Keeping the old girl rolling

Here comes another post about the Long Bike (Xtracycle)!
It's funny how I can fall in and out of love with my bike. Lately I've been tending not to ride the long bike to work. It just seemed a bit of a drag... a bit too much effort so I'd take the lighter, faster Avanti, which I'd never really gotten comfortable with but was starting to get used to riding.
The Xtracycle felt like it had finally come to the end of it's useful life, everything seemed to be falling apart. The lumpy bearings in the bottom bracket, the warn out rear tire, front derailleur leaver busted... mirror come loose and facing the ground, bell broken... (Ok I'm not too concerned about the bell but it was just one more broken thing!) and it just seemed to take so much effort to ride.. I swear sometimes I felt like I had to peddle hard just to keep it going down hill!

Last week I had to look after my bosses V8, which I drove to work every day. By the end of the week I was mortified to discover that it uses more fuel waiting for the lights to change than our car uses in a week of commuting (OK I am exaggerating but it does suck a lot of fuel!). I also realized after a couple of rushed trips to Palmerston that it is much more likely to lead to speeding tickets than my trusty bike ever would! (Sorry Boss). So on Thursday I was very happy to give the mongrel thing back and start riding my bike again! Once again I took the fast bike but on Monday I'd need to take the kids to school and would need the Long Bike.

Fortunately over the weekend I was able to steal a couple of hours and decided to change the rear tire. After I took the wheel off I attempted to gave it the obligatory spin... Ouch! As I held the axle and attempted to spin the wheel I felt the hard edge of the axle spacer nut spinning between my thumb and forefinger. The wheel had virtually seized! Oh Man! No wonder the damned thing wouldn't roll nice. I felt the edge of the rim and discovered it had worn down to a rather sharp edge... The wheel was straight but seemed to be worn out in every other respect. With no money,buying a new wheel is not an option, I had to try and fix this one! The rim wasn't really a problem, the brakes still work fine and there's no sign of the rim being weakened so I set about trying to extract the bearings. Unfortunately the cogs were stuck tight to the hub and I couldn't separate them until Sunday. Once I'd got the axle assembly apart I could see exactly why my wheel stopped turning! The grease had combined with all the crap which had either gotten into the bearings or warn away from the cup and cone of the axle, they'd formed a thick coagulated paste, the bearings had become impregnated into the grit to the point that they had practically stopped moving! I washed the whole lot in turpentine and then cleaned them up, ready to be re-installed, if possible. As I washed them I notice that the cleaning solution was glimmering with tiny polished specks of metal, not a good look! The axle was warn but I threw the whole lot back together and packed it heavily with grease thinking that my wheel was finished and would collapse on my way to work the next day.

finally I fitted the Schwalbe tire I'd been saving, for good, since Douglas (who I've still never met) gave it to me last October, oiled the chain, replaced the bell and straightened the mirror, ready to ride to work on Monday and fully expecting my wheel to collapse!

After dropping child 1 at school I headed off down Mc Millans Rd... fast! I glided smoothly down McMillans Rd, legs pumping at a much quicker cadence than I was used to! The bike kept rolling past the bridge over rapid creek and felt like I was barely peddling! I couldn't believe it! The combination of smooth high pressure tire and slick, well bedded bearings on the rear wheel seemed to give my bike a new lease! Yesterday I rode again and today I took her for a spin into town and home the long way! She's running like a dream! While I was out I ran into a fella who's had a lot more experience getting the extra miles out of old parts than I have. A couple of days before I'd told him my bike is so warn it's pretty much finished! But now it's like I've become even more intimately connected with it and I can't bear the thought of riding a bike that I haven't pulled apart and shoved back together at least half a dozen times! I am really starting to feel that deep appreciation of this strange art! When I told my friend about my success he kind of chuckled. "With a bit of grease and some oil on the chain you'll feel like you're on a new bike". It's a lifestyle he's been living for longer than I've been breathing. And I know why! This was only a simple fix... 10 minute job really, but the feeling of satisfaction is such a buzz! I know my bike that much better, I had something to do with why that wheel keeps turning. I dismantled it and put it back together... no matter how simple the operation it is satisfying!

As I rode home I thought about how worn the wheel and various other bits of the bike were. The Raleigh was pretty worn out when I purchased it about 5 years ago. The rear wheel I bought for another similar bike I'd owned before it. When I got the Xtracycle I put that wheel on the back, it was still pretty new then but that was back in August 2008. I'd been chatting earlier in the day about how many K's I've done since owning the Xtracycle and it seems I'd underestimated. A LOT!

I'd thought I must have done about 6,000 km in about 4 years but actually it's a lot more.
Here's my conservative estimate:
80 Km per week - (20 km commute per day x 4 days per week. If I count other trips it would be 100 Km)
40 weeks - (52 weeks per year less 6 weeks leave. Yes that's right 6 weeks! less another 6 weeks just to adjust for sick days or those dreadful days when I drive the bosses car!)
4 years - (It's actually less than 4 years but the I think the time I've deducted from weeks is enough to cover)

So 80 Km per week x 40 weeks is 3200 Km
3200 Km x 4 years = 12800 Km

I've probably done more like 15000 but either way it's a lot of miles, a lot more than I'd thought! That's a lot of wear and tear on the bike! No wonder she's starting to groan! 

Softening up

Back to the Xtracycle rebuild!
I posted a while back that the Xtracycle had blown bearings in the center bracket, worn breaks, cracked saddle vynil a busted gear shifter and probably some other things... Well I fixed it all up a few weeks ago and managed to 'soften' up the ride a bit by changing some components. 

