Ann Philips wrote about decorations for unknown brand of bike...
One of our (on-topic) Schwinn Town & Country Tandems (early 1950s) suffered the embarrassment of getting major surgery to put a mtn bike head, for, and rear triangle on it. It was the cheapest off-road tandem ever, but after painting in bright yellow, needed some decoration. We chose whimsy on TrueType, clear sheets, and it was good enough. The downtube says something like "Zweiseitesumpffahrad" in old gothic, to resemble German (two-seat mud bike was the intent). Water bottle mounts have labels such as "beer only" and the chain stays say "no step." It used to say "Hecho in America," that that went away. Pure low-brow attempts at humor, but hopefully pretty inoffensive, and folks enjoyed it.
For yours, I would warm up to a Japanese-speaker and have him/her write out some nice things, which then can be scanned to a sheet, cut and mounted. "Pearl of the Orient" or "Saved from the bin"...
harvey sachs mcLean va
Now I'm going to paint it and build it up with my fabulous Dura Ace group from the early 70s (centerpull brakes and all!), and I have to figure out how to paint it. I think red is the color. I know I want to give it a white head tube and I'm wondering what other little paint features might be ok for a Japanese bike from the early 70s. I'm all enamored with panels these days having just gotten a bike with panels and having another in progress with panels. I don't have any decals for the bike though, not knowing what it is exactly, and panels are nice because they let you highlight the manufacturer's name or logo. Are empty panels too empty? I'm not spending tons of money on this paint job, its gonna be a "training" paint job for someone.
So what do you all think? Plain panels, or does someone have some random Japanese transfers that need a home? Or does anyone have any other brilliant, vintage, ideas that will give my painter some practice and let me finish this bike? Or should I just stop with two bikes with panels before I paint my vintage MTB with panels too?
Ann Phillips, Decatur GA - where it rains too much and bikes need panels.
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