Building “George Orwhale”
If you’ve ever watched the Dream Builds series by Gee Milner on Youtube, you know the vicarious satisfaction you receive by watching a bike come to life from a set of parts. I wanted to recreate that same feeling for me by deconstructing and rebuilding an old bike of mine, and with it share my love of cycling and going places on bikes with Cai.
I wanted to have that feeling of building something physical and see the result of it. So it was to the shed, dust off the cobwebs from my old bike, and give it a new life, for its new soon-to-be owner.
Why bike in the first place?
For me, a bike is an extraordinarily simple device that enables adventures. It has enabled me to go to some amazing places, it gives you access to the places people rarely go to and with it — a sense of accomplishment and achievement, having done so under your own power.
A complete sense of freedom.
Design
Before I began building back the bike, it was important to plan out how to paint and build the bike and list out the new parts or equipment I required.
I was hoping to connect a sense of wonder and curiosity with nature through living beings that inhabit the earth and water, hence the tree and the whale. As someone who loves animals and nature, this was a good combination of the tree rings lining the whole bike and culminating at the top tube with the detail of a tail fin created by the same patterns.
Deconstruction
To get to a point where the bike worked properly, and prepare it for the paint job, it had to be deconstructed. The tinkerer in me was overjoyed. The rusted bits required a lot of scrubbing and multiple washes in cleaning baths. After a few days of consistent cleaning, the components started to look the part.
I couldn't get the bottom bracket, chainring, cranks and pedals off so I took it to the bike shop, which also failed to take it off. I decided to go ahead with the paint job with the pedals, cranks, bottom bracket and chainring on with the intention to upgrade the groupset at a later stage to something nicer.
Paint and design
With the help of Cai, the frame started to take shape. With each stroke of the knife, the layers of the masking tape peeled off and the design took shape. A decent amount of time was spent cutting away the tape and making sure each incision was precise.
With the outside shed in tatters, the only way to really paint the frame was to wait for the breaks in the rain in the following weeks and paint the frame in the open air — not the recommended route, but that was the only option at the time.
The front fork was the first to be painted and masking tape peeled off to reveal the pattern — and it got us excited about what the complete bike would eventually look like.
Using Spray.Bike paint was really fun and easy to layer and paint.
Finished bike
After the final few tweaks of the paint, and painting the seat post, the bike was ready for its first ride out with Cai.
Since then, the bike has served Cai to take her on the various cycling adventures we have been on so far and has been her commuter lately.
With so many more adventures to come by bike.
