An Extraordinary effort by ordinary people

The reason I call it an extraordinary effort because this is a small restoration project executed by a small team who didn’t really knew the technical of the project which they were getting into.

Disclaimer: This is not the first time someone had attempted this. The intent is not to glorify the project, rather we just intend to conclude cycling need not be a costly sport

Well, leaving that aside here is a vintage shogun in a ridiculously damaged shape and a thought of owning a vintage bike was very attractive to me. Got in touch with the Owner of the bike none other than one of dear friend Swapnil. Swapnil was “take it Tarique do whatever you want to do but unfortunately I don’t have the key to unlock its chain so that you can remove it from the pole it is attached to”. The bike was bought by his father from another owner. The point here is the bike was almost 50-year-old. The bike has been like that for so many years and has seen so many monsoons, that rust on the lock just broke the lock.

There is no need to reinvent the wheel, but its altogether different fun to restore a vintage bike without being and Expert. Anyways, our first job was to dismantle the frame and removal of rust, and see what parts are in good usable condition. One advantage steel frame has over the new modern bikes is the frame quality.

Process

• We were able to separate Fork, Handlebar, chain set, stem, and frame without breaking it
• Langston and yash were partner in this project, we bought some rust removal (wood pol, WD-40) and sandpapers of different grade to remove rust from the various parts
• The seat post just broke with half of it still inside the frame, we had to get it heated and removed

Rust removal and refurbishing

1. The rust removal took almost 3 days, and consumption of almost 2 wood pols and 1 WD-40

2. Once the parts are separated then one needs to put a anti rust and then paint the parts

3. One thing to remember is since the bike is very old and heavily rusted, one should not do extreme rust removal else the chances of frame getting damage is high

4. Once all of it was done, a Friend offered us to do powder coating on the frame in his factory- The process followed

   1. post rust removal frame was dipped in multiple acid containers
   2. post that powder coating was done

The second modification- Conversion of Btwin Mybike

This conversion was very clear in mind what I wanted to achieve, steel frame rugged road bike, which will have more upright position like a touring bike with drop bar and most important the bike can be fixed in any roadside cycle shop.

To get this done, Area of focus was - the stem shape and the dropbar (the reach, drop in the handlebar, the centre diameter, the width/length of the dropbar) Refer below image for understanding technicals in a dropbar.

The bike has gone more than 1000kms. This includes long rides of 100-150kms These long rides have been on smooth and not so smooth roads, so far it is doing well. This my go to bike to commute to office, shopping and for hard training(end of the day its steel frame bike with some customization).

Important note: Apart from dropbar and brake all the parts used in customization is normal parts available at any cycle store. One just needs to understand the sizing. There has been technical help taken at different stages, but all of them has been serviced on the normal cycle shops