Thursday, March 10, 2011

Making progress- Ladies Tourist

The Ladies DL-1 Tourist is coming along, slowly but surely. I've been working on cleaning the frame and the chrome bits. There isn't too much more I can do until my two big orders come in. I'm waiting on wheels and rod brake connector bolts from Yellow Jersey. I have a set of Delta Cruisers and a saddle coming from Wallingford Bike in NOLA.

I did order a couple small bits from Jon at Gentleman Cyclist- a steel cable roller and steel cable stop to replace the plastic ones that were stock on this bike.

Here are some pictures of her at this stage...





Here is the steel cable stop from GC... Nothing too exciting, but they don't break and the stock one was a bit cracked.





This is the steel cable roller from GC. Again, the stock one was plastic and trashed.





The shifter was missing the plastic cover. Luckily, I had an extra really nice clean one from one of my Twenty rebuilds.





"P" had sent along two sets of the "oval" pedals. They were in pretty bad shape and I needed to go at them with a wire brush mounted on a drill to get most of the rust off. They look pretty trick now. One has a slightly crackled reflector, hardly noticeable though.

That's it for now. I'm very much looking forward to getting the wheels back on this girl. I'm thinking I will immediately put on the 21 tooth rear sprocket on the hub. My wife isn't going to be riding this one fast. She'll appreciate the lower gearing, at least to start out with.

~charles

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2 comments:

  1. Looking good. I have converted all my plastic pieces on my 3 speeds over to the steel parts. On a couple of them it made a noticeable improvement in the shifting. What I found interesting; on the 1964 Hercules, the pulley wheel was plastic, the fulcrum sleeve was still steel. Must have been the transition year.

    Aaron

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  2. I haven't found a serial number on her to date the old gal. I'm imagining from the plastic parts and the newer decals that this is a 70's or late 60's at the oldest. Looks older because its been treated poorly. The finish looks fine from a distance, but when you get closer, you notice all the wear. That is fine by me - I like the "vintage" look. Not sure if the lady who will be riding it will agree!

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