Originally Posted by
rholland1951
Welcome to this thread! What a beautiful bicycle that is, fully chromed, no less! That it was built for your mother and you're a second-generation family rider is a lovely story!
I only built mine up (which is to say, had Battle Road Bikes do the work) from a frame and fork this year, and am still getting used to it. You've been riding yours for some years: what have you learned about the bike, what changes have you made to adapt it to your needs?
rod
Nobilette sadly says he doesn't have a record of the frame but after thinking about it for a while and without prompting my mom said 'Nieble......Noble....Nobilette!'. Good enough for me, especially when she was in Ann Arbor at the time. She then said she had a flood of memories when she saw his logo and remembered getting into a bit of a fight with him about the chrome. Apparently she had the frame and fork shipped to a motorcycle place in Tennessee for chroming against his wishes before it was built up. She had a fully chromed Schwinn before having this made and decided she was just a chrome person. It was her only bicycle through the early 90's when she basically stopped riding, and she didn't have a car until she decided to have kids so this was her commuter/grocery shopper/weekend rider.
I've made a few changes: most importantly, everything became pink! I put on a prettier rack, got a new saddle, switched out to pedals that are flat on one side and SPD on the other, switched the brake levers to Dura Ace but only because of brake hood fitting issues on the originals, the wheels to 700c from 27" to get slightly wider tires (25/28, so still not wide!), derailleurs to Shimano 600EX to match most of the other components when I found a good price on eBay many years ago. Just now I switched the front crankset to a triple and put on a longer cage RD for a move to a much hillier area, but until that the original gearing was fine. I did not need to change the stem or handlebars or anything else for fitting purposes, as my mom is basically the same size as I am. It's roughly a size 52 equivalent with 36cm handlebars, no clue what the stem is.
What are you still getting used to on yours? The biggest adjustment for me was downtube friction shifting, but I love how easy it has made switching derailleurs etc. for someone who has never worked on anything mechanical other than this bike. I have put at least 15,000 miles on it since I got it and likely more, as I also have not had a car since I moved to Boston in 2010.
A few more fun photos:
A trip to the vet for a checkup on a drizzly day:
Winning the 'Bike Looks Most Like Owner' prize at the Somerville Bike Kitchen Bike Pageant last summer:
And a view near Wachusett on a solo two night camping trip, also last summer. Sewing those pink bags to match the bike was a weekend project when my partner wanted me to help him sew a frame bag. I had never made bags but do sew quite a bit and luckily it mostly carried over! I wish I had used a stiffer side support for the top tube bag, but you live and learn.
