The first step ...

When we moved from sunny South Africa to soggy Britain our lives changed completely. The biggest change was probably how we get around. Our circumstances meant that a car just didn't make sense, and so I rediscovered the joys of riding my bicycle.

So over the last two years my sprocketheadedness has developed into a wonderful affliction: I ride my bike every day to get to work and back, I've got back into bike racing and the constant urge to fiddle and fettle often invades our front room. And with all the riding I find I have so many ideas - ways to make bikes more useful to us, easier to use or sometimes just more beautiful. I've also found inspiration from reading about the NAHBS and seeing the incredible creations from the Vanilla Workshop.

There is a book we've had on our bookshelf for ages called "Whatever You Think, Think the Opposite". I read it about a year ago, and one phrase really resonated. I'm sure the authour Paul Arden won't mind me quoting it here:

"Do it, then fix it as you go: Too many people spend too much time trying to perfect something before they actually do it. Instead of waiting for perfection, run with what you've got, and fix it as you go."

So I've decided to get on with it and start building bikes. I don't have the facilities or skills for framebuilding yet, so I decided to start with what I have around the house. In this case, my darling wife was off in Paris for a week to run a marathon, so wouldn't be needing her bike for that time. That window was all I needed to transform her dowdy Ribble into something a bit more special.

I love lugged steel frames, so decided to give this TIG welded aluminium frame a classic look with faux lugs. It took a little longer than I'd hoped (about a week longer), and I was quite anxious about how it would turn out through most of the process. But in the end I think it has come out as well as I'd hoped.

Sure, there are things I'd change and do differently if I were to do them again - but I'm pretty proud of it. I hope you like it (I've posted a few pictures of the refurb here).

More projects are in the pipeline, and I'll be posting here as they take shape.

Thanks for looking!