Classic & Vintage - My friends Christmas present

My wife's best friend has said that she wants an old bike so she can ride with her daughter, and with Christmas on it's way we decided to fix one up for her. I have this old Concord 10 speed that I posted a while back, and although it is not a high end bike, I think it has some potential. I have made alot of progress, I would say I am about halfway. Tommarrow I am going to buy some cotter pins, cables and tires. I have another Concord that I stole the cranks and BB out of (yes I know they are heavy) but I don't have any plans for it when I am done. If any one wants anything off the donor bike it's yours for the shipping costs. Ok here are the pictures, 2 from before, 3 of the progress and 2 of the donor. Note, the rims don't belong to this bike, I just put them there for the pics, and the wheel reflectors will go to this bike.

You so have to put upright handlebars on that bike. My girlfriend would love that frame (because of the colour) and although I would recoil in horror at the idea of it, she'd want to replace her mixte city bike with it.

I thought about putting upright bars on it actually, because I think it would be better for her, I just have to do it on the cheap as my wife is holding me to a budget. I also wanted to replace the cottered cranks but it all goes back to my budget. Don't get me started on color! My wife has a 1970s yellow Huffy scout. I fixed up a 58 Norman 3 speed and tried my hardest to convince her it was better, but she didn't want it because because it was blue. Oh well, she loves her yellow bike and I guess thats a good thing.

If only you had access to the kind of bicycle recycle shops that seem to have popped up in all the major western cities like here in victoria, but also and more so in Vancouver, seattle, portland etc... you could get a nice set of steel cruiser bars and a stem for like $10. I would offer to send you one but the shipping from Canada would make it too expensive to be worth your while.

Yeah, shipping something that cheap really doesn't make sense like you said. There is a local shop about 10 minutes from me that has a garage full of good used bits. They always let me rummage through it by myself, usually I get some pretty ok stuff for around $5.00. The same shop also gave me a Campy Record crank set for free! I'm going to stop by and look for some north road type bars and some old brake levers. I wish I had bike junk yards close by, but we don't have the bicycle community here to support it. I will be posting more pictures as I make progress.

Off topic for a second, Vancouver is on my short list of cities to visit. One of my favorite authors, Douglas Coupland is from Vancouver and wrote a nice book about the city called "City of Glass". So far I have travelled through a good chunk of Eastern Canada. Toronto was excellent, super clean, super organized, but maybe not as much fun as some other cities. Montreal was grittier, but was my favorite, with all the colleges in close proximity it has a really hip young vibe. Quebec City was nice, but so touristy that it felt like being at disney world. Niagara falls.... what can you say really, if you like casinos, breakfast dives and adult entertainment then I guess it's your place. Oh yeah, and there is a waterfall too, just remember stay on the Canadian side, the New York half is a rough place! Ok I've gushed enough, I can't help it when Canada comes up. I have to get a passport to go back.... which I am less than thrilled about.

Found a new purpose for old innertubes today. Showing some progress, this was my first time to wrap bars... and it shows. I probably would'nt get white if I could do it all over again, oh well.

http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3051/3036694106_76ac3d291f_o.jpg

The white looks nice. Don't sweat it.

lookin good