I just think it's a little 'oldman-ish' but I have spent probably a hour a day for the last month just looking at tourer pictures.
I've currently got the bike fully stripped, I'm going to keep as much of the original patina and parts as possible, but it desperately needs new rim-tape, bearings serviced etc. I'm going to get it super super clean and riding perfectly.
I do need help however, looking for some really nice aluminum mudguards?
More soon.