Tour de Florida (Canyon)

Well, I'm back in San Diego after a lovely trip to Oregon for the holidays. It rained almost the whole time, but we had a light dusting of snow on Christmas--the first time it has snowed on Christmas there for quite a while. I took a little jaunt on the Peugeot yesterday to put it through its paces, having previously only ridden it up and down the alley to get the derailers adjusted. I rode down through Balboa Park on Florida Drive to Pershing, then turned around and came back. It's a pretty short ride (about 4 mi. round-trip), but from my house to Pershing, there were enough elevation changes to work through all of the gears and also enough flat open space through the canyon to open 'er up. I never had a ten speed when I was a kid, so...

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From the Family Archives

I recently came across this photo of my father, circa late 1940s/early 1950s, the proud owner of a new Schwinn. Since not a lot has been going on with my bikes lately, I thought I'd post it. Imagine him tearing around the dusty back roads of eastern Nebraska on this thing. Not sure what happened to the bike--it's probably in somebody's barn or garage. I don't know much about Schwinns, can anybody identify the model from this pictu...

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End of an Era

I discovered while working on my new old 10-speed Peugeot this past weekend that it needs some specialized tools to really take the whole thing apart. As a result, I was basically just able to clean things up a bit and replace the tires and tubes, rather than re-pack bearings and whatnot like I wanted. On the plus side, the front and rear derailers are now working well. The main problem was the gucked-up chain. I cleaned the chain with Pedro's Bio Cleaner twice with a toothbrush and then let it sit in a moderately heavy coat of oil overnight. I then wiped off the excess oil and--viola!--the chain was nice and smooth.My irritation at not being able to access all parts of this bike with common tools got me thinking about bike culture again....

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Gettin' the Word Out

Big thanks to Hank over at the Flickr photo group Three Speed Bicycle Lovers for posting a nice comment to the group about my blog (with photos and everything!). I hope reading over my miseries and joys proves instructive and/or entertaining for any folks who followed the link over here. And I hope my new 10-speed project doesn't disappoint--the Columbia is still my main ride. If anyone has questions or comments, please feel free to post them, and I'll either write you back personally, or post answers to the blog if they'll be useful to the group. It was fun and (relatively) easy to refurbish my bike, and while I'm sure I inadvertently did all kinds of things wrong, it all seems to have worked out in the e...

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More Photos of the Peugeot

I took my customary before photos today, as much to show what needs work as to document where everything goes when I put it back together. Some of the photos here show the dirt, rust, and wear on the bike, others just turned out looking neat, so I put them up. I'll probably get started dismantling and cleaning this weeke...

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A New Old Bike

Hmmm, well, I bought another bike (yeah, I know, this is how it starts). Actually, my father bought me an early Christmas present from 1,000 miles away. See, I was at a thrift store with my wife on Saturday (our version of Black Friday shopping), and I saw the bike sittin' there for $99, and it was on sale. I'd been wanting a road bike to use for exercise, since my Columbia is more for getting around town and less for longer-distance rides. I didn't buy it then, I just figured it was an unnecessary expense. But, I kept thinking about it, talked to my dad, and today went back and bought the...

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I know a place where no cars go.

I took a ride today down into Balboa Park, down to the Prado area--the pedestrian-oriented complex of museums near the San Diego Zoo. Since it is Thanksgiving today, I figured the roads would be pretty bare, and for the most part I was right. The picture above is at the intersection of Park Boulevard and Village Place. Park Blvd. is normally a very busy north-south thoroughfare through the park, but not today. There was some traffic, but not much. Once I got to the park, I was surprised to see quite a number of pedestrians strolling about, despite the fact that the museums were all closed...

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On Doing It Yourself

I have rarely been so happy as when I looked at my finished bike for the first time and thought, "I did this." It was a big project for someone who had never done anything like this before, and who considers himself mechanically disinclined. But, I'll be danged, I did it. The whole project came out exactly as I imagined. I now have a bike that works better (like new, in fact) and looks better, and I did every step of the process myself. I learned how to cut and install new cables, adjust a Sturmey-Archer 3-speed shifter, make fine adjustments on caliper brakes, sand, prime, and paint a bike, grease and reassemble the crank, headset, and axle bearings. I took my time (boy, did I), and I made sure that I did every step of the process just...

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After Pictures (first of many)

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IT LIVES! Mwaaa-ha-ha!

Two big revelations today: 1) I actually have a bike with three speeds now, instead of a three-speed bike that doesn't work right; and 2) I am dramatically out of shape.Both of these came to me today while taking my bike for its first test ride. Let's focus on the first one. After much adjusting and fidgeting and swearing, I finally got the shifter cable adjusted properly (see Sheldon Brown's how-to section on 3-speed cable adjustment--it's about half-way down on the linked page.) The real bugger was getting it adjusted so that it wouldn't freewheel in the middle gear. I now thoroughly understand how to make such adjustments in the future. Thoroughly.For the first year that I had the bike, I never noticed much difference in the three gears,...

