well done, loosenutscycles

nice work...you truly build a beautiful bike!

truing a wheel

this is something i've wanted to learn about for some time. and, one wednesday, the opportunity presented itself. this wheel was taco-ed. the kid said he hit a curb. but honestly, i don't know how you hit a curb with such force and no go head-over-heels-over-head.

people who do this well--experts in wheel building--would probably look at the pics, chuckle to themselves, and figure they could have it operational in ten minutes. but it took me some time. a couple of key learnings emerged.

1. never try to true anything while drinking beers. it sounds like a good idea, and just like in pool or darts, you do get a bit better at it by the second beer. but by beer number 3, you're all kinds of sideways again. best to just put it away and face it again tomorrow.

2. it's counter-intuitive. because the spokes are screwed in from the outside of the rim, and in truing, you're working from the inside of the rim, i believe the adjustments are backwards...righty loosy; leftie tightie. maybe not, maybe i just got lucky. but it took me quite a while of putting this things even further out of whack before i finally figured out what i was doing.

3. behavior change happens in small amounts. even though it appears that you need to make a sea-change of movement, very little gets accomplished by more than 1.5 turns. it's always best to shave a little here, add a little there, and re-calibrate. wash. rinse. repeat. these things take time.

4. give then get. it's easier to loosen then tighten. tighten then loosening provides no real traction. so, if you're moving the rim from left to right, loosen the left side, then pull it right by tightening the right. taking first and then giving does nothing.

5. focus everything by optimizing your time. i could have saved so much time by simply doing what i did after i was almost done.  the spoke wrench has 3 settings. only one fits. and when you're focused on the wheel, the wrench sometimes shifts. by eliminating the other possibilities, i could have spent so much more quality time on the rim.

maybe these tips will help you. maybe they'll just convince you to go to a professional. either way...

happy riding,

OMB

"You never have the wind with you -- either it is against you or you're having a good day." ~ Daniel Behrman

a wheel out of whack can end your ride

tonight's bike repair? a wheel severely out of whack. i don't true wheels. it's too much work. fixing a little problem is fine...i'll do that. but, fixing a wheel that's this far out of whack? not my bag. well, not my bag until tonight.

so, i'm going to true my first wheel. well, not my first. but my first "unaided" truing. the last time i trued a wheel, i had a good friend (with lots of experience) helping me make minor adjustments. this is an overhaul.

ok, i lied. my friend quickly tired of my tire truing triage, and trued it on 'tis own time. he does that all the time. that's why i like to learn bike repair from him. each lesson lasts legitimately ten minutes before he takes over. two words: beer thirty.

this thing was off...and not in the cute way--that people one day reflect on as essentric. clearly, it's in need of repair. i've never trued a wheel. i once tried to true a girlfriend, though. that didn't end well.

so, here i sit, reading post after post on how to true a wheel. my internet is out. so i'm taking notes at the local coffee shop, only to go home and not recall any of them. i'm sure there's a metaphor in there somewhere for my dating experiences, but frankly, i have a wheel to true.

i'm thinking about starting this weekend. if you've got good links, send 'em my way. this looks difficult, yo.

btw: i reached into my pocket tonight to pay for dinner and pulled out a set of allen wrenches. that's just plain cool.


happy riding...it's been raining down here in the ATL,

OMB

"The best rides are the ones where you bite off much more than you can chew—and live through it." ~ Doug Bradbury

the ride was worth the wait

back to the 75 raleigh.

the part came in, and after careful consideration, i decided i'd rebuild the wheel around the new hub. after hours of google web searches, i thought i was ready...or was so confused that i just didn't know any better. regardless, i had two days ahead of me to get this thing rebuilt, and it was on.

upon doing one last read, i decided i'd do both wheels. the first, i'd pay for to have done professionally. the second, i'd do on my own. i got to performance bike in alpharetta about 15 minutes prior to opening...just me, two wheels, an empty parking lot, and a dream.

the mechanic got in around 10:15. he took my order. then he put the rear wheel up on a truing stand. *spins*

"bro, i could do this for you, but i think you're making a big mistake. this is a 40 year old wheel and it's still perfectly true with original equipment...you don't see this anymore. why do you want new spokes again?"

"well, the shifting rod is snapped off inside the original. so i need to replace the hub anyway... and i wanted to go with flashier spokes," i said.

