The painted over front chrome lugs look exceptionally fine, making me wonder if the paint will adhere to the chrome very well? Probably using some sort of sand paper, steel wool or other abrasive effect to rough up the chrome a little would make the paint stick best.

I have an early to mid seventies Windsor Carerra Sport, my second of those from a twenty dollar flea market unrideable though not too distressed find during 1997 in Eureka, CA; after the first one I got new here in Bellingham during '73, was trashed ten years later by some creep* who drove over the bike with a four wheel drive pickup, who'd not liked a fellow who'd been borrowing the bike for a dish washing job at a local bowling alley in Ojai, CA.

I think the earlier Carerra Sports had different gearing than the mid to late seventies models, with the two front sprockets close in size I think were forty-eight and fifty-two teeth respectively. I've had good luck using the front derailleur with a three sprocket crank-set, a BioCam someone gave me I finally wore enough I had to replace that; when I also got after market derailleurs and sealed bottom bracket/spindle too.

I've put a lot of work into modifying the bike, which became magical with the addition of a shorter goose neck which mates far better with the more upright style handlebars I've replaced the down curved type the bike was standard with. There is a local place with a fantastic stash of 27" parts they've gleaned and keep in bins, letting people paw through those if in need of something; so I felt very lucky getting my shorter goose neck, since like the seat post too, these have an outer diameter which isn't too common that's a little more slender than usual.

That shorter goose neck gives great response and control with the upright style handlebars, which also sport SunTour stem shifters mounted right next to the goose neck, and a fine if inexpensive set of hand brake levers probably made for a mountain bike...a score from a store's bargain bin, a place on Telegraph near the Oakland Greyhound station I think cost about five dollars, quite a few years ago. The grips turned out exceptional too, which are thick padded ones which used to have large diameter collars I cut off with a razor blade; that must've been made for use with BMX bikes.

I have also added front & rear racks, Zefal fenders which are an imaginative design that's both sturdy and without need of stays, and a fine seat which came with a synthetic fabric cover which eventually wore out, I replaced with an exceptionally fine piece of black leather someone sold me in Eureka, CA where I'd earlier befriended shoe repairman Bruno Ravelli there, which helped when I was shopping for the new seat material. Plus, I lucked out and found a new Union generator light set for half price; at the same parking lot sale at Arcata's Revolution Cycles I got the seat at for only three dollars.

Until I started having to replace the first set of rims I had, I think I'd not put more than a hundred dollars into this bike which is the typical amount I've had to invest fixing up several bikes to where they all satisfied my demand of "fenders, front & rear carriers, and a generator light set-up" though now with all sealed bearings and after market derailleurs front & rear, the cost has gone up considerably...mostly since for the first time I have had to rely upon others, for many of the components; and buying things new, rather than used and/or from bargain bins.

If I knew what I was doing I'd post a picture or two I have of myself with the bike, more or less as that currently appears; except that now the sealed bearings, after market derailleurs and nicer rims have been added. I'd even use a new roll of film in my camera, to take some current shots; since the bike is a good enough adaptation, I think others might be inspired to try something different-in contrast to the single speed track conversions that seem so popular with these bikes.

The effect is spectacular, if you like quick handling; and since my bike is black, I feel like I'm a cop too...which may seem a mixed blessing, though those folks seem to honor a person a little which could be fine if ever stolen that actually did happen recently which I did manage to recover...if certainly abused on purpose, seems likely though feasibly the bike got dumped which is maybe why abandoned a neighbor himself pretty creepy too, altered me to in a nearby alley.

I'm such an enthusiast, I'd simply and probably simple mindedly; encouraged a stranger to take my bike out for a night's ride, someone from the night time environment in this ghetto apartment complex probably playing me to take advantage of me.**

As a multipurpose tool even a little like a truck, so to speak; I think I've found an exemplary style-so adapted a brand new "CROWER CAMS" sticker I found riding one day along US 101 from Eureka to Arcata, CA. By clipping out the "OW" and turning that upside down, to create my own brand name for the headset...a "MO" which has a long rap involved, related to the moa bird of New Zealand; said at the Arcata Museum of Natural History, to've been a twelve foot tall carnivorous beast which became extinct during the 1850s...though one other source I've seen says they were vegetarians. They'd had an actual leg bone, which was scary to contemplate; since those birds must've weighed as much as a horse or at least a pony or donkey.

