The bike was purchased in May 2007 from Mjölby, Sweden. I was lucky to get it out of Mjölby let alone back to Australia as the Östgötatrafiken (local train company) wouldn't allow me to take the bike on board. Thankfully, the man that I had purchased it from kindly drove me the hour long trip back to my flat. He said he was happy to see the bike going to Australia to be restored; I was happy to not have to dink my girlfriend 70kms on flat tires.
I had to pack the bike into a box to travel with me back home to Australia so I decided to strip as much of the weight from it as I could. The chain went, as did the bar tape (at least 30grams saved there!). At the time I had decided to turn the bike into a fixed gear machine so I also did the unthinkable and simply threw out the Nuovo Record derailleurs and shift levers. I learned a very valuable lesson there about checking the value of bike components.
On my return to Melbourne most people I asked suggested I attempt to restore the bike to original condition rather than fix it. Combine this with the realisation that in a big city fixed gear cycling was really quite trendy (unlike myself) and it was settled, I was going to have to restore it.
The hope is that this site can serve as an information and image repository for myself and an invaluable source for the many millions of non swedish speakers out there restoring a 1970s Swedish racing bike.
Pack Your Bags, We're Moving!
4 years ago
Hey Dave,
ReplyDeleteWhat a fantastic project you have happening... I do agree with the advice so far, anything less than a full restoration would be a bit of a shame.
Have you contacted the guy you bought the bike from, maybe he has friends with a similar bike or even knows where some parts may be in his local area.
Good luck !