I picked up a bike from a friend of mine that owns a shop. It was in his pile of old bikes that he lets me go through for parts. He just wanted someone to build it, he said the frame was too cool to just rot away. After researching it on the internet I think it is a late 70's or early 80's Bridgestone Kabuki, Submariner-12. It has cast aluminum lugs stainless tubing and a steel rear triangle. My first thought was to strip it down and run it as a single speed, but the more I look and read I want to build it up as a fixie. I was originally going to keep the paint as close to stock as possible until I painted the forks. The forks are chrome with cast aluminum lugs as well, although they were originally painted except for the bottom 6". This protected the upper chrome but the bottom was kind of rough. I painted them factory looking and about a week later stripped them down to metal again. Here are some shots of when I got it and after a little stripping.
Oh yeah, quill seatpost. That's not something you want to misplace. I was just glad that it came out.
Here is a shot after I cut the bars, not too bad for eyeing it with a hacksaw. I didn't measure anything. I still need to clean off the old cloth tape.
My original plan was to get some reproduction decals cut and like I said paint it somewhat stock looking. But the more I messed with it the more I changed my mind. The bike was never in immaculate condition anyway so I decided I was going to repaint the lugs, forks and the rear triangle orange. The color in Krylon is Pumpkin Orange. It's kind of Hugger Orange. I am also planning on stripping the decals and polishing the stainless tubing. It cleans up surprisingly well. Once again the more I cleaned and stripped it I decided that I was not going back with the factory decals. I opted to go with a custom frame decal that is just my last name. Most people don't know what a Kabuki is anyway. I went to a local sign shop here and the owner came up with my design it about 5 minutes and it looked sweet. I may get him to cut me some orange pinstripes for the seat tube just for that rat bike flare. Here is what it loks like at the moment.
The only thing I am halfway sure about is the colors. I plan on going with solid black wheels, seat, bar tape , cranks and tires. I was thinking about going with white but I work on bikes way too much to go with white.
Oh yeah, quill seatpost. That's not something you want to misplace. I was just glad that it came out.
Here is a shot after I cut the bars, not too bad for eyeing it with a hacksaw. I didn't measure anything. I still need to clean off the old cloth tape.
My original plan was to get some reproduction decals cut and like I said paint it somewhat stock looking. But the more I messed with it the more I changed my mind. The bike was never in immaculate condition anyway so I decided I was going to repaint the lugs, forks and the rear triangle orange. The color in Krylon is Pumpkin Orange. It's kind of Hugger Orange. I am also planning on stripping the decals and polishing the stainless tubing. It cleans up surprisingly well. Once again the more I cleaned and stripped it I decided that I was not going back with the factory decals. I opted to go with a custom frame decal that is just my last name. Most people don't know what a Kabuki is anyway. I went to a local sign shop here and the owner came up with my design it about 5 minutes and it looked sweet. I may get him to cut me some orange pinstripes for the seat tube just for that rat bike flare. Here is what it loks like at the moment.
The only thing I am halfway sure about is the colors. I plan on going with solid black wheels, seat, bar tape , cranks and tires. I was thinking about going with white but I work on bikes way too much to go with white.
