Today, I finished putting this beauty together.
I used an old Cannondale aluminum road bike frame. The crankset, derailleurs, shifters, peddles, stem, headset, seat, and seat post are from an old Raleigh that one of the chainstays was cracked. The handlebars are a used pair of flat bars from the shop. The fork is original to the Cannondale frame. The brake levers, chain, wheels, and tires are all new.
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| Cannondale frame. |
First, I tried to burn the paint off of the frame with a propane torch, but that did not work as you can see in this video.
Since I was unable to burn off the paint, I decided to sand it all off with sixty grit sandpaper. When I was done sanding, I took the fork home and used paint stripper to remove the gray paint from it. Since the fork is made of steel, I used black Rust-Oleum Automotive Enamel gloss spray paint to paint it.
I continued to sand the bare aluminum with finer and finer sandpaper up to 500 grit and gave it a final cleaning with Bar Keeper's Friend.
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| Frame after sanding. |
After all the cleaning was done, Rocky installed the bottom bracket and crankset from the old Raleigh. Carl and I installed the derailleurs, shifters, brakes, and associated cables. Today, Daniel, Rocky and I got everything finalized, and I paid for the parts.
It turned out that the aluminum color with black are a very nice color combination. I also like that I do not have to shift it as much as my Fuji hybrid that I have been riding for the past several several months. It is also a lot lighter as I can grab it with one hand and carry it up the city steps in Morningside on my way to the shop instead of wrestling the Fuji with both hands. I think it is very beautiful and am starting to become emotionally attached to it.
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| A very beautiful bike it is! |
