I’ll start off by saying this, life’s good.
And it keeps getting better.
This weekend my dad’s friend, Franco, told me he had an 1980’s Motobecane Super Mirage road bike that he no longer uses that I could use for spare parts for my fixie. But after taking one look at the bike I fell in love, sure she’s French and very dirty, but we tend to find love in the weirdest of places. She is in a bit of a sorry state right now, the shifters don’t work, only one brake cable works and that one needs replacing as well as it is completely rusted, the wheels are covered in rust, the seat post is as brown as mud, and the freewheel/cassette is as dirty as Black Mountain is steep. But that’s the beauty of it, it’s going to be hard, but I want to be able to ride her, I want to see her in the corner of my garage and know that I restored her to life. So for the next couple weeks I’ll be slaving away to get her in tip-top condition. It’ll take some money for new cables, a lot of patience, and even more elbow grease. So here starts the Galatea project, and yes that’s her name, pretty isn’t it? An even prettier girl named her for me.
Here are the pictures of her on day one and a few of the minor fixes I’ve already done.
There’s my girl.
The original chain, pretty rusty as you can tell.
My makeshift replacement chain – I connected an old chain that was in better shape and the working part of the original Motobecane chain to create one of the right length. This isn’t a permanent fix, I’ll eventually get a new one, but for now this will do.
The seat is actually in decent shape, but aesthetically the springs aren’t that great. A new saddle would be expensive so I’m going to invest in some steel wool to see if I can buff off the surface rust.
And this is basically how all the cables look, both shift and brake. There’s no point in trying to work with these, I don’t want to risk injury. I’ll replace all four and probably try to refurbish the actual shifters as they are pretty rusty.
At one point I did consider repainting her, but she’s just too pretty and I really do prefer originals. The tires and wheels shouldn’t be too much work to get looking pretty again, and even if the tires are too old, replacements aren’t too expensive.
Wish me luck and keep checking back for updates on Galatea.
It sounds like there’s a lot of work to be done to restore Galatea, but I know you’ll have fun with it.
Are you familiar with the myth about Pygmalion and Galatea?
keeper. does it say what kind of steel it is… on the seat tube?
people will pay good money for a lugged frame like that. don’t make the mistake i did and sell it… plus, yours is french. french… french. show me any dents in the frame