corrado33

We had a school bike auction today and I saw this older woman's bike that looked pretty solid, all the the paint was mostly coming off almost everywhere, but it still had a "Bridgestone" badge on the front with "made in japan" by it.

So, I paid $35 for it.

We got it home and my girlfriend decided she wanted to make this her project. It badly needed a paint job, so we went out and bought nice primer and a blue metallic paint as close to the color of the bike as we could. We also bought some clear coat.

We started stripping the remaining paint today. Just to make it clear, this bike was in no way recoverable in terms of paint.

We saved all of the original parts including the fenders and the front rack (unfortunately the rear rack was gone.)

Anyway, it turns out it is just like the bike in this picture.


I've gotten varying reports on how much this bike is worth (not that we're selling it). Either way, I think I got a good deal and after we fix it up, it'll be a nice ride for her whenever she wants it.

Unfortunately the fenders are beat to crap, tons of dents. I tried getting most of them out with a ball peen hammer, but there's no way I'm going to get them 100% smooth again. We'll definitely shine them up though.

So, does anyone have any info on this bike? I looked on sheldon brown's site and saw that bridgestone bikes were highly regarded back in the day, so I got excited and made this post. However after looking through the catalogs I couldn't find the exact bike we had.

Lenton58 

Bridgestone has a long history. The company has produced some very fine competition and sports bicycles, but the bulk of their manufacturing is in plainer, more bread and butter. The company continues to make workaday, utilitarian bicycles for the domestic Japanese market that are often a little more expensive and better quality that the average 'mamachari' (my wife rides one).

Your GF's frame is a very common design, but the parts are a very definite upgrade on the usual, everyday Bridgestone. You have done a very nice job indeed. It should give many years of pleasure and dependable transportation. I'd like one just like in a bigger size to use for shopping etc.

Grand Bois

The bike behind it looks interesting.

Standalone 

Yup, no harm was done to the Vintage gods by stripping and refinishing a decent but still everyday bike. Enjoy it and be proud of getting it for a good price!