My 1st Road bike 1979

jCymbal

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Hello! I'd like to show you my first road bike.

I bought it new in 1979 when I was still a kid. I saved some money and borrowed the rest to buy this bike. I still remember when I went to the store to get "her". It looked like the most beautiful bike to my eyes. I was still to short for it and remember riding home siting on the top tube every once in awhile. When I wished to stop I just had to find a sidewalk high enough to get my foot down without falling over. I rode it all day long during those summers through the 80's. I stopped ridding it so often when I got my 1st mtb around the late 80's. Me and my brother would go into the countryside exploring all those rural paths. He was never a road man.

After college I stopped cycling. ~10 years later in the summer of 2009, I don't why, I remembered my old road bike still there in the attic. I brought it down and tried to bring it back to life.

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Tried to clean every bit and after some new parts, like brake pads, cables, bar tape and wheels I still managed to do 800km that summer.

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During the following winter I began toying with the idea of striping the old paint and do a face lift on the old machine.

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After what seemed like a long winter, I began striping the old paint. It was a job that took me several weekends.

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Then primer and paint followed. Around May 2010 "she" was ready to be assembled again.

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Been riding it since then. That white cloth bar tape got dirty really fast. Yesterday was a rainy day so I finally decided to replace it with a new one and put the original chromed steel bars and stem back.

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I know it's no "ferrari" but... I bought it new back in 1979 and it has been with me all these years. Many kms, many adventures and it still works. It's priceless to me.

Thank you! :cool:
 
Great story. Looks like you've done a good job with the restoration. It looks a lot better than it did!

Keep enjoying it :D
 
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