royce union - made in west germany, rebuilt in fort collins. day 1

as many readers have been waiting eagerly to see my new cruiser that i am building, i am now 90% done and will start posting the project.

i had noticed an old black royce union frame hanging in our garage and wondered why it was just hanging there. i then found out its history, and decided to continue its life.

my dad said that he had found that very frame in a dumpster in colorado springs when my parents lived there in the 80's. having worked at a bike shop, he built it up and the guys at the bike shop would use it for errands. not everything worked perfectly on the frame so they had to ghetto-rig some of it. it was going to take a lot for me, but i was ready.

i wanted to keep the vintage feel with keeping the chipped up frame and the old seat, but i did want to clean it up. first things first. i took apart the handlebars, crankset, and fork. these three all had bearings that had old grungy grease that needed to be removed to make way for new grease. it was tedious as i had to use a pencil to get into the rings and polish. i then used steel wool to shine up everything. it wasn't too hard, but it took awhile. and that is what i did in day one...cleaned.