Kuwahara road frame

Max found it in the back of the store. Classic road frame for Japanese manufacture Kuwahara. I’m still wondering who brought it here. We took it immediately and within a few weeks, a friend came across asking for something old and not fancy. He has also requested to keep the original parts and was the biggest challenge. I have spent one week in order to remove the rust from the crank and pedals. A simple kitchen acid made it work. Look at the beauty and the simplicity.
This is how we found it:

And the magic:

Mixte

A direct appropriation of the French word meaning "mixed" or "unisex", "mixte" is pronounced [mikst], although the usual North American bicycle industry pronunciation of this loan word is /ˈmɪkstiː/.
The first, hopefully not the last, mixte I did. Had a very demanding friend that sent me a picture of what she wants:
The original:

Sorry i cann't give a photo credit.


First I needed to find a right frame. The are several mixte frame out there form Peugeot, Centurion, Mustang, Raleigh, but for some reason I couldn’t find any for sale. I was jumping on the people in the streets asking if they would sell the bikes to me. But with no success. Finally I offered her to bring the new frame from US and if repaint it to whatever color she wants. And so we did. Actually the colors that she has chosen I couldn’t believe it will work all together till the very last moment, but eventually it just added additional argument to “Men are color blinded”. The wheels are handmade by me.
The repainted frame:

Intermediate state in my salon (few hours before my girlfriend kick my butt):

Final: