Ever hear of a Sonnet?
 

Hi,
First post, been searching for a while. After 37yrs I'm back into biking with my old custom Sonnet bike. I can't find it on Google to find out if it is French or not. I had it built while in the Philippines for $310 in 68 or 69. I rode it around Clark AFB about 20 miles every day, very flat. It's a nice light (24lbs) road racer with 52/45 crank set and 14/24 5 gear freewheel. Very hilly here in Pa. and I need to lower the gearing some. I'm looking for the easy cheapest way to try it before I invest in a better bike. The freewheeler is an Atom and the crankset is 3arrows???? Which is the best way to change gearing? I'd like to ID the frame so I could change the BB but I don't know what I have.
By the way, thanks for all the good info. Did a lot of reading here and learned a lot. Did a search on changing gears and have myself confused right now on which way to go.

Thanks Staledale

No one??? My roomate built one at the same time so I know there are at least 2 Sonnet bikes out there.

You got it from where in the Phillipines? If from a local shop or base store then perhaps the readers here haven't heard of it if it was a local brand. Or did you order the bikes from elsewhere and had them shipped to you there?

The Atom freewheel sounds like it is French, but I've never heard of that crankset.

Pictures of your bike would enlighten us I'm sure.

a picture tells a thousand words !

http://i201.photobucket.com/albums/a...e/dcp_0126.jpg
http://i201.photobucket.com/albums/a...e/dcp_0125.jpg
http://i201.photobucket.com/albums/a...e/dcp_0124.jpg
http://i201.photobucket.com/albums/a...e/dcp_0123.jpg
http://i201.photobucket.com/albums/a...e/dcp_0122.jpg

Hope I did this right, It's a rider, not a showpiece. It hang in my garage where I paint cars....maybe I should paint a bike..

Staledale

It got THAT RUSTY in your garage?? Holy crap...

It's got chrome stays, lugs and fork! And those Universal brakes were respectable I believe. That rust can be cleaned up. There are plenty of threads on removing rust and cleaning tips for the steel and alloys. If you paint cars this should be a easy one for you.

I think it's worth rehabbing because that Sonnet marque is uncommon.

look,s like a good project for the apprentice ! (if u get my drift)

Yea it got that rusty in my garage, my wife's bike was with it and hardly has any rust, so much for the quality of the chrome. I spent time in both Santa Clara and lincoln Calif with that bike in 72/73. It's been a couple of days since I checked this forum, Bought a Cannondale mt. bike and have been hitting the trails. I'll have to switch over to the Clydesdales forum and do some reading. I might just restore that Sonnet now that I've got a new ride.. thanks

i have the same bike frame but i turned it into a fixgear or trackbikehere in the phillipines i hope we can meet

A Sonnet?

Shall I compare thee to a summer’s day?
Thou art more lovely and more temperate.
Rough winds do shake the darling buds of May,
And summer’s lease hath all too short a date.
Sometime too hot the eye of heaven shines,
And often is his gold complexion dimmed;
And every fair from fair sometime declines,
By chance, or nature’s changing course, untrimmed;
But thy eternal summer shall not fade,
Nor lose possession of that fair thou ow’st,
Nor shall death brag thou wand’rest in his shade,
When in eternal lines to Time thou grow’st

So long as men can breathe, or eyes can see,
So long lives this, and this gives life to thee.


Only yours has a bit more rust :)

The guy who said that a picture is worth a thousand words has you beaten by about 17 years. :innocent:

(yes, I did come to the thread with similar intent) :o

Welcome to the forum! What a great and worthy project! First question is are you going for a Refurbish or do a Restoration?

My suggestions...
Hit the whole bike with a generous doses of ATF to loosen everything up and get them moving. Then give it few rides before you tear it apart. Of course you are going to have to repack all the grease with new (Marine Grease).

Baby needs new shoes...
Tires and Tubes (48 USD)

For the hills...
Replace your chain SRAM PC-870 678. (20 USD)
Consider changing out your inner crank ring to a 36T. (30 USD)
Replace your freewheel with a MEGHNA MF-TZ30 6-Speed 14-34. (25 USD)
You may need a long cage derailleur. (20 USD)

And you have a paint shop... WOW!

After what is now 54 years hanging in dude's garage, I wonder if there's anything left of the frame? Or is it just a pile of orange flakes on the floor, with some aluminum bike parts sitting on top?

Also, what's with the dead rising from their graves lately? I mean, I'm a confirmed and unapologetic thread necromancer, mostly because VBulletin's search function irredeemably sucks, and always has, and always will, ("Search sucks. Deal with it." -- the developers,) but this is ridiculous.

--Shannon