Runs, a Ride, and more Rides to Re-Cycle

This past week, I have mainly been running as my main modes of exercise. Not much time has been spent on my bikes.  Rather, I started spending time on fixing a couple of them, ones I found from the shed on a farm.

The first two are a set of 10 speeds. The one on the left is the most fixable. It was able to still ride when I filled up the tires.  Only thing missing was the right brake. The other red one I decided to take in case there were parts I could use.
The bottom bike is an old single speed cruiser, and it just had a style I couldn't pass up on trying to fix up.  It is a Hawthorne cruiser, only sold by Montgomery Ward stores back at the time. It even has it on the label as being from MW. Time frame I think is from the late 50's, to 60's.

My main project to start with is the light blue 10 speed. At first, I thought it was silver, but it was more of a greyish-blue color. It was pretty rusted up, so I thought I'd try to brush off all the paint I could and give it a fresh coat of my own favorite color: Comet Blue.

Right now, I'm debating on keeping the handlebars. The brake handles are okay, I might get a new pair, or just get new cables for the older ones.  I also had to destroy the chain to get it off, and figured it would be best to just get a new chain anyway. 

This is my first bicycle 're-cycle' project, learning as I go and since the bikes were free to me, I've got some leeway of investing a little bit here and there into the bike.

The wheels still look decent, I just had to buff off the rust off the rims and they have held air for a week, a good sign that things should hold up well for a classic look on the tires.

As for the cruiser, I got started on a little of that this Saturday.  Got it cleaned up and started buffing some paint off, only to discover that this bike was once....Comet Blue! 

This was a nice discovery, and upon other inspections throughout, it looks like this bike was once a royal blue and painted over to its current color.  This one may take a lot of work to do in brushing off the paint, but it will be worth it once its done.

I was finally able to go for a nice ride this morning on the Big Fat Pony.  I went for a 12.5 mile ride around the outskirts of Mayville and Portland, travelling through some rolling hills down by the Goose River on the SE side of Mayville.  I love country rides where you discover those kind of things, like finding some beautiful countryside views that are hidden when you are always driving on the highways.

Afterwards I had a nice coffee to finish off the morning.

Until next time, keep running and riding and hitting the weights!

Coach Rick

Great coffee begins here:
http://tinyurl.com/kbcoffee