My Ricardo Bushbike frshen up

[Steve F]

I was originally looking for a cheap bike to chop up for my tadpole trike build but found this very close to home. It's an 89 Ricardo Bushbike, they only made them to this spec for 1 year (Ovaltech chain rings, 18 speed, Cromo frame and under frame rear brake) the 88 model had less gears and the 90 model dropped eveything including the cromo frame and became just another budget mountain bike

Anyway, as soon as I saw it I grabbed it ($20) and decided it needed to be saved and not chopped due to it's Aussie heritage and mild rarity.

I also dedcided I wasn't going to invest too much into it so a factory restore was out of the question but a rebuild with a few replacement parts but keeping the general feel would do the job.

Here it is when I brought it home.



And today, as tomorrow it goes off to get blasted and then from there on to the powder coaters for some of this





I also spent a little time this evening on the decals so I can print them on decal paper and redo them all myself.



Anyway, more pics after it's blasted and powdercoated, while I wait bits will get polished and cleaned and then she can go back together and I can get back on to my trike build

Cheers
Steve

[Steve F]

Pretty much finished the main frame logo, now to do the smaller ones.



Cheers
Steve

[pentlandexile]

Seriously laid back angles on that bike, it should look good. How do you go about drawing up your own decals?

[Steve F]

Seriously laid back angles on that bike, it should look good. How do you go about drawing up your own decals?

First step is to take a decent photo or find one online, from there I import into photoshop and select just the coloured section I need. Then it's a slow process of tidying up the edges and getting it to look good, it takes a little while but at a high resolution it's easier. For the script over the top I then created a second layer in photoshop and traced over the top of the script using the straight line tool as it's hard to do by hand and lots of small straight lines is much easier. Basically it's just a slow process of woking a photo in photoshop to a decal.

Cheers
Steve

[Velo13]

Lookin' good. I am keen to see the finished product.

[Clydesdale Scot]

Steve F,
might be worth contacting Ricardo Bushbike as he was writing about getting some decals made
As for the decal, I would have recreated the decal in Illustrator using a similar font, say AntiqueOliveNord-Italic, created outlines of the font, and massaged the font to match the original (particularly the 'R')
then stoked the outline.

[Steve F]

Steve F,
might be worth contacting Ricardo Bushbike as he was writing about getting some decals made
As for the decal, I would have recreated the decal in Illustrator using a similar font, say AntiqueOliveNord-Italic, created outlines of the font, and massaged the font to match the original (particularly the 'R')
then stoked the outline.

We've had a chat and he had no luck with decals but does have some images he's going to send me. I tried starting with a stock font but couldn't get the look and wanted this main decal to be 'right', I'm using a stock font for the 'Bushbike/GS' decal though unless I can get a good picture to start with, mine has all but rubbed away but I dont think this decal is so critical as it's a fair bit smaller. The images I put up are just JPG conversions, I have them as photoshop files in layers so I can still tweak them as needed I might have a play with illustrator now that you mention it though

Cheers
Steve

[Clydesdale Scot]

Whatthefont suggested the best font was
OL London Black Italic font
but I don't have that, and too cheap to buy it.
The one I suggested is a good starting point, but a high quality photo, ideally with some reference points and accurate measurements would make it a relatively easy task.
Always better to work in Illustrator for decals.

[Steve F]

S'funny, I used that as well yesterday and got the same font, and it's pretty damn close but was $32USD or something, forget that.... Grabbed Illustrator off the work server and redid the decal to see how it went, it's a smoother more accurate one so I'll do the rest like this as well.



And the original, I think I might need to tweak the 'C' a little more but not bad for about 45 minutes



Cheers
Steve

[Steve F]

Picked up from the blasters and dropped off at the powder coaters Remebered to grab a quick pic of it in the boot before I dropped it off. Cant wait to get it back now



Cheers
Steve

[Steve F]

Got the frame back from the powder coaters Now to have a go at printing out the decals and to clean the components and put them back on. I went with a Dormant Sparkle Red as he had it in stock so was quite a bit cheaper.









Cant wait to ride it

Cheers
Steve

[singlespeedscott]

Looks good. The powder coaters could of taped up your canti studs for you though. They might be a bit tight when you remount the calipers.

[Steve F]

Looks good. The powder coaters could of taped up your canti studs for you though. They might be a bit tight when you remount the calipers.

For $80 I wont complain

Cheers
Steve

[Steve F]

Did a little more today, stripped the head stem and seat post of their black paint and gave them a polish, I didn't go for a mirror finish as I want a little characted. The seat post I twisted in my hand while I held the sand paper to give it a bit of a brushed look. For the stem I used paint stripped first and then lightly sanded and then hand polished with a bit of metal blue, I didn;t sand out the odd nick etc as I think it gives it a bit of age. I'm liking working with what I have, keeps the cost down and is quite satisfying over buying new.

You can see a bit of the sparkle in the paint in this pic.





Cheers
Steve

[Steve F]

Polished the spokes and hubs, stripped the bars and primered, found an old kickstand painted and fitted. Next to put the top coat on the bars and polish up the dia-compe calipers and refit as well as clean out the little bit of powder coat in the top of the seat stem tube that is making it hard to get the seat back on.





Cheers
Steve

[singlespeedscott]

Did you pull out the axles, clean and repackage the bearings. Always a good thing to do with old wheels.

[Steve F]

Did you pull out the axles, clean and repackage the bearings. Always a good thing to do with old wheels.

These wheels are off a new (read cheap) bike that I picked up on gumtree to chop for it's suspension rear end and a few other bits being used in my tadpole trike build, just a temporary measure while the stock wheels get new spokes and a full rebuild (including bearings) All I did with these was give them a polish and a clean even running the tyres that were on them, on the plus side the bearings are smooth and nicely greased and it'd be lucky to have done more than a few hundred km's.

Cheers
Steve

[Steve F]

Bars and seat turned up today, waiting at the front door when I got home. I couldn't help bolting them on for a look and a quick test sit.

Was getting a bit dark for a pic but what the hey





Now to get some of the mechanicals sorted.

Cheers
Steve

[Steve F]

Printed out the RICARDO decals on clear water slide inkjet paper and then sprayed with 4 coats of clear acrylic lacquer (automotive) after letting them dry for half an hour. I had enough room on a single A4 sheet to do two copies of the decals. I'll let these dry for 6 hours or so and then I'll try the single 'R' that goes on the headstem. I think they should work well if they can stand up to the weather. Once I put them on the bike I'll dust them with another coat of clear to potect the cut edges.



You can see the clear coat adds a decent gloss to them



Cheers
Steve

[singlespeedscott]

Those decals look great.

[Steve F]

They didn't quite turn out as I was hoping when I put a couple on to see how they went (I made plenty just in case) But I've got to say I quite like the look, printed on the clear they are more of a ghost decal, the camera doesn't show them very well but you can still see the script and the grey is just enough to give them a slightly different tint.

I'm thinking I will stick with this look



Cheers
Steve

[rangersac]

I'm thinking I will stick with this look

+1

[Mulger bill]

I'm thinking I will stick with this look

+1

Yep, looks the goods.

[Steve F]

Needed some other decals so made these, you can get them on ebay as NOS but they are about what I paid for the bike I printed these on white decal paper so will need to trim to the edge but it should look as printed when on the bike.



Cheers
Steve

[HappyHumber]

Wow, you're a natural with Illustrator, Steve!