Oh the Humanity 2
This weekend was all about prepping the new property for the driveway, foundation and septic and doing a couple of things to the old house that was agreed upon in the sale conditions. I HOPED to get some riding in as well but wasn't holding my breath. Since my parents were coming down on Saturday to help with the clearing (my father has chain saws and a skidder!) I suggested they bring their bikes with them so if we got a chance we could all get a ride in and they'd get a chance to ride something other than their typical old dirt roads. Things didn't pan out on Saturday (although I did get a good ride in myself) but they left their bikes in case a Sunday ride would happen. Saturday afternoon as I stared into the back of the truck with their sad bikes I decided they probably could use a once over. Boy was I glad I did! Here is a quick list of the issues on the three bikes:
- 4 wheels whose quick releases weren't nearly tight enough. Lose enough, actually, for the wheels to be flopping around in