The wheels on the bike go round and round

It's been a bike fixin' few days. I found an old MBK at the local St Vincent's near work. It's too big for me but I figured it would fit wu_lu a treat and at $15 it seemed like far too good a bargain to pass up. Even before I realised it was really an old Motobecane, it sort of oozed swanky French class at me. After truing the back wheel and the crankset (after a lack of chainring bolts bent everything out of shape), replacing said crank bolts, retensioning the bearings and slapping on a new pair of funky blue Vittoria Rubinos (tyres, for those not of the cogniscienti) it rides a smeggin' treat! Rather better than I'd expected and I'd expected nice things. I'm actually a bit loathe to give it up, but there's no particular hole in the stable for it to fill and it is too big for me. A satisfying thing and probably my bargain of the year.

On another bike related front I picked up the frame from the hard rubbish bike I found a few months back and decided to make into a nice street going fixed gear. It's now sporting funky new track ends. They're still looking a trifle rough as the brief for the bike shop was "braze on the ends" not "make it pretty" which is my job. They're smoother and better than they look though. Mind you, I'll have to save like a crazed saving thing to afford the bits for it so there's plenty of time for meticulous file finishing and the odd spot of stop putty before painting. Then it can hang about being an objet d'art for a while until I finally get all the parts for it. Once I have all the bits and actually build it, it'll continue to be an objet d'art but I'll be able to ride it too.

I'm really rather enjoying this as a hobby. I may have to make/build/fix bikes for other people just as a fun thing.