It sure is handy having a spouse who’s a bike mechanic. Pete got “Lucille” built up today and we took her out for a spin to prepare for Bike the Drive tomorrow. It sure is cute to see Lucy by this bike, and hopefully someday when she is grown I will have a photo of her riding it… off to college… or the circus… or the Senate.
So the story goes…On a total fluke, Pete won “a custom bike frame” from a raffle he was automatically entered into upon registering for a cyclocross race. He came home saying, “I have good news, and bad news.” The bad news being that we already have a veritable barn full of bikes crammed into “The Baby’s Bedroom” aka “The 20 Bikes Room”. So my eyes were rolling out of my head as I absorbed the irony of our household winning another bicycle. He simply doesn’t need any more bikes. I told him he needs to give it away to someone. He proffered that perhaps getting a custom bike built for me could replace my existing bike, or at least allow that one to be converted into a racing bike. Oh, the wheelin’ and dealin’ that goes on around here when it comes to bikes. My rule is: 1 bike in = 1 bike out. He is more like… “How about 1.75 bikes in = 1 bike out?”
Fast forward more than a year… we receive the frame, get the hand lettering done, and then Pete used parts we already had, or got new parts from SRAM and Velo Orange and built it up into the finished bike. The guys who built the frame gave it the custom powder coat paint job of John Deere green. The style of frame is called “Mixte” which is a girl’s bike with a step-through frame so you can wear a skirt.
Before & After:
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