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Putting on the Brakes

My task yesterday was to put the brakes back on, a somewhat daunting task because it involved my first-ever cable cutting. I was afraid I would somehow cut in the wrong place and have cables that were too short or some similar disaster, but that part went pretty well. I just used my old cables and housings as a guideline. The only problem came when I actually assembled the hand brakes and noticed that the metal caps the bike shop gave me for the ends of the new cables were too small for my hand brakes. I was able to reuse the plastic cap on one side, but on the other side, it had cracked. ...

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Arr, she's a fine lookin' craft, but will she sail?

That, more or less, is the question. I put the fenders and wheels on today and it was nice to see my bike looking like a bike again, instead of just a collection of parts. I have to admit, I was a little surprised at how good it looks. Damn good, if I may. If it rides half as good as it looks, I'll be happy. I was a little afraid that when I put it back together, it would come out as something else entirely, like when the Simpsons tried to build a pool and built a barn instead. Then, the Amish guy says, "'Tis a fine barn, but sure 'tis no pool, English." Yeah, that's what I thought would...

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Surprise! Reassembly!

I had planned on doing the second clear coat today, and even started on it, but the first piece I coated (the front fender) got all bubbly and cracked and spotty-looking. I think I must have put on a too-heavy coat, but I decided not to push my luck with the other parts. So, instead of doing two coats of clear coat on everything, I'm calling it good with just one. Tomorrow, I'll buff off the botched clear coat on the front fender and then try to reapply it more smoothly. I put a coat of Turtle Wax on everything else, which will also act a protecting layer. Then, I took off the masking tape...

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A Long, Strange Trip

Well, it wasn't that strange, but it sure was long. Three weeks is a long time to be gone when you're a homebody like me. I spent a good amount of time doing research in central Illinois, then another week in my old stomping grounds in Chicago, where I snapped the pictures below. There were so many old bikes around Hyde Park, I couldn't hope to snap them all, but I got a few. It was great to see so many of them being used. Of course, most of them, the chain was squealing, the fenders were rattlin', and the tires needed air, but they were being ridden, at least. Of course, they were usually...

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Light at the End of the Tunnel

10/13-UPDATE. Arg. It's rainy and humid today--going to have to wait on that second coat of lacquer. I'm outta here for 3 weeks. See you in November!Ah, the end is in sight! All my parts and tools for the reassembly have finally been purchased, and today I put on the first lacquer coat, or clear coat. With the exception of one area on the frame which dripped a bit, it went on really well. I had buffed out the paint to a dull matte finish as recommended before the clear coat, and I was really happy to see the clear coat bring back the gloss and deepen the color. For the buffing, most everything I read said to wet sand with extremely fine sandpaper, but that made me nervous, so I used my "0000" steel wool (dry) to do the job, and it seemed...

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Thoughts on a Quiet Revolution

Wired magazine today covers Interbike 2007, the bicycle industry's annual big hoopla trade show, and refers to a "quiet revolution" away from the high-end, high-performance road bikes and mountain bikes that were so popular during the 1990s and early 2000s. People have realized that getting about in the city is easier on a simpler, more comfortable ride rather than a mountain bike with fourteen kinds of suspension or a road bike that practically forces you to ride like you're in The Tour. The article cites the recent rise of fixed-gear bikes especially, with narrow handlebars for zipping through...

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This is Very Cool

File this under: "A Complete Waste of My Time Today"If you'll take a gander at all the do-dads on the right of your screen, you'll notice my new Google map. I created this to chart the many bike rides around the city that I expect to be taking once my bike is up and running. So far, it's only got the ride around the block I took before deciding to dismantle my bike in July, but I hope it will have a lot more so...

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Grumble

Okay, so I'm not a "bike guy." I know this, I'm okay with it. Why then, does going to a bike shop always make me feel like a second class citizen? I've been to two shops in two days looking for the last components, tools, etc. for my bike. Here's how it went.Bike Shop#1: I went here to get my front rim trued, and to pick up new brake cables, bearing grease, cable cutters, tires, and tubes. I walk in the door with my front rim in my hand. Two employees look at me, turn away, and go back to what they were doing. I was less than five feet from both of them. I lingered near the front, near one side of the counter, trying to catch somebody's eye. When someone finally greeted me, I asked if they could true my rim, and asked about the other...

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The Stencils Turned Out Great!

I'm actually a bit shocked at how well they worked. I was going to wait until everything was put back together to post more pictures, but they turned out so well, I had to show them off. There are some edges that need smoothing and touching up with the red paint, but all-in-all the stencils worked better than I had thought they would. I've still got to do the insides of the letters on the chain guard, but I'll do that next week when I do the red touch ups.Here's the rear fender with the "safety" stripe on the back--wasn't on the original paint job, but I like the way it looks on some of the...

