Granny Cruiser, ride on!

There has been a lot of small progress with Granny Cruiser over the past two months, which I haven’t bothered logging here. As me and Niina finally got the bicycle assembled to a usable condition last weekend, a wrap-up post is definitely in order. But before delving into details, please meet “Granny”..:

Granny Cruiser ready to roll :)

Not too bad at all for a bicycle made mostly out of scrap spanning three (or four?) decades! We did end up buying a few parts/accessories too; these were a LED lamp, a front basket, a new seat and some spare parts for the rear hub. The first two are still waiting to be installed and thus missing from the picture above. These items added up to somewhere around 20 euros, in turn upping the total costs for the project to somewhere between 40 – 50€. Factor in all the labour costs, and you’d end up with a totally different price tag though ;)

Granny Cruiser, mysteries of the hub

A couple of sessions more into this project and we have the frame ready for decals and lacquering..

Frame sanded..

Solid layer of primer on the bare surface once again, but this time allowing it to dry up for about a day. Then, light sanding over the primer (600 grit) followed by dust removal (damp cloth + compressed air) and three layers of paint. One can of primer and paint were just enough for the fork and frame.

Granny Cruiser, a bit of paint

Visible progress with the bicycle! Niina made good headway with sanding the frame whereas I cleaned up the remaining fork & crank bearings and parts.

The bottom and front tubes somewhat sanded..

Granny Cruiser, bearing cleanup

Decided to start cleaning up the chain and crank + fork bearings in order to advance the details of this project in the “background”. The parts to be cleaned up are simply left to soak in mineral turpentine for a few days, during which most of the dirt and grease will dissolve from the parts. Afterwards, only rinsing and/or light brushing is needed to remove the remainders.

1st batch of parts after being soaked for a couple of days.

Bicycle Recycle (aka Granny Cruiser)

The problem: Wife would like a bicycle for next summer but shopping for a shiny brand new mass-produced one is boring.

Fun DIY solution: Let’s collect some trashed bicycles, pull parts and transform them into something “personalized” together..

..let’s see where this project goes :)