My grandfather's bike, an old Motobécane "Classic", had been sitting in my parents' cellar for twenty years. When the decision was made to move to Dresden to study, I remembered it and thought about whether it could be made roadworthy with a few simple steps. Unfortunately, not only was the shifting system completely broken, but practically all the bearings were rusty. But after Corona had shortened my gap year in New Zealand, I suddenly had a lot of free time and decided to do a general overhaul: So first I stripped everything down to the last screw - applied stain - scraped off the paint with an angle grinder and wire brush - sanded - clear-coated - treated with linseed oil - cleaned the components - greased the ball bearings - took out the old gears - put in new Alfine 8 hub gears (best decision ever) - re-spoked - new cables - new wiring for the lights - new saddle - new seat post - done. The nice thing is that I got almost all the components apart from the hub gears and the cables quite cheaply via "Kleinanzeigen". Let's see how it rides in Dresden.
