Monday 1 December 2008

The Mixte: Session 2

For some twisted reason I decided to strip the frame instead of the usual send it for sand blasting with the powder coater. The benefit of doing this is it gives you some quality time to bond with the frame and become familiar with all of its blemishes and idiosyncrasies. What I discovered yesterday about the mixte frame is that it has had some repair work done on the right drop out, quite crude repair work, it looks as though it has been welded and not cleaned up afterwards. The repair has thrown the rear spacing slightly out and the top tube/stay at the drop out end is slightly bend when compared to the left one. The question is whether to have it professionally re-repaired or just go with it like it is with a little bit of cleaning up. I think I'll seek some expert advice. Here you can see the frame in its semi-stripped state, some nice lug details and a love heart on the underside of the down tube. Quite appropriate given that the bike is for Feride.