'Faithful Gal', WII bomber theme

[hewey]

Here's my old Giant Atx 830 Hardtail, which is about to get some ratification 8) Now this is the bike I got for my 16th birthday 10 years ago, and she's seen HEAPS of action over the years. This bike has seen girlfriends, cars, and jobs all come and go, its been a constant through it all :lol: :lol:

It was getting to the point where I needed to throw some cash at it to upgrade the gears/derailers, forks etc for decent mountain biking, and so late last year I bit the bullet and bought myself a new dual suspension bike (another Giant of course! I love my Giants). So now Ive deiced to give the old girl a makeover and have some fun with it.

These are the before pics

First step is a single speed makeover (with a DMR kit), and then grind off all the unneeded tabs for cables etc. Then she'll be repainted in matt olive green with a faux patina effect (sand through the green to the black primer for that weathered look), and then im going to stencil some military style text on it, and a pinup girl for nose art of course! Im getting some white mt bike tyres off a mate, so that will help give it that nostalgic look. I'll get some new V-brakes front and rear for some stopping power, and the plan is to run the rear brake cable internally to keep the lines clean. The end result should be a bike thats great fun to belt around on, with some of the coolness of a rat, and the handling characteristics of a nice light aluminium hardtail. the plan is take a bunch of shots through the transformation.

 

[Big Fat Whitewalls]

Re: Ratify-ing the mt bike

Check this out. viewtopic.php?f=6&t=18759

 

[hewey]

Re: Ratify-ing the mt bike

Check this out. viewtopic.php?f=6&t=18759

Yeh, that bikes a great example of you can make an awesome clean bike out of a daggy ol mountain bike. Loved it when I saw it.

Color scheme wise, she's going to be fairly similar to BlakeC's Military speedster, but with the knobby tyres and chunky frame it'll still keep some mt bike mojo.
http://ratrodbikes.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=6&t=14183&st=0&sk=t&sd=a

 

[hewey]

Re: Ratify-ing the mt bike

Progress pics

Stripped her down to a frame

hmmmm, bits

Started to stip the frame, already got the forks primered

Every self respecting bomber needs some nose art eh?

And I got impatient and wanted to see how the colour was going to look, so I painted the bars and stem

 

[hewey]

Got the frame primed yesterday, and painted today (all in my hi-tech paint booth :wink: )

Pulled off the seat cover, and cut up some old work pants for some material. Just got to borrow a staple gun from a mate.

Starting to look like a bike again

 

[Gdcast]

Looking good!!
Love the theme, keep up the good work!

 

[sensor]

are you sure? ive heard about jodie before :wink:


You had a good home but you left.
You're Right !
You had a good home but you left,
You're Right!
Jody was there when you left,
Your Right!
Jody was there whey you left
You're Right
One, two, three, four,
One, two, Three Four!

You left you're girl and Jody in bed,
You'd rather be there, but you're here instead.

Chorus

Sound Off! (1 – 2)
Sound Off ! (3 – 4)
Cadence count, (1-2-3-4-) (1 – 2, ----- 3 – 4 !)

Ain't no use in callin' home,
Jodie's got your telephone

Chorus.

Ain't no use in goin' home
Jodie's got your girl and gone.

Chorus.

Aint no use in lookin' back,
Jodie's got your Cadillac!

Chorus.

I'm gonna take a three day pass,
Can't wait to get Jodie in my grasp.

Chorus.

And when I get that three-day pass,
I'm gonna kick old Jodie's a**.

Sound Off ! (1- -2)
Sound Off! (3---4)
Break it down, (1,2,3,4,) (1—2 ------3—4!!)

 

[hewey]

Update time The cream tyres on closer inspection had to go, they looked great but theres cracks in the sidewalls that would put the grand canyon to shame So back to the fat slicks. Id love to get some fat cream tyres like Fat Franks or Quick Bricks, but cant justify the extra cash for em at the moment

I bought some 2nd hand shorty stem and Answer Pro Taper bars, after a bit of umming and arrrring, I decided to leave the stem black and colour match the bars. Slung on some Oury grips and the crank arms that were on it, and stole the black seat post and clamp off my Giant Yukon SX. I'm still going to retrim the seat, just got to borrow my mates staple gun. New Deore V brake levers, just waiting on some brake arms, and Ive got the single speed kit, will be grabbing my brothers chain breaker during the week.

Hopefully she'll be rideable next weekend >

Azonic stem and Answer bars

Hey, where'd that cable go? Threading the cable though was nowhere as hard as I thought it was going to be. Love that side view of the stem too.

Ahh, theres the cable

Clean

Ground off the teeth on the outer chainring for a smoother look, but thinking I might go to a single chainring. Clipless pedals are what I had on it before

 

[ElChupacabra]

That came out really nice and looks like it will ride great. I keep thinking about a hybrid style bike to ride on a regular basis...

 

[hewey]

Yeh, it rode nice before, so with the shorter stem and single speed it should be great fun to punt around

The original plan called for stencilled 'Giant' text on the frame, but I really like the subtle and clean look of the frame. So Ive decided to just run the pin up girl sticker on the frame as some nose art.

Left side

Right side

I also made up some lamintaed spoke cards for the bike as well. These are a tongue in cheek nod to fixie/urban singlespeed culture, and also a good way of having some fun with the military theme. I went down to office works and $5 and 20 minutes later I got some spoke cards :mrgreen:

The 'remove before flight' tag and the RAAF roundel are of course nods to the whole bomber theme. The pin up gal is my girlfreind, and is a reference to the pic of the gal back home that many pilots might have had in their cockpits back in WWII. The poppy with the text 'lest we forget' is a tribute to those who sacrificed everything, and a sobreing reminder of the cold reality of war

The spoke cards are on the left side, to visually balance the bike, given that the drivetrain is one the right. A nice cooincidence is that it is preferable to wear your remberance day poppy on the left side of your chest so that its closest to your heart.

Spoke cards are double sided, cause I fgured it'd look silly from the right side with 4 blank white cards :roll: I also like how the 4 cards look balanced overall on the wheel.

[/QUOTE]

 

[hewey]

Finished! :mrgreen: She rides sweet too!