After finishing the restoration of the Motobecane I became excited to do another restoration. So, I ended up purchasing an old Raleigh Spirit off Craigslist for $40. I wasn’t sure if it was worth it or not but I decided the bike looked good enough and would be fun.
Back in Feburary while helping my father-in-law repair his shed, I discovered his old Motobecane road bike. When I first saw it I became a little excited because I thought it might be fun to restore, but he hadn’t ridden it in over 15 years or so and I had never restored anything before.
A few months later I was looking at road bikes for fun at our local bike shops and test rode a few. That got me excited for a road bike, but I didn’t have the cash. Then I had the bright idea that maybe I could restore my father-in-law’s old Motobecane. To say the least, it was in really bad shape.
I grew up in a small town, on a farm with a large family. Since I was number 6 of 8 kids in my family, no one ever taught me how to ride a bike. I can vaguely remember an old silver bicycle that I used to teach myself how to ride. I think it looked something like this:
