kingfish254

My wife loved her little 1990 Dahon Mariner Classic III, except for the white paint and blue letters. She has been after me to stop working on my flip bikes and give her's some more style. Here is the plan. The idea is to make it somewhat like an old English 3 speed.
- I broke it down and painted the frame hunter green.
- I painted the fenders a khaki tan color.
- She likes Burberry plaid and she found a front handlebar bag with that classic tan plaid on it.
- I also found some Burberry bumper stickers and we are going to use those for an accent stripe on the green frame. (We are waiting on the bag before we decide to put any sticker stripes on it).
- I gave her the Bell tan leatherette seat and hand grips for Christmas

One thing I was thinking was creme tires may look cool with this theme. Does any one know where to find 16" creme tires? I haven't found any yet.

Here are the before photos of the bike:

kingfish254

The whole bike (minus tires) fit into this wire basket.

kingfish254

Well I finished the re-assembly of the bike today. Just in time for Valentine's Day for my wife.




I took it for a test ride to the park around the corner and took some photos up on the new bandshell.

kingfish254

Before and After photo

msincredible

Very pretty, lucky wife!

mike alanko

I vote for a Brooks. And a brass bell!

Otherwise very nice.

kingfish254

A Brooks saddle would look nice, but my wife wanted this springer saddle with the matching grips. We are still waiting on the Burberry plaid handlebar bag to come in.

PawsonBikes

Awsome! What a great job you did. Talk about making a statement!

SesameCrunch

Nice job, KingFish. What a makeover! Bet your wife loves her new bike!

jur

Absolutely brilliant job!

kingfish254

Thanks for the compliments. Yes, she does love her new old folder. We went for a ride today. She took her "new" Dahon and I took my old Raleigh Twenty.

SesameCrunch

Kingfish: where did you get the saddle and grips?

kingfish254

WalMart. They are made by Bell and also have a matching saddle bag that we might get.

BluePlate55

Lovely!!! I have a Citizen Bike with cream tires, and I really like how they look (the bike is a dark green as well--it makes a nice combo). My tires are 20", but they might carry 16" as well. Maybe worth a check!

Kevinator

Thats a very impressive restoration job kingfish! It looks great in hunter green.

Do you mind if I ask how you removed the folding stem and fork? I have a similar style mariner with a loose stem that is too dangerous to ride anymore. I really like the frame style (minus the stem) and would love to fix it if I can.

kingfish254

It is actually pretty easy.
- Fold the handlepost over
- Unscrew the handlepost lock tension bar
- Remove the retaining ring and lower bar of the handlepost lock
- Use a hammer and screwdriver to unscrew the two handlepost rings that hold the handlepost on. One is sitting on top of the other.
- Remove the handlepost
- Use a hammer and screwdriver to unscrew the one ring that holds the forks on
- remove forks and bearing
- clean all parts
- grease bearings and reassemble in opposite order

Good luck.

kingfish254

I saw this beautiful old Morgan sports car and had to take a photo of the Dahon in front of it. As small as the Dahon is folded, I don't think it would fit in this trunk.

Kevinator

kingfish, thanks for taking the time to type out the steps. I much appreciate it. I will probably give that a go this weekend. Thanks!

msincredible

What a gorgeous car! (and bike of course )

vmaniqui

excellent.....great paint job...i like the color combination - green and cream...

kingfish254

My wife got her Burberry plaid handlebar bag in yesterday. We are very pleased with the quality of the bag. Good buy at $18 shipped from Shanghai. She loves it with the bike too. The colors work well. It is kinda cool that it has an old style Dahon logo, but we may remove it.

mlau

Not a knock on your wife's tastes, but your bicycle makeover is much classier than her Burberry bag.

You should seriously contact Dahon and ask if they'd hire you for special editions.