Bike people tend to be tinkerers. It’s an established fact. Whether you’re trawling Craigslist or eBay at every available opportunity or just having a sneaky peek once a week, the temptation to just grab hold and fix any given bike that strikes you is strong. Maybe you like a challenge, or you’re obsessed with a certain make—or worse, both. 

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So you contact the seller on CL, go and discover that it’s what you want, and bring it home. Maybe you think you’ll sell the bike in the future—or maybe you just want to add it to your stable from the start. There are many motivations, and we certainly don’t judge you for them.

Still, the question remains: Then what? Maybe your new basket case sits in a corner for a month while you contemplate your life choices and wonder what you’ve done. Or maybe you’re just stuck waiting for parts to hit your mailbox from Indonesia—or from that one random guy who fabricates that one specialized part that you need, but who lives in a tent in Chile and only gets to his local post office to check his mail for new orders once a month. That’s half the fun! 

Anyway, you’ll enjoy watching this 40-odd-minute-long restoration video if you love seeing the process, but are still working up the nerve to make the appropriate blood sacrifices to the garage gods as you wait for parts for your own personal basket case. You’ll also enjoy it if you like watching people work out puzzles, and hearing words flow as their brains work out the intricate details. 

Unsurprisingly, a lot of this bike’s problems come from simply being completely and utterly filthy. Considering its age, it’s probably a miracle that it isn’t dirtier—but since it’s a barn find, presumably it spent at least some of its life indoors instead of buried under a heap of firewood outside and constantly exposed to the elements. So, I mean, that's one good thing, at least.

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