This bicycle has been revised - click here for the latest version

I found this Cilo mixte while walking around in Little India, Singapore, and thought it would make a great one-year project bicycle. So I walked into the cafe next door and would you believe it, the owner of the cafe owned the bicycle. I bought it on the spot, put it into a cab and took it home.

It's just come back from the paint shop. Nothing like Joe Bell's perfect lug windows, but a decent job nonetheless.

I'm replacing all the Shimano Adamas parts with 600 "Arabesque" bits, adding the Brooks saddle and Berthoud fenders. The wheels are going to be Maxicar-Velocity affairs, and the stem will be Nitto.

I'll be rolling out pictures when it's fully built, hopefully in time for my better-half's birthday this year.

I found out that this bicycle, dating from somewhere in the early Eighties, was brought over to Singapore by a Swiss expatriate working for Nestle. When she left, she sold the bicycle to the cafe owner. What a find!

It's a low end frame, not perfectly built with all the features I would have liked, but it's got plenty of history to it, and is probably the only Cilo mixte in Singapore. I'm glad to be the lucky owner now.

ajchern@gmail.com