Success, Building a Bike for Someone to Love

I have built quite a few bikes over the years.  Some for folks who truly appreciate how a bike can enhance their lives and some for people who didn't care about their bike and were riding it because they had to for transportation.  Both actually have their qualities of appreciation as the latter holds a rather detached mode of practicality and shrewdness.  A common sense perspective holds true with a bike, it is the most affordable means of transportation and contributes to maintaining a healthy lifestyle.

For aesthetically charmed bike aficionados the range of appreciation can seem and often is more of an obsession as popular photos on the internet depict.  My reason for pointing this out is in the retail industry (in particular customer service) of bike repair work it is of first and foremost importance to understand what it is that the customer wants.  A customer shows up wanting to achieve some element of personal success, whether that be getting a flat repaired, replacing uncomfortable handlebars or some bike bling gadget. In any case part of the real satisfaction of working in the bike industry has been to help people effectively succeed at achieving their desired objective.  When the customer is a bike lover of sorts and their enthusiasm for all things bike exudes from their aura it's especially nice to help keep them keeping on.  When a pragmatically induced no nonsense commuter is aided in a fast and cost effective manner the pleasant reward of their satisfaction carries a dry enthusiasm much more subtle than a bike lover yet there's a sense of a similar level of satisfaction. Pretty cool.

When I found someone to love and spend my life with building a bike for her has been the most rewarding experience for me as a long time lover of bikes and the years spent servicing them.

Found a neat old steel lugged '89 Peugeot Canyon Express mountain bike frame and fork to build for Lisa

I have a keen knack for finding bikes worthy of refurbishing or building and Lisa is used to seeing a good number of bikes come and go from my little shop in our back yard.  So when she saw me bringing this frame home she didn't think much of it.  I had been looking to build her a second bike and wanted it to be a surprise.  Criteria I had set was a bike that would be a bit more versatile for casual trail riding and bike commuting keeping in mind that she is a bit of a novice rider so something she would feel more confident and comfortable on than her 700c wheeled Trek touring bike.  Deciding a 26" mountain bike with appropriate frame size would be ideal I was also looking for something with some "personal touches".  Implementing my previous customer descriptions of pragmatism and aesthetically pleasing helped to define a method of moving forward and getting her the proper bike.  

Beautiful Lug work of older Steel Mountain Bike Frames

When I found this '89 Peugeot Canyon Express frame and fork only I jumped on it. Not only was the bike a steal at forty five bucks with nice paint, straight frame, little to no rust, excellent condition but it has been a perfect fit.  This was a very fun bike to build as I was also able to find a nice Suntour Alpha 3000 component group on ebay lending a touch of retro classy quality for simplicity and trouble free shifting and besides that the components just look so cool on an old steel framed mountain bike.  

Suntour Alpha 3000 Component Group 3 x 5

Quality, dependable thumb shifters from Suntour

Getting the wheelset together was a different matter.  I thought certain I had a wheelset for the bike in my workshop and luckily I did.  However, the front spokes were a bit rusty though still solid and the wheel trued just fine and though I had a rear wheel to match it didn't have an axle and was so wonky I wasn't sure it would be able to be trued.  After some considerable effort I was pleasantly surprised when the wheel responded to my truing technique, success!

For all other parts such as saddle, stem, tires and handlebars and especially the rear axle thanks to the guys at Unite Bike Supply who rounded the stuff up and shipped it quick, as always excellent service.

We all have our ups and downs in life, sometimes it can feel like we are left alone to deal with seemingly horrible challenges without much needed support.  Does having a bike in one's life solve all of life's problems simply by going for a nice quiet ride?  Maybe, but just knowing there is a bike available to get on and play without playing any games is more often than not enough of a simple pleasure to find our way through life's messiness, like traffic for instance.  : )

Well, that's enough of my bit of gentle bike banter, here's how the bike looked when I first completed the build.  It has since had lights and handlebar bag added, trekking bars with 25 degree sweep and have some fenders to add.  When Lisa tells me how much she loves her bike.  I believe her.

Lisa's '89 Peugeot Canyon Express Steel Lugged 26" mountain bike for commuting.

Success, Built a Bike for Someone to Love.

Lisa loves her bike and I love her, I call that Success.