My 13 year old daughter finally outgrew her 19" '73 Triumph Sports and was enthusiastic about trying on a C&V road bike. Be still my heart!

I'd picked up a cheap 52 cm Gardin frame from my LBS and was gifted a nice white Tange Centurion fork from lister Roger M. The bike has all the parts from a late 80's Schwinn Circuit...Suntour Sprint Accushift group, Diacompe Aero GC's, and really nice Rigida rims. I swapped out the Sprint crank for a 50/40 Aerox double to give her a lower range to go with the 13/24 cluster. The Nitto bar-stem combo sports some NOS Accushift bar cons while an NOS B15 sits on an SR Royale seat post. The fork has been left long because I wasn't sure about it. It feels twitchy to me but I'm too big for it. We'll see about that.




We spent a half hour practicing the art of clipping in and out of SPDs and talking about group riding. Adelaide had taken a mountain bike course last summer and was completely at ease with sitting in, hand gestures, communication etc. And off we went. We did our first 20 km loop through the rural back roads around Canning NS and it was great. She toppled over once, still clipped in but that's gonna happen. She likes the fit, the saddle, even the look!

I can't wait for my son to get old enough to do this kind of thing with.

Cool! It looks like a good fit. You'll probably move the components to a bigger frame in a couple years, I guess? I'm hoping to get my daughter on a similar bike before too long. She's the same age, but smaller; too small for 700c wheels at this point. One of these days she's going to wake up three inches taller, we keep telling ourselves.... If not, she'll get a 650c.

I have an Addy as well, but Adelynn's just walking & will be in trailer for a while yet. Kudos to kiddos who ride C&V!

I have a Addy too, actually Afton, but we call her Addy or Adds. She's 11, but my other girl thats 8 beats her up the hill on the bike. I have hope for the little one.

I'm thinking she'll continue the growth spurt so, yes we'll keep those parts moving. If she wants more modern or ergo, that's fine too...I was saving them for me in the first place. If she stops growing, then we'll have to have that very serious father-to-daughter discussion that every Dad dreads....the N+1 theorem....scary!

That's really cool. And a "cheap" Gardin? I've only ever seen one other (Although I think one was ridden in the film The Flying Scotsman) in the flesh, I was very impressed with the build quality of the frame.

Question, is that set up with a cassette or a freewheel? If cassette, is it Powerflow or something else?

I would also be interested in what cassette/freewheel you used. Accushift barends can be pretty finiky and I have been looking for a cassette freewheel other than the original that will work good with some of the Accushift stuff I have.

The Gardin was cheap in that it came without a fork (frame is straight) and I have a good relationship with my shop. I give them parts occasionally too. It's a nice 531 frame however and weighs less than my own SL Marinoni with NR group.

The drivetrain is all Suntour with Sprint hubs and Accushift 7 speed freewheel. It also has the steel lined shift cables with the exception of the rear...that one split on me as I installed it.
I'm using HKK chain that came with the Schwinn but I might upgrade to a modern 9 speed chain as had been recommended on the list.

Setup was fussy and I found it shifted smoother with the B screw turned in, moving the gear further from the teeth of the cogs. It's noisy in a couple of gears but it's currently hitting all the cogs.

If it doesn't sort out well, I'll make it friction at the barcons and Addy can learn friction shifting before it disappears from the marketplace. After all, it's what her Dad rides...

Very nice thread, glad your daughter has the bug and rides with you. The bike you assembled for her is first rate and the fact that DAD built it for her will mean more to her than running down and buying something. My daughter is grown now and living in Atlanta, Ga, being a young professiona, but she rides her vintage Schwinn every where. They grow up too fast it seems. As pretty as she is I'm glad she is riding with you, I hope you have a shotgun rack for your bike to chase off the critters trying to catch her eye.

Ride safe Addy and DAD, have fun!

Bill

Congrats!!! Both on a great looking bike and having kids that enjoy cycling as much as you do.

I would not have guessed the fork was not original.

So glad to see your daughter getting out and riding. Our daughter is 14. She's not so much on the bike riding.

For anyone that says that getting a box store bike is at least getting kids on bikes...

My wife got our daughter a Schwinn "cruiser" bike. I think it's an 8 speed grip shifty thing. It's black and pink and white... It's a little rocker girl bike. It's the bike SHE wanted.

Our daughter would ride it down to the convenience store otherwise it sat in the garage. We finally talked her into a ride to get burgers and ice cream. Wouldn't you know it- the derailleur got twisted into the spokes and really hosed up her ride and her day. She was mad and embarrassed. I have a good feeling that is the last time I'm going to see her on a bike.

Thanks BG, it's a good colour match but the fork install was a bit of a bodge...Tange JIS fork, Tange Falcon 500 JIS headset, Reynolds ISO frame. My LBS wrench showed me a trick, taking a fine punch to the inside of the 30.0 mm cup collars, 3 light punches spaced 120 degrees to custom wedge the cups inside the ISO 30.2 head tube. Seems to have worked a charm, for now. Gotta keep my eye on it.



Thanks for the advice Bill...it's a problem in a University town when your 13 year old wants to act and dress like she's a freshman. And just try to tell her to do otherwise. Man, this is going to be hard.

Nice looking Gardin! What is pantographed on the seat stays? I once had a Gardin that had the columbus dove on the seat stays but the previous owner claimed it wasnt a Gardin but that Gardin just repainted the frame back in the 80's. The frame was given to him before the paint by a Winnipeg professional racer.

Panto'ed G (stands for unwiped grease around post) Couple higher res pics.

There's a lot of scratchs, scrapes and touch up but the build quality seems quite nice. The decals are in bad shape.

So, going by the headtube length, im as tall as your THIRTEEN YR OLD DAUGHTER???

Wholly crap good genes or what are you feeding her???

in other news, my older daughter is 2 and when she is on the tricycle she believes ONLY DADDY can have his feet on the pedals... since I tow her in the bike trailer for hrs at a time...

my younger was born Aug 16th, so its gonna be a while for that one.. haha

She's 5'9" and has a half inch on me with longer legs. Same height as my wife too. Must have been the milkman...

Goes by in a blink of an eye.