Reader Project: Adrienne's 1962 Columbia Roadster

Well, her daughter Úna's, actually. Adrienne is one of the principals at the new blog Change Your Life, Ride a Bike! She found this 1962 Columbia Roadster on Craigslist and overhauled it for her daughter to use. Check out the full photo set on Flickr. Says Adrienne:

"Blue is a 1960's Columbia Roadster.  I bought her for $40 from a man named August after deciding it was time to learn how to take care of my own bike.  There are 5 cyclists in my family, and with kids growing out of or breaking bikes on a daily basis, my husband is kept quite busy being the family pit crew.  So, while James built up our Xtracycle, I took the bike stand next to him and learned how to take apart and rebuild Blue.

The bike Gods looked kindly upon me for this project.  I have old and quite serious neck injuries that leave me with less than optimal hand strength.  Every time I approached a bolt I did so with trepidation- would this be the frozen one?  When I picked Blue up, she had been outside for a while and was very rusty and dirty, so I figured there would be a lot of frozen bolts.  There was not a single one!  At some point she had been completely serviced and put back together by a bike shop, so everything was done right, she had just been neglected.

The biggest job, by far, was dealing with the rust.  The paint was very solid in some places, and pitted and corroded in others.  I had originally thought I would repaint her, but there was no way to match the glorious blue, and after using some copper wool and penetrating oil on the whole frame, I found that the anomalies in the paint were beautiful in and of themselves.  They gave Blue a patina that spoke of her past.  A bike with history is a great bike, and after finding the original owner's name engraved on the underside of the bottom bracket (Caroline) by I assume her father, I decided to keep her as is.  I smoothed her out and gave her 8 coats of polish.  It was the right decision, she is lovely!

Blue now belongs to my daughter, Úna.  She loves her new bike!  Now I need to find one for me!"

Posted in: 1962 Columbia Roadster,reader projects