I’m chock full of happy. I’ve got myself a project bike and it’s so stinkin’ cool. It’s a 1970-something Schwinn Suburban ladies’ bike. (*snerk* I’m planning on going around telling people I just got a Suburban). It’s right now half stripped in my living room; I’ve got everything off I could get off with an adjustable crescent wrench and a screwdriver. This will soon be remedied. I’m going to be buying tools, which makes me happy. I like tools. I like taking shit apart and putting it back together.
The whole shebang should be rideable as soon as I have the tools to completely bust it apart, so I can clean it all up and re-pack all the bearings. It’s probably older than I am, and hasn’t seen street in probably 15-20 years. Everything has a slightly gritty feel to it, and I don’t want to ride it three blocks and burn all the bearings to hell.
It’s so very complete, and evidently a low-mileage bike. There’s little wear on the gear teeth (just cobwebs and light rust), no wear on the brake pads, no wear on the pedal treads, and the tires, by golly, don’t seem worn at all, either, though they’re crispy and decomposing.
At the moment, I’m going to just clean it up, lube the holy living fuck out of any part that moves, and stick it back together and get some fresh tires on it, though after Halloween (when having a vintage-y looking bike is going to be part of my costume) I’m going to take it all apart again and give it the foulest paint job you could ever imagine.
The main frame of the bike is going to be lime green, and I want to do the fenders, fork, and chain-guard in metallic Plum Crazy purple. It’s going to be so wicked!
The Continental, by the way, went as a trade for this Suburban. The Connie was really too big for me to ride comfortably, and this Suburban is the right size, and just kind of cool. Plus it has fenders, a generator (and lights) and a rack (forgotten in NE, but coming via post), which all up the “awesome factor” considerably. The generator works, but the lights are messed up. The rear light is missing the lens, the front one just has a burnt bulb, I think. I may set that stuff aside, as modern LEDs are surely better for visibility, anyway. The fenders and rack are the main attractions for me. Around-town runabout. I think I need a different seat, though. That fatassed tractor seat rubs the bottom of my buttcheeks when I have my leg stretched out in a full extension. I think it would grow very annoying very quickly.