"alright, bro. $70 per wheel, $2 per spoke...how many is it? right... $142 to replace the hub. or, i could do this..." he said.

somehow, magically, he's removed the bad part off the existing hub and the good part off the new hub and transferred the two. wha-lah. done.

"ummm...how'd you do that? i've been digging through manuals for weeks," i said.  apparently, when you've worked on bikes for decades (i've only got a couple years), you pick up a few tricks here and there.

i got it home, replaced the tubes, and adjusted it for it's maiden ride. un-be-leive-ab-le, folks. i'm not saying this was the best ride, but to be sitting up, looking around, and seeing the sights versus canted down and looking straight ahead? i'll definitely be taking this baby out on the weekends.

it's not fast. it's not light. but man, it is a way to enjoy a slow saturday. kinda like brunch, i guess.

so, when's the last time you looked forward to a ride?

until next time, happy riding.

OMB

"I thought of that while riding my bike." ~ Albert Einstein

bicycle "lost"

one of the fun things about living in the hood is how quickly property changes hands... and the ways in which it does.

the first is the "one man's trash is another man's treasure" method. i can't tell you how often i've thrown out bad forks, bad frames, bad rims, etc., that kids pull out of the dumpster, piecemeal onto their "broken bikes" and then ask me to fix. sometimes it works. most times it doesn't.

and i know this because i've already gone through the 6-10 bikes (in parts) i have and made as many swap-outs as possible.

the other way is simply being lifted. ganked. stolen.

my downstairs neighbor borrowed a bike from my next door neighbor two nights ago to commute to work. good for him. one more biker is the rally cry, right?

well, last night he left it out on the porch. this morning, he knocked on my door asking if he could borrow a bike from me. knowing the first bike was missing, i asked him if he had a lock. and if he used it.

something tells me i made the right decision.

happy riding, my friends.

OMB


"At that age, it's one of the worse things in the world to wake up and not see your bike where you left it." ~ 50 Cent

the ebb and flow of the bike business

so, a crazy couple of days. i got my bike part, finally. woohoo!

now i need a hands on lesson in re-spoking a wheel. perhaps i'll call @loosenutscycles or @nobrakesbikes and see if i can come in and watch them go through the motions. it's not that i don't want to pay...i'll pay for one wheel, but i think this is a skill that's better taught than learned by experience.

i was also contacted by two people this week for bike recommendations. one of them may want my help in refurbishing, the other one just wanted me to find her a good bike for a triathalon. and this is where the story begins.

boys bikes are hard to find in good condition. and men's bikes are either expensive or beat down. but women's bikes...there are a lot out there. unless you're looking for a performance bike. women who ride bike... who really ride bikes... are a diamonds in the rough. and they rarely part with their bikes unless it's an "almost new" price.

i recommended to this woman that she just buy new. go high end. and if she decides she doesn't like tri's, she sells for (new price - $500). even though she could probably get a lot more depending on the time between purchase and sale.

kinda sucks that i'm not restoring another bike for her... but, at the same time, i believe this is a better spend of her money. any thoughts?

OMB


"Let me tell you what I think of bicycling. I think it has done more to emancipate women than anything else in the world. It gives women a feeling of freedom and self—reliance. I stand and rejoice every time I see a woman ride by on a wheel...the picture of free, untrammeled womanhood." ~ Susan B. Anthony

another rider, another ride

so, a twitter friend of mine needs a bike. and i found three in his price range on craigslist. can't tell a lot from the pick. looks like the derailer is fubar. but, it'd be a great commuter bike.

i hope he chooses this one. english steel. brooks saddle (worth more than the bike) and solid mechanics. sure, he'll curse it on these warm atlanta summer days, but this is history, yo. it's like showing up to a party in a 57 chevy...people are just impressed that you own one. and that you made it there.

and finally, the peugeot. what biker doesn't want to own one of these? i know, it's french...but this baby is truly a good find. couple that with the fact that it was purchased as a set, and i'd be willing to bet that there are very few miles on it. a rare find.












looking forward to the next bike project, regardless.

until next time, safe/happy riding,

OMB


"Consider a man riding a bicycle. Whoever he is, we can say three things about him. We know he got on the bicycle and started to move. We know that at some point he will stop and get off. Most important of all, we know that if at any point between the beginning and the end of his journey he stops moving and does not get off the bicycle he will fall off it. That is a metaphor for the journey through life of any living thing, and I think of any society of living things."  ~ William Golding (1911-93), British author.