Friday, April 28, 2017

Light Stands = Bike Stands

Gitane Tour de France
So I really, really like to ride bicycles - as any regular reader may have noticed. Over the last few years I've collected a few vintage road bikes - none have a ton of value - I like to find them cheap then fix them up into riding condition. I'm not a retro purist and I wouldn't say that I am "restoring" them either. 
Anyways - for a work stand I had been using some clamps and a two by four on my workbench - it gets the job done but it definitely isn't the best. Every Wednesday I go on a group ride with some friends and a few were mentioning that Aldi(of all places) was selling bike work stands for only 30 bucks. I started to think I should get one - then it occurred to me - I have every kind of stand, clamp and arm possible in this studio to hold up lighting gear, cameras, and backdrops. After trying a few different pieces and parts I came up with the above solution - why didn't I think of this before!?


Gitane Tour de France
This is my latest bike - a Gitane Tour de France. In terms of overall quality it is the highest-end one I own. I started to strip it down but I'm not sure how I want to rebuild it yet. Since it is an early 70s race bike I was thinking it might be cool to replace the outdated components with more modern ones....
Gitane Tour de France
"Tour de France"
Gitane Tour de France
The Stronglight crank and chainrings are pretty rad - those will have to stay.
Gitane Tour de France
Gitane made nice bikes - this is a Reynold 531 frame - but their finishing touches were very cheap. Metallic decals not even clear coated over, sloppy looking welds, cheap paint, etc. My other two French bikes(Motobecane & Peugeot) were probably a quarter of the cost but look four times more expensive.
Gitane Tour de France
but yeah - a c-stand, sandbag, an arm, and a clamp and I'm totally in business. I have enough of these things around that I probably won't have to bring this up from my workshop even for the biggest studio jobs.

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