A close friend of mine brought me his old Peugeot bicycle (circa 1970) a while back asking if I could "give it a new chain & some tires for me to go ride"...
My first thought (as I'm sure was yours after seeing the picture above) was "No, you need a new bike", however, I could tell in my friend's demeanor with this near-obsolete velocipede this was something special. When I asked about the bike's history, his response told the story: "This was a gift from my Dad--who knows, maybe someday I'll hand it down to one of my boys." Right there in a single sentence the focus of my task became one of cementing a heritage connection versus a simple bike restoration...
After researching vintage bike parts, serial numbers, wheel specifications, and various other data points, I began the repair & restoration process to my friend's beloved bike, which from my research turned out to be a vintage 1970 Peugeot PX-10 built in Marseilles, France--a highly popular bike ridden by professional cyclists during the Eddie Merckx era (if you don't know about Eddie, click here--now you know Eddie :-) ) Five weeks later and a bit of elbow grease & great tool-assists from my friends at Arrow Bicycle, the bike of my friend's heritage returned...needless to say, he was pretty pleased--so was I :-)
Repairs take time--time to plan, time to gather resources, time to execute, time to finish, time to appreciate; they're investments of self, labors of love, symphonies of commitment. Repairs bring restoration, renewal, and revival. Indeed, I was so very pleased by the outcome of this "repair"--part of my friend's heritage had been restored, joyful & cherished memories of that gift renewed, the hope of extending that heritage to his own children revived...Bikes are very much the friend with whom private & confidential conversations are levied where hopes and dreams are shared and deepest fears and anxieties are held in secret; if this "repaired" bike could speak, I'm sure it would have much to say, yet would only do so ever so quietly and unobtrusively with its rider, my friend, for whom this bike meant so much, as did the results of the repair and restoration. Beyond a cyclist's context of recreation or sport, of travel or commuting, our bikes mean something--it meant something equally to the likes of Picasso and Duchamp (famous artists) and to Paul Newman's & Katherine Ross's characters in "Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid"....it meant something to my friend as well--thanks for letting me be part of that heritage story "something". :-)
#EnjoyTheRide
