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May 12, 2006
Taught by a bike...
Haha, today I took off from work early to go hang out at the bike shop. I continued working on the Rollfast single-speed bike and it took me about 5 hours, minus lunch and a few other breaks. It's done though. Well, it rides nice, but I did not rebuild the headset like I was planning because I was sick of working on it. There was a LOT of rust on this thing and a LOT of caked-on grease which I had to remove. So I think the majority of Bike restoration is really bike cleaning. But man it feels great to have a clean bike! I did not do as well of a job on this bike as I did on my three speed. Mainly because I lost patience on this one and because I was running out of time. I had to get it rideable again. It's in very good shape right now, but if it's still sitting there unsold next week, I'm going to clean and rebuild the headset and scrub more rust off the handlebars and stem. But for all real purposes, I'm done with it. I'm glad I decided to clean and regrease the bottom bracket because it needed it. I spent most of the time today though on the front wheel which was seriously bent. It's nearly straight now.
Oh, speaking of wheels, this bike had a cross-three spoke pattern, but it was laced over-over-over, not over-over-under. If you've built wheels you know what I mean. I guess on the fat tire wheels they could get away with that because these bikes were never meant to be racing around corners at high speeds. Then again, maybe that's why this front wheel was so bent out of shape. It's solid steel for crying out loud! It would take a serious hit to bend it like I found it.
What is the value of this exercise? There are several lessons in this for me. I'm grateful for the opportunity to be taught by a bike.
Posted by carl1236 at May 12, 2006 11:53 PM | Bicycle Restoration
Comments
I have a question...I was trying to find information on those bicycle sales that the U of M puts on after they removed all of the unused bicycles from the racks, and I couldn't find the info...do you know when they do it?
Posted by: chelsea at May 15, 2006 12:44 PM
I believe they sell those bikes at the Re-Use Center: http://www1.umn.edu/reuse/contact.html
They are open on Thursday's.
If you can't find something there, try craig's list, Express bikes, the Sibley Bike Depot, Sunrise Cyclery, The Hub, Salvation Army, Goodwill, Savers, police auctions, yard sales... Also sometimes I see free bikes on http://www.twincitiesfreemarket.org. I like free stuff. and chocolate. ;-)
Hope this helps.
Posted by: John at May 15, 2006 09:36 PM