Bicycle Updates

Well, it looks as though Sam's bicycle frame has now received two different colors (or lack of colors) of paint. The frame is a vanilla/almondish kind of color and it has had some white stripes added to it (it's covered at the moment, or I'd add pictures). I believe he'll be adding some mossy green color to it as well. I think with his cork grips and Brooks saddle, this is going to be an interesting home made bicycle. I'm anxious to see the finished product.

As for projects, I too have decided that I need a bicycle project. Okay, so I probably don't NEED another project, but I thought it might be fun to try to build up an older frame that would otherwise be discarded. So, I picked up this interesting frame about a week ago.
There was some debate as to who the 60's manufacturer was of this frame. Some guesses were Western Flyer, Murray, Columbia and so on. The frame has been repainted and unfortunately, there is no sense of the make of this frame. After Sam did some sluthing on Craigslist though, I am nearly convinced that is must be an AMF frame. Here is a shot of the bicycle up for sale currently.
This one is an AMF Hawk, so it may not be the exact same model, but I'm fairly certain this is the right manufacturer. It's kind of funny because I've never noticed other cruiser type bicycles that had the double top bar before.

I have no intentions of keeping the bicycle red, nor sticking to any original sort of 60's era theme, but I'm excited to be able to use something that might otherwise disappear. I have a horrible feeling though it will end up costing far more than I think to put something together that meets up to my standards for a bicycle (at least aesthetically). I'm thinking we'll do an internal 3 speed hub, but beyond that, my mind is racing with ideas. Do I keep it muted, classic, retro, punk, girlie, tough? I just don't know, but I'm excited to see where it all goes.

And then there's the Ticino... poor thing has gone so long without a name. Perhaps it's a bit strange to name my bicycles, but I feel this odd urge to do so. Finally, a name has been settled upon: Duchess Dylan Grace (or D.D. for short). She is so prim and proper and clean, so she needed a proper sounding name, but I also wanted it to have some sort of meaning for me. So, now she has it, and I'm happy to start calling her Duchess Dylan post haste. We even got to go for a short ride yesterday to meet up with Cara for lunch while I was at school, and there was only a minor mishap. When I attempted to unload her from the car, her mirror came apart. Oops! Happily, Sam was able to restore her to her original condition.

I also received my new Brooks B18 lady saddle yesterday in the mail. She is currently sitting in her proofide, waiting to be placed on one of the bicycles. Now the debate begins... who gets the new saddle?

That's the bicycle update for today. Let's see what tomorrow brings!