OK I better clarify one thing first. 'Rebuild' is a bit of a misnomer. I didn't turn my wreck of a bike into an all purpose all terrain, 'pimped' to the max (I hate that word, pimped, but you get where I'm headed with this right?), urban utility bike. No I didn't really fix her up nice or spend hours rebuilding the bike with expensive custom parts that shine and make lovely click sounds when shifted into position. But I did get her back on the road and and a bit more comfortably than she had been before.

Total cost.... ? Not sure I think it all cost me about $10 and about 2 hours work.
Here's what I did.



(Shimano SIS 6 speed shifter $0 10 minutes work)

I ripped out the old twin leaver rear gear selector with the complicated mechanism and replaced with a basic 6 speed Shimano SIS gear selector. This item cost me nothing, Cheep mountain bikes are all fitted with this style of gear shifter, I just ripped it off a wreck that was laying around. It works perfectly and now I can change gears! I could have got another of those complicated ones from the tip shop designed for a 7 or 8 speed hub but I couldn't be bothered fiddling around changing the gear cassette, besides I'd rather ditch the complicated shifter!


(Second hand Biopace chain-ring & second hand replacement axle and bearings)
For $10 I bought an old mountain bike minus the wheels for two reasons.
1. It had a biopace chainring.
2. The frame was large and I thought it might become my new Xtracycle

It turned out that the seat post had become fuzed to the frame and I ended up ditching it. I did however keep the chain-ring. I really like Biopace. I'm not going to argue the pros and cons, I know some people think it's crap but my old Shogun road bike has biopace and I've always found it easier on my knees than other bikes. Biopace may not necessarily provide more power but it does seem to 'Soften' the experience of riding on my knees!
The Biopace chain-ring did not protrude as far as the original chain-ring so I needed to find an axel for the center bracket that would match it... (The original one was just as worn as the one I'd been using on my Xtracycle bike (Raleigh). I pulled apart one of my old Giant Road bikes and used the axle and bearings from that. I scavenged the best of the bearings from all three sets, crammed in a bunch of grease and fitted it all to the bike. With a few adjustments I managed to get the axle to turn quite freely without too much lumpiness... (Well there is a little bit of a notch but what do you want from a set of bearings that have come from three different worn out bikes?)
I threw the chain-ring on having no idea if it would fit, or work (I don't get the maths, geometry or physics of what I'm doing I just look at stuff, size it up roughly, throw it together and hope for the best). It worked! There's only a couple of milimeter's gap between the smallest chain-ring and the frame, which means the front derailleur can't reach the small ring but I'm happy being able to use the two larger ones.
Now I'm running a Biopace chain-ring on my Xtracycle! Mock me if you like. I'm happy with the result. 



(Replaced brake pads with a little more tread)
I pulled some flash looking brake pads off an old bike at the Tip Shop. I think I paid a couple of dollars for them. Too much really they aren't very good but at least there's some rubber and my bike will stop.



(Flat surface peddle belonging to a Giant Hibrid bike)
Second 'Softening' agent I applied to the bike were these standard Giant Hibrid peddles. I had been using some pretty decent metal peddles which had good bearings and great grip but they were chewing up my thongs! I usually ride in thongs or bare feet and rarely wear shoes, the grippy spikes in the old peddles had already worn holes right through three pairs of thongs, including a couple of emergency replacements I'd scored from the side of the road! I've been riding on these peddles for about two weeks now and the bottom my thongs are completely in tact!

Having replaced these few items with stuff that cost me next to nothing my bike is back on the road full time! The net result of my efforts is that I now have a softer ride.



Major points of softness I have added:

1. Gear shifter - I can change gears... ergo it's easier to peddle than when I'm stuck in top gear.
2. Biopace Chain-ring - Biopace eccentricity reduces the pressure needed on down stroke while maintaining constant drive to the rear wheel. Resulting in less pressure on the knees of rider.
3. Peddles - I don't do hard core BMX or mountain-biking. Flat peddles are fine for urban cycling on a heavy bike. These are softer on my footwear and softer on my feet.

Bikes and poverty

I've been thinking a lot about bikes lately... again!
Having spent the past week crawling from bed to panadol and back to bed I am very grateful to be back on my feet (more or less) and back on my bike! What makes this even better is that just when the long-bike was about to fall apart completely my friend brought back the Avanti (The third new bike I've ever owned!) which I'd left with him about 8 months ago.... and (drum roll please assorted happy crickets and birds) The Dry Season appeared this morning as if from nowhere!

What a great day!

So, this afternoon I spent tinkering around with the kids bikes in the back yard, sipping a much longed for cup of coffee and delighting at the prospect of my eldest moving up to a larger frame. A chance encounter with a local bicycle Wizard also helped renew my enthusiasm for fixing stuff! I even dared to think about the forgotten 4 wheeled project bike I'd left squashed between the canoe and the compost bin in the darker regions of the back!

Time to clean out the bike shed and get some wheels on the road.

This evening I even managed to catch up on some of the bicycle blogs and amongst them I found this an interesting video about a bicycle project that is helping to reduce poverty.

(VIDEO REMOVED)

Check out: The Bicycle City. Trailer from Greg Sucharew on Vimeo.

Since mobility is a major issue for many people I have been inspired to try and find a solution to the two halves of a 4 wheeled bike in my back yard. Let's hope something good happens with this pile of wasted bike.
There's a lady somewhere in Darwin who has a son with mobility problems who would really love to be able to get out on a bike. I promised her she could have this one if I ever got it going.... It's killing me to think it may never get there. 

The 4 wheeled contraption which I hope to resurrect