Project Lazarus: Cresta GT

before -Sept 2018

Once upon a time there was a 1987 Cresta GT that had been lavished in time and money to become a very cool touring bike.

Post crash

messed up fork

Then came the big crash and the bent fork not to mention bumps and bruises, surely it would never be the same.  A wake was held, some thought was given to where all those parts would go.

And then a man in a distant town who also loved vintage touring bikes saw the pictures and said we might be able to bend it back and I have the tools to do so.

So it was bent and aligned and measured and bent some more and a wheel was tried out and it was called fixed.  Scotch was deposited in gratitude and a long drive was made home.

And the frame and fork were reunited so the bike could be raised from the dead.

Brakes were reattached and the cockpit was fitted and brake cables and housing were strung so brakes could be set up.

And before long it was reassembled and shifting and brakes were tested and only one thing remained.  To ride.

So we went out to the alley and took a ride around the block, it brakes, it stops it rides and the fork didn't snap in half.  At this moment I find myself ambivalent, on the one hand I didn't think this bike would ever get ridden again on the other hand its just different.  Maybe its the changed shape of the fork or maybe its the fact I can still feel the after affects of the crash in my wrist and a the lump on my shin and that is distracting me from how the bike actually feels.

At this point it will either work for me or nobody as I could not in good conscious sell it as a complete bike if I find its not working for me, not with a repaired fork.  So I will either find it works or find a way for its parts to work else where.  The plan for now is to work it into the riding rotation with rides of increasing distance, after all I can't judge it on a ride around the block.

Ride. Ponder.Repeat.