The Ebb and Flow

Check this,

This is my pet project. It’s a Raleigh Retroglide that was rebuilt by a fella who worked out of Shabitat in Brighton with the noble cause of trying to keep bicycles out of landfill sites. The bike was cream and racing green when I first got hold of it.

Soon after it’s purchase, I had an accident on it down on Brighton seafront that saw me garner a cad-ish scar on my upper lip and the bike be put square out of action.

Not being the most devoted cyclist, I got back to walking everywhere and the bike sat unattended for quite a while. Over the course of the last year or so, I’ve slowly (like, really slowly) been putting it back together – stripped it down, replaced the front fork, stripped all the original paint off and sprayed it all flat black, sprayed the rims cherry red, and just the other week, bought some much deserved whitewall tyres from Ridelow in Manchester.

I put what I had so far together, in the kitchen, while my housemate and I listened to Megadeth. That was in the evening after work. It was only on Sunday just gone, when I got home in the afternoon and took it out on to the patio that I really saw the beauty of what I’d created.

Yeah, it could do with this, that and the other (oh by the way, I’m not being daft – I do know it needs brakes, a derailleur, shifter, cables and chain among other things) but just looking at it, the flat black paint being offset by the wheels and tyres, I just felt an overwhelming sense that I’d molded my universe a little more in the way I’d like it to look.

I really hope, with the help from the people at Cranks bike shop, that I can get this badboy on the road by Sunday afternoon if not before. Wish me luck.