Tag Archives: Maddalena

Projects || When Old Becomes New

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Back in March, in the midst of the craze of our early fire season, I decided to turn an old Maddalena bike that had been gifted to me into a super cool townie. Although I have a few bikes that have been tweaked and built up this was the first time that I chose the parts and look.

Finally after a l-o-n-g month my vision has come to fruition. I’d like to introduce you to my new-old bike.

I didn’t do all the work on the project. A lot of the components are old Campagnolo aka very difficult to work on. I couldn’t have done it without the help of my sweetie. However, I did do all of the cleaning, polishing and building of parts that I could.

Ooohh, shiny!

Patience young jedi, patience.

And the part I’m most excited about. Leather saddle baby!

I did get to take it out on it’s maiden voyage although it was only around our driveway in the dark. I’m hoping for a longer trip later this week but until my 100-mile round-trip commute changes it won’t be my daily driver.

What’s your favorite bike like?

 

 

Projects || Italiano

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*I’m not sure if this post belongs more in Adventures or Projects but I went with projects because it’s remodel, of sorts. I’ll be posting on this project for a while.

I’m a sucker for lots of things. Puppies, small children, my husband’s poutie face, old things and all things Italian: expensive wine, expensive bikes, expensive leather shoes, thankfully not so expensive food and of course, coffee. (Insert loving sigh here.) After arriving home late tonight due to extended staffing at work, again, and missing my bike ride, again, I needed a bit of a bike fix.

Last fall I acquired an old Italian road bike in need of some major love. At the time I wasn’t really into dealing with it since I had a new Soma to ride. Six months later I’ve been pondering about what to do with the bike. Take it to the bike co-op for parts? Strip it down and sell it for parts? Give it to some kid and let them deal with it? Turn it into a single speed?

On my last few rides I noticed that I’ve been spending most of my time in a single gear and have begun to wonder why I even carry around the weight of the other ones except to go fast down big hills because as soon as I go uphill I go back to that one particular gear. Tonight I decided what to do with that old bike: single speed it.

So I drug it into the house, got out the cleaning supplies, looked on the web for instructions and then asked Jake if he had a leftover freewheel from his single speed days. This is where the project took a major detour. In my mind this was to be an easy, simple conversion, put on the freewheel, put on a new saddle, re-wrap the bars and voila, go ride the bike! Jake had a few other suggestions and being sucker for bikes, expensive leather and all things vintage this project is turning into a much nicer vision for the old classic bike.

Here are a few of the things I’m thinking about adding to the bike…

Phil Wood Flip Flop Hub (rear and matching front), Brooks England Swift Chrome Saddle, Brooks Leather Handlebar Tape, and small Brooks Toolbag for handlebars as well.

It’s turning into a potentially more expensive project then I had imagined but a classic old bike deserves some classic vintage love, right? I’d love to hear any suggestions for what you think I should add to the bike! Let me know!

Rock