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LIYANG ALUMINIUM SERIES AL-550

    PALING DISAYANG. Liyang adalah brand mountain bike buatan Taiwan pertama yang masuk pasaran USA. Mungkin atas pertimbangan komersial, Liyang masuk Indonesia dengan brand "Master". Pada masanya, Liyang Aluminium Series termasuk frame oversize yang paling ringan, karena pasaran sepeda Indonesia saat itu masih didominasi frame ukuran standard dari bahan besi dan chrome-moly.        Sepeda ini dirakit pertama kali tahun 1991 dengan groupset Shimano Deore 300-LX, dan berat keseluruhan hanya 10,5 kgr (Mk-1). Nasib menentukan lain, frame...

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E-x-cellent!

Mwa-ha-ha! My plans are coming to fruition! Don't know why they seem to be evil though...My new shifter, cable, and indicator spindle arrived today from Harris Cyclery. Great turnaround in the shipping, by the way--just four days from the East Coast to Sandy Eggo. Now I just have to get to the bike store to get some bearing grease, new tires and tubes, new brake cables, a quick-release front axle (maybe), a cable cutter, and get my front rim trued. Oh, front rim, why aren't you true?White paint/stencils this weeke...

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Paintin' the Townie Red

I finished the last coat of red paint this afternoon! Some of the rough spots from the last coat have been smoothed out, but there are still some places I'm not completely happy with. Oh well, I'm sure nobody but me will ever notice. Now I'll wait five days (as per instructions on the can), and then do the white paint, including stencils. Then another five days before the clear coat. Then the painting will finally be done. I'm holding off on posting pictures for now, just to heighten the suspense for when the "after" pictures are rea...

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Ow.

Well, I didn't get that last coat of paint on yesterday. And then last night, I decided to go for a jog around the neighborhood. The neighborhood without streetlights. And mostly-even sidewalks, except for this one area, where I tripped and took a nose-dive. Ended up tearing a pretty deep hole in my arm that looks strangely like a gun shot, and getting a bunch of other scratches and scrapes. I'm an idiot. "Maybe you should run in the daytime," says my dad. Yup.So, I'm going to let that heal for a few days before I get back to painting, since it just happens to be my paintin' arm. Moral of the story: running sucks, ride an old bi...

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To Paint or Not to Paint?

Well, obviously, I've chosen the former, but in the process of researching how to paint a bike, I've come across a lot of old bike people arguing that one should NEVER re-paint an old bicycle, so I thought I would offer my thoughts on the subject. The people who argue against painting (or at least painting it yourself) seem to be the collectors and aficionados--the ones who horde bikes in the garage and periodically set them all up in the driveway to look at them. They also seem to be the ones who derive much of their self-worth from flaunting their superior knowledge on various online discussion boards.Their argument is this: there is only one "original" coat of paint, and if you strip it off or cover it up, you devalue the bike. I can...

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More Before Pictures

While I'm working on the paint, I thought I would post a few more "before" pictures that I found the other day. These were taken about a year ago, I think, a couple months after I bought the bike. Right after I took these, I painted the underside of the seat, rubbed the rust off the front rim, and removed the remains of a reflective sticker from the rear bumper. I'll post the after pictures of the same parts when I'm done with the whole project. A little cosmetic work goes a long w...

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On the Virtues of Old Three-Speeds

The following comes from a reader and group administrator for the 3-Speed Bicycle Lovers Group on Flickr. He wrote me a few weeks ago after I posted a photo of my bike to his group, and I've been meaning to post part of his email here ever since. "Hank" does an excellent job of expressing the utility and simplicity of these bikes:"Old 3-speed bikes are built like tanks, and the SturmeyArcher hub is a nearly infallible gearing mechanism. In Boston where I live you see a lot of these bikes stillrunning. Dealers in town can easily sell one of these bikesin good shape for as much as $200 to $300. I'd rather findone for cheap - it's not too hard! In my opinion an old 3-speed is the perfect everyday bikefor riding through the city. When I have...

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Change Is Good

Yeah, okay, I changed the layout again. I think I'm going to try to settle on this one for a while, maybe make a few more minor changes, but basically leave it alone. Since this week's big activity with the bike is letting the paint get nice and dry, there isn't much else to do. It's like watching paint dry. Really.Also, I've been kicking around some ideas about what to do with this blog after my bike is finished. My wife needs a new bike, so maybe I'll have another project to work on. I've also been thinking about just a general catch-all for old bike stuff, but I don't know how interesting that would really be. The other option (perhaps in combination with the first two) is to give voice to some of the reasons (ideological, practical,...

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First Coat of Paint

WooHoo! I got the first coat on today, with pretty good results. I actually did two coats, spaced about 1 hour 45 minutes apart (as per the instructions on the can, which said to re-coat within two hours or wait 5 days). This photo is after the first coat, and the second coat darkened quite a bit and got a nice shine. My plan now is to let these first two coats dry for a few days (probably about a week), then buff everything with the "0000" steel wool very lightly and then do a third coat. Then I'll do the white parts (the lettering on the chain guard and the designs on the fork with the...

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