Chicago's Old Bikes

This today from my old stomping grounds, via the Chicago Tribune:It is the great bicycling irony. Some people lock up their bikes and, an hour later, they're gone, stolen. Yet others languish in bike racks for weeks or months, abandoned as their metal rusts and paint job fades. And if you've ever abandoned your bike in Chicago, there's a good chance it eventually found its way to Lee Ravenscroft. Ravenscroft is the founder and president of Working Bikes, a non-profit cooperative that fixes up bikes and either sells them (usually for around $60) or ships them overseas to places such as Africa...

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Why This Blog Exists, Redux

On my post a while back, Chic Cyclist (whose blog I enjoy) makes the comment:I love my old bikes. I ride my old bikes. For several bikes that means changing out some of the old bits for newer technology. There are people who get very upset about this...a subculture who idealizes the "old". I'm personally all for durable technology, which may end up being a mish-mash of parts. What is your position on historical accuracy in maintaining old bikes?That's a fantastic question, and one I've sort of side-stepped up until now. As far as I'm concerned, old bikes generally have two purposes: 1) as working machines, and 2) as artifacts of bicycle history. There are some bikes that can serve both purposes simultaneously, but I do not believe that every...

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Bent Axle

Well, there's yer problem.... So, I mentioned that my ride down to National City a couple of weeks ago brought to light some problems with the Peugeot that I hadn't noticed on shorter rides. Among these, the tendency of the back wheel to migrate ever-so-slightly to one side, and also for the wheel to get a little wobbly at the axle. You wouldn't think it would take a rocket scientist to figure out that the axle was bent, but it wasn't until I took the rear hub partially apart that I discovered the culprit (above). I've ordered a new axle from Harris Cyclery, which I hope will be the right...

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Quote of the Week

Mister Jalopy from the Coco's Variety Store blog reflects on "The Patience of Old Bikes":"Derelict old bicycles have the patience of a giant sequoia as they are absolutely comfortable to sit and rust into the ground. Natural as can be. To rustle these slumbering beasts from their preferred state means the mechanic must exhibit that same patience...Don't get me wrong. Working on a mysterious three speed hub is no Zen exercise of careful consideration and tea sipping. It is a dirty and fairly miserable job of exploding components finding their way into previously unknown cracks in the floor."This might be the finest description of old bike work I've ever come acro...

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Reader Project Update: Margaret's Mystery Bike

I'm totally floored by what our friend Margaret is doing with her still-unidentified mystery bike in London. I posted a "before" photo from her blog last week, and she's done a lot since. I'll post a few pics here, along with some of Margaret's description of her work, but I want folks to check out her blog for more photos and a lovely running narrative of her work. I'm starting to think maybe I should hand over the Old Bike Blog to Margaret! I'm irrationally excited to watch this project unfold from afar, and I hope everyone finds it as interesting as I do.Margaret writes: I'd really like...

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San Diego to National City

So, I took this ride last weekend, and have just now gotten around to posting about it. I've never really taken the Peugeot for a real ride, so I took advantage of a cool, cloudy Sunday and took a spin down to National City (about 20 miles round trip from North Park). I wanted to check out a cemetery down there to see if I could find the headstone of a Civil War veteran I've been researching, so off I went at about 1pm.I biked down along the east side of Balboa Park, through Golden Hill and South Park on 30th Street/Fern Street. I passed a huge Cinco de Mayo celebration somewhere along in there,...

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Frisky Hungarian Cyclists

I found this at Grist today, and thought it was well-worth posting here. If you're watching at work, you might want to turn the volume down, but otherwise the content is work-safe. My Hungarian is a little non-existent, but I'd guess this an advert to get more Hungarians on their bicycles. Or maybe it's an ad for mustache wax...

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