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1979 JMC Long

late-1979 JMC Long

This one is a rider. I picked up the frame on ebay in November 2006 for a whopping $76. The description said it needed major reworking as it had been rewelded several times, the headtube flared, a hole drilled in the seattube, and the serial number mostly ground off. But when it arrived, it really wasn't in any worse shape than most of the old bikes my friends and I raced and thrashed as kids. It certainly wasn't a showbike candidate, but that was perfect because I wanted something I could ride. I built it up without repairing anything, and it rides like a million bucks. It had an awful, probably 20 year old spray can paint job on it, likely received after the last reweld. So, keeping with the low buck rider theme, I gave it a new spray can job with some nice metalflake blue auto touch up paint. It looks reasonably good, even close up, and the color is fairly close to the original JMC candy blue - it's GM Ocean Blue. I added some extra decals I had left over from my JMC cruiser build. I kinda like using the 1982 IBMXF sticker on the headtube - it just looks extra vintage. The parts are a bunch of old, but nothing special, bits I had laying around. I love that none of the parts really match, as that's the way most of my bikes looked as a kid after a few years of trading parts and wearing things out. This is probably the only JMC I'll never be afraid to ride, and it goes to the coffee shop and around town on a regular basis. Total investment is less than $150.
2009 update - Totally afraid when I ride this bike now, haha.  Swapped some parts around and really dig the current setup (straight seatpost=now).  Thinking about finally making all the frame repairs and powdering it...