The many faces of that green bike

I once had a green bike that went through so many incarnations during the time I owned it my wife swore I bought 4 different bikes.

It started out with a craigslist ad about a Raleigh Sprite 5 speed. I dig British bikes and this one was right up my alley. When I got there the lady couldn't have been nicer. The bike was on the lawn, nice and shiny and the tires were filled up with air. I had the cash in hand and ready to park my hinder on some fine English steel. One problem though -  the frame was WAY too tall for me. I'm 5'11" which most would consider an average height but this bike was made for someone at least 6'4". I asked how tall her husband was and she said about my height. How he rode this contraption I'll never know. 
She had another bike out side too. It was your typical 70's import road bike - 10 speeds, suicide brake levers, vinyl bar tape- the whole megillah. I came to buy a bike and gosh darn it if I wasn't coming home with out one. The brand was Kalkhoff -made in West Germany. I never heard of them but apparently they are still in business. 

As you can see it's noting spectacular.
Just a 70's road bike. Steel, lugged frame with cottered cranks. It wasn't going to stay that way for long. 
First off, those drop bars had to go and so did that cheap plastic saddle. By this time I felt confident enough in my mechanic skills to re do the brakes and derailleurs so I yanked out all the cabling and got a new chain for it . 

 This was the result. It looks pretty good in a circus wagon kind of way. I got the reverse brake levers from Velo Orange, The saddle off Ebay and the white tires from china somewhere...I think I got those from Amazon. It rode pretty good and it was very unique. I should have left well enough alone but it's not in my nature.

I'm a fan of the blog Lovely bicycle and the author of the blog, who goes by the name "Velouria" got me thinking of some other improvements I can make to this campus green German creature.
I got a Brooks B-15 saddle off ebay cheap. B-15 you ask?

  I did some research and apparently B-15's were stock on some higher end Raleigh road bikes. I don't think they were available by themselves but I could be wrong.

 It was a little rough but I was assured it was rideable. After a little bit of proofhide the leather was soft and looked as good as a 40 year old saddle could look. This saddle has moved from bike to bike and I still use it on my main rider. I Heart Brooks saddles- but I'll cover those in another post.

Along with the saddle I got some "Belleville" bars from VO and some Planet Bike Fenders. On Lovely Bicycle, She posted about cork tape, twine and shellac. I figure i'd give it a try. 

Some people love it some people scratch their head at what came next. I liked the Bellville bars but they were kind of narrow. The bar tape was a little squishy for my taste but other than that I was happy with the results. I got a few canvas bags at the military surplus store and a frame pump and I rode it like this for a good while. 

My next goal was to get rid of the cottered cranks. That was an adventure in itself. I'll cover that next time.

until then - ride it like ya stole it