The rap gets complicated, since also involving the Pep Boys "Manny, Mo and Jack" as well as the nursery rhyme which some clod in Eureka tried to use offensively, degrading a friendship with a dark AfAm friend "Meany, Miney, Mo..." etcetera; though also relating well to The Three Stooges, too. I think were I to design my own emblem; that would have some sort of lettering inside the "O" to imply either a lower case "a" or "e" or perhaps both somehow?

Currently, my scheme for the future involves using a rust preventative product the MarHyde company used to market in an aerosol version also sold generically in hardware stores, which can be brushed on; that goes on clear then turns black, and is good as a primer coat which is fine to leave as the finished coat too. This product is one which a person is encouraged to use without removing all the existing rust, only roughing up the surface with an abrasive to remove most of the rust while covering the rest with the preventative, which is supposed to combine with the remaining rust which destroys that and adheres far better that way than if the surface were meticulously cleaned and sanded.

*A person is forced to become philosophical about various types of manipulations a person can suffer, when there are obvious evidences of degrees of thoughtfulness or at least conscious pursuit involved. The old "hammer or nail" iceberg/Titannic effects; wherein the ellipticity involved, may be integral and creative amongst the various protagonists or often less congenial.

You do get to the point of wanting to drop like the proverbial ton of bricks on someone or others, either those manipulating one as means of retaliation-or as the overseer/terrorist in the first place; obviously engendering such voluminous degrees of rage and stylistic criticism as communism & socialism, etc. Though too, also the means by which society evolves...where a person feels best, the means whereby a person can be given a definitely stylized capacity for luck; from tribe, family, and other facets of integration, education & socialization.

**Due to some pernicious effects from not being allowed to ever nurse, I suffer from; I've been supported by Social Security Disability Income & State Supplemental Income aka "SSDI/SSI" which unfortunately won't make a very good acronym-since early during 1985 and also a HUD section 8 housing rent subsidy since about the millennia. This has created the scenario where I constantly have to battle prejudice from a variety of sources; such as organized crime in cahoots with right-wing conservatives they dominate and terrorize, or reactionaries they forge various creepy alliances with.

About my only alternatives, all involve various bootstrapping methods; so I'm stuck often fantasizing about those, while as John Lennon mentions "life happens, while making plans for other things." Sort of harsh news, which bit him in the ass eventually too; unless somehow cleverly reincarnating, I'm always imagining quite feasible for such a master...always a willing hitch-hiker, so set for any eventuality more or less.

I'm someone "Rom" a so-called Gypsy, an identity and ancestry I only learned of during 1997 chancing to read 19th century composer Franz Liszt's book The Gipsies in Music; thanks to a revealing oral history done with my mother the spring of 1973...outside my first experience of sex, easily the most revolutionary and perhaps most startling thing I've ever experienced. Thus, my way of life is actually a quite stylized one; with typically a government subsidized existence the most common for many folk, allied or not to others also dependent upon such means.

Thus, my MO can seem definitely as if pre-ordained, which is an effect I sometimes often seem to notice of much of my life; where I'd guess there can be facets which really are by design, and other things which actually do suggest a sort of faux otherwise "Creationalism" religious fanatics give such a bad name-I like referring to as the "phenomenal universe" Allen Ginsberg writes of as a realm poets can access. He's pretty clever, whose "Hebraic socialism" is another nifty phraseology to've coined or come up with too.

I somewhat like the koan "if it works, don't fix it" though have to say that credo seems way too often employed negatively, in attempting discouragement of fiddling with things; where a net positive effect without such restriction is I think obviously what humanity is at the essence of, all about. So, what about an "if it fixes, don't work it" instead? Implying someone's being left to their own devices rather than enslaved at the sorts of tasks people are too often exploited by; is far the better way to fly.