A Random Stroke of Luck!

Today is spring cleaning day in my neighbourhood. All residents are allowed to throw out any large and bulky non-standard trash items (beds, refrigerators, BIKES)...The garbage truck came around in the morning whilst I slept in, so I didn't get a chance to go look for unwanted 3-speeds. Instead, I decided to take the afternoon and go to the mall with my sister to run some errands. As we were driving to the mall, just around the corner from my house something caught my eye...could it really be a vintage ladies 3-speed!?

I told my sister to continue on to the mall without me, jumped out of the car, and ran across the street to check out what I had just found. Sure enough it was a vintage ladies 3-speed! And the previous owner happened to be backing out of her driveway at the time, so I told her I was taking the bike, and she said "It's all yours". What are the odds that within a week of talking about finding a bike for Stefania I actually find one within a kilometer from my house! On the way home I called Stefania and told her the good news; and apparently brightened up her day since she's currently studying for her engineering final exams! I also got heckled by some elementary school students that didn't realize the awesome potential of the bike I had just found...kids these days...they wouldn't know a vintage 3-speed if it rode up and hit 'em in the face.

The plan is to rebuild it and present it to Stefania on her birthday July 3rd. Pressure is on! The idea here is to rebuild the bicycle to as good condition as possible given my limited budget and timeframe. Also, although I would like to keep the bike as original as possible, I will be repainting the bicycle because I want it to look 'good-as-new' when it is finished. Fitting for a birthday gift. Unfortunately it will not be a surprise because in my excitment after finding the bike, I called her up and told her about it; but I'm sure she'll appreciate it anyway.

Here are some pictures of the bicycle:

There is a good view of the retro-looking chain guard, and tacky handlebar bag. That bag will have to be replaced with a new one, or perhaps a custom built leather/canvas bag...well see:

A picture of our bikes side by side:

So, to recap, the plan is to rebuild the ladies 3-speed in time for Stefania's birthday (July 3rd), and to rebiuld my 3-speed at some point after that...stay tuned!

The Genesis...

Two days ago my girlfriend Stefania and I decided to take advantage of the nice spring weather and go out for a bike ride around the neighbourhood. I took my vintage '54 Raleigh Sports (which I find amazingly comfortable and easy to ride) and she took a spare box store mountain bike which belongs to my sister, and rarely gets any use...

As we were riding around, I was telling her the history of how I came about my 3-speed while studying Mechanical Engineering at McMaster University in Hamilton, ON. Essentially, I woke up one winter day, and found it on the front lawn of my rental house; probably there as a result of some drunken students attempting to ride it home after a night of boozing. In any event, it was in rough shape. I replaced the rusted fenders and chain guard with those from a newer ladies raleigh 3-speed which I subsequently threw away (in hindsight this was stupid, but at this point I already had 4 bicycles, and I wasn't interested in a ladies bike, and my family didn't want it either).

I guess it was after seeing how cool a vintage 3-speed really is, and after hearing that I find and throw away bikes relatively often (amazing the things you can find that students throw away in the student ghetto's around the uni...), and probably due to the fact that she didn't really have a proper bicycle, and because she wants to go picnic-ing on period matching bicycles, she asked me that if I find a ladies vintage 3-speed to fix it up for her....

Laughingly I told her: "If I ever find a vintage ladies 3-speed that is thrown out, I'll pick it up and fix it up for you", all the while thinking to myself that the odds of that happening are very low, and she'll lose interest after a month or two and that'll be that. Well...was I in for a surprise!