Reader Project: Margaret's "Mystery English Bike"

Margaret from London writes that she has just picked up a circa-1920s English "mystery bike" that she plans to fix up and get working again. From Margaret's blog:"This is a circa 1920s bike that I'm thinking of buying and fixing up. It's in fairly rag order, but the bits that are most important are still sound. The wheels (possibly including rims) and chain will definitely need replacing, but that is necessary in a lot newer bikes than this one! Look at the brake system, it's amazing! They are called rod brakes, and it's still possible to get brake blocks and everything for them. The bike is...

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Why This Blog Exists (It's not about bikes, really)

I've been stewing about something for a couple of weeks, precipitated by a couple of things. First, a good thing: I needed my front wheel trued a while back, and my neighbor recommended Thomas Bike Shop in South Park. I found their address online and a few good reviews on Yelp, so one afternoon, I took the wheel off my bike and walked it down there, expecting to leave it, as I have had to do in the past at a different local bike shop. It was a pleasant walk through a nice neighborhood, and I like to walk as much as I like to ride, so it was no big deal. Plus, it gave me the afternoon off from work.There were two folks in the shop when I arrived, and they immediately put my wheel on the truing stand and told me it would be about ten minutes....

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How to Change a Tire/Tube

Since I've been doing quite a lot of this lately--what with my front tube blowing out a few weeks ago and just recently discovering (after I got everything put back together again) that the rim was just a teeny bit out of true--I thought I would post a how-to on this very helpful skill. Problem is, that only occurred to me after I'd already done everything, so I didn't take any pictures of the tire/tube changing process. So, instead, I post an excerpt and link to a very helpful article at BikeWebsite:Let all remaining air out of the bicycle's tire. First, try removing the bicycle's tire...

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