Project picture 2

The excitement grows as I start to restore the junk from my shed into a thing of beauty.

Can anyone tell me why being good with your hands doesn't get as rewarded as pushing paper round a desk?

I have taken the frame back to bare metal, primered it and have now given it two coats of bright gloss red. It is now baking in the sun and will be ready for decals tonight.

I have stripped cleaned and re-built the wheel in the photo which is based around a mavic GP4 tubular rim. I have owned all these components since 1984 and they are in great shape. Me mammy always was proud of the way I looked after my stuff. I must say that it is rewarding to be able to still make use of these over 20 years later.

I have received a very generous offer of some other parts from a fellow blipper that are going to get me closer to a finished project and I am hoping to track down the remainder of what I need without spending too much. I have been keeping a running total on paint and decals etc, to include with the final photo when the project is finished.

Having spent some time researching this project I am becoming increasingly convinced that there is a business in classic cycle restoration if you could track down new old stock parts. There seems to be a real growth in putting classics back on the road which is clear from the prices being paid on Ebay. I would love a job just building bikes all day. Unfortunately I don't think it would pay the mortgage.

Hope you are all having as fantastic weather as we are at the moment. Happy blipping.