STOKED.

this is a great story — the roommate of a buddy of mine recently moved, and one of the things that he left behind (intentionally) was a mid-70s/early-80s motobecane "riviera" folder. so my buddy immediately called me up and asked if i wanted it. well, duh. i’ve always thought it would be rad to have a folder project. i asked him what he wanted for it, and he wanted nothing. of course i bought him dinner and some drinks, but in the end, it cost me zero.

now folders are one of the quickest ways to make yourself look like a complete dork, but they’re also amazing if you wanna travel with a bike. you just fold em down and stick em into a large suitcase and check em into the belly of the plane. no oversized luggage charges (such as you have to pay with bike boxes) unless the airline is charging for every piece of checked luggage, which many do. but point being, you can take em with you. geographically-specific, the bay area’s main high-speed rail system (BART) doesn’t allow bikes on-board during rush hours (they do every other time). but they do let folders on during rush hours. so now if i wanna go to my friend’s house in alameda right after work, boom — just ride my folder to work.

so anyway, rad.

one of the great joys of bike projects is when you come across one that stymies you, because you have to learn. well it’s been a long, long time since i’ve come across a project like that and this one is it. i don’t know shit about folders, and to make matters even more interesting, i don’t know shit about french bikes other than the fact that they have different sizing standards than european and american bikes. so i’ve got a long road ahead of me. luckily, the bike is in relatively good shape, so much of it will be a matter of just removing surface rust and polishing/cleaning parts. but i want to make some upgrades and i’ll need to fix some stuff, so it’s gonna be kind of a chore in the end.

anyway, some details…

the thing that makes it a folder — the hinge. despite a bit of surface rust there on the top of the square hinge plate, this is in perfect working condition. (the other dark markings around the frame there are just leaves and detritus stuck to the frame by spide webs.) that surface rust is actually a good excuse to take it down for powdercoating. the way this works is that you flip the bolt thing into it’s little slot and twist it tight with your hand. then you twist the big L-shaped lever to tighten it. you’ll also notice the cottered cranks here.

key component — the quick-release folding stem. i’ve played with this for about 15 minutes so far and i don’t know how much work this is gonna take for restoration. it appears to not have much clamping power, but there’s a lot of surface rust on both the bars and the stem, including inside the clamping area. the bars are also a little crushed at their clamping area. so like when i pulled the bars back and re-clamped em in a different position, it held fine. but when i pushed them forward a bit to their most comfortable position, they wouldn’t hold. so i don’t think anything’s fucked, i just think it’s gonna take new bars (which i wanna get anyway) and a full restoration on the stem including wire-brushing the surface rust and then a clean and polish. we’ll see. either way, it’s a kickass detail and i’m looking forward to when it’s finished.

STOKED. an original sturmey-archer 3-speed internal hub with freewheel. the shifter cable is broken at the shifter, so i’ll have to figure out how to fix that, but at the hub, there’s nothing wrong but for filth. even that little chain bit at the hub isn’t rusty. SO jazzed. that should be an easy fix to maintain all the original parts.

i love this luggage rack so much it’s nuts. it’s a combination of the frame itself and then the rack and support struts. this should hold a good amount of weight and i just love the shape of it and the flow with the rest of the bike’s lines. if i get the frame powdercoated, i’ll have all these parts powdercoated to match. just beautiful shit.

it’s gonna be a shame to lose this branding if i get it powdercoated, because i just love the font. you’ll note that the front fender has a good dent in it, too, so i’ll probably end up having to replace both fenders, but that shouldn’t be too difficult — since the wheels are 20-inchers, i can snap up some sweet fenders from a lowrider shop.

originally, i’d thought i would remove the chainguard, but to tell you the truth, i fucking love the shape of this. it also bolts onto the frame on tabs that are welded onto the frame, so if i were to remove it, i’d have to grind those off, meaning i could never have the option of putting it back on. so if i go powdercoated, i’ll have the chainguard done to match, like the rack.

that’s it — i’m really jazzed, it’s a beautiful bike and i’m looking forward to getting to work on it. full strip-down and clean will be the first step. then stem overhaul, shifter fix, new bars, and a new seat. i’ll leave everything else original for the time being, just to get it riding, and in the future i’ll take care of frame powdercoating and system upgrades.

free bike win!

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