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RE: Daily Dose of Sultnpapper 03/25/18> Sunday is the day of “rest”… I’ll buy that.
There's nothing quite as satisfying as being worn out from a day of working on a project like that. I restored a '59 Raleigh bike a few years ago and it was magical to see the transformation from day to day. I have a vintage dynohub to power the lights (with the forward motion of the bike) sitting in a box that needs to be laced into a wheel but can't imagine taking that on right now.
Yes, back when I was young my mother got me started on refinishing old solid wood furniture and it has stuck with me ever since, my girls have now started refinishing wood rocking chairs and are doing pretty good at it, I picked up one old rocker of a the curb that was put out for the trash man and Shortie cleaned it , refinshed the main portion of it in natural wood finish and then painted the spindles, she got the owner of the local hardware store to display it and sell it for her. She ended up making right at $65 for a couple evenings worth of hard work. Not bad for a ten year old and a piece of scrap.
I have a Schwinn Tandem bike from the sixties that is tucked away in the shed that I will get to doing someday, hopefully the wife and I will still be able to ride it when I finally get around to restoring it.
The sense of accomplishment is a good feeling for sure, the old Raleigh bikes are really good ones, hard to find an American made bike anymore. Do you ever ride that bike or is just for collection and decoration?
That's great that your girls caught the entrepreneurial bug. I'm sure there's a good market for refinished rockers. Oh, a Schwinn tandem? Those are worth quite a bit these days. Schwinn made a great bike, I think their factory was in or around the Chicago area. I was originally looking for a Schwinn when I found my Raleigh on Craigslist in 2012. The deal on the Raleigh was so good I couldn't pass it up. It was a dusty heap when I bought it but it was mostly all there with little rust. The Raleigh is my main rider. My last big ride was a 50 miler and it served me well the whole way. It's definitely not light weight though I think it weighs in at around 40lbs. My previous (modern bike) weighed 16lbs or so. The Raleigh is worth the extra energy though...it's like a Cadillac.
Here's the 40lb beast @sultnpapper.
That is a real classic bike, good on you for making it functional and pristine again.