It was a cold winters morning in London of 2009 & I’d just come off of Skype after talking to my wife in Melbourne, we were both on a different side of the globe from each other & we’d been making plans for the upcoming Christmas of 2009. We’d decided she would be coming over to my snow covered city as this would be my final Christmas in the UK before moving to my new exciting home in Melbourne.
My next thought was. "What would make a great present for Christmas?"
Mmmm!! A real silly question was the answer from most of my good friends who know me very well. Design & build her a bike was the call from a young disciple of the fixed gear culture who I was lodging with at that time. He also was hooked like me, I was already up to designing & putting together my third bike by now & I was enjoying every moment of being able to creatively express myself with all these colors & parts available to complete my work as well all the miles I was covering on my new rides across London come rain or shine. Well it was actually snow & ice covered roads so it made my ride to work interesting & rather suicidal at times.
Purple & gold was the request from my wife I had to get my creative brain cells working again to try & create this purple & gold vision, I didn’t want to disappoint this was going to have to be special. It was special to me already & I had 8 weeks to pull it off.
I purchased an old Raleigh mixte frame & fork set from the bay. I was already searching locally & overseas for gold bike parts to see what was available for me to buy.
I’d been recommended to use a local powder coating company in Hackney by the local bike fraternity; these guys had over 200 colors available & can blast before they paint to give a perfect finish. I had to jump on my ride & check these guys out. A purple was chosen & with metallic finish just to add that extra sparkle, it was Christmas after all.
A week later the frame was ready for collection. I had already began to start receiving a steady stream of parcels containing various shiny gold parts waiting to be unpacked & put into their required place on the finished bike.
As you can see from start to finish there’s so many different ways I can make a bike look it will certainly turn heads. As a witness out cycling around London together on New Year’s Day this bike got plenty of attention, it still does today in Melbourne as well.
My wife’s purple & gold prezzie ready in time for Christmas.
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