I have a working bicycle and she's beautiful

So I spent the day at the CERES bike shed on Sunday with my right hand man, my best lady and the amazing Kimmo - there is nothing this man does not know about bikes:

spewing I forgot to check the good camera’s batteries so i only have these pissy little iPhone pics. 

brilliant day all round - a hive of activity

Thanks to some ingenuity (kimmo), a derailleur, new shifter and some cables i finally got to ride my darling and she's an absolutely beautiful ride. 

the moose had more fun than anyone else

and we took my lady out for her maiden voyage today. 

thanks everyone who helped along the way, especially the bike shed possum

cosmetic additions

 so after 24 hours of soaking in apple cider vinegar ...

 I cracked and bought new ones at the hardware shop

picked up the new grips, saddle, brake levers, cables, chain and 

tyres from the fabulous Vintage Bicycle Rebuilds today

 almost as excited as I am.

 but easily distracted (squirrels)

finalising the chrome polish and getting ready to install the rim tape 

 some rust might just have to stay in the rims

 rim tape on and inner tube ready to go

spunky whitewall tyres ready to go on tomorrow.

First Day

So I've taken her to bits now and rubbed silver foil and water over as much of the polished chrome as I can reach. Still a few bits to cover and I'm not sure the spokes will ever be perfect.

 fiddly little spokes

 I've been trying to track all the nuts and bolts I've removed. I especially like 

how you can see the shadow of the glass of wine in the last one.

and here they are soaking overnight in Apple Cider vinegar

 first days work - in pieces

shiny

wheels

Day One: cleaning surface dust off the rims with silver foil and water.

I said to Cam "I don't think I like this project, it's making my hands dirty". He said "Put that on your blog"

I've fallen in love with this funny old Apollo Geneva bike that I bought from a local Buy-Sell-Swap site on Facebook. I'm going to use this blog to track the progress of her restoration. These shots are the original shots taken buy the lady i bought it from:

apollo geneva

gear shifters, not sure why we have two yet

right pedal is stuck

front wheel

brake pads in surprisingly OK condition

nice line

not sure how to restore white leather.

mud guards in great condition

original decals, wondering if i can work out its age by these logos?

missing a derailleur, this will be the most challenging part for me