horns of wilmington's cow

By anth

Rejoice in the Old

Rescued
Reinvigorated
Refreshed
After being left
Bereft
When some polish
And spit
Grease from the elbow
Makes it all go
Smoothly

---------------

This bike cost peanuts on eBay. Seriously, the basket cost more. Now granted it did look in a bit of a state, but like they always say on those terrible home improvement shows, you've got to be able to see the potential. And so, with only the pedals, grips and saddle changed (with period pieces...) the rest was attacked with water for the grime, brasso for the rusty chrome and very little else. It all just worked. 50 odd years old and all the moving parts did exactly what they needed to do.

And this was a bike that was destined for the scrapheap if I hadn't bought it.

And so it is with most things, where the old is all too readily discarded for the new, despite the old still having plenty to offer. I'm as bad as other people with things I don't understand, but as time goes on I find myself appreciating the workmanship in those things of antiquity, compared with the mass mechanised production of the modern day.

Is the quality now better? Debatable. So prices are down, and everyone can have what they want. But this bike has a story, it has a feeling that none of my modern bikes can quite elicit.

And yes, I do appreciate the irony of telling you all this sat in front of a computer bought this year, speaking about a photo taken on a camera bought, erm, this year.

Tomorrow I hope to redress the balance by finally taking a look at the 1930s Sunbeam bike that I'm being offered first refusal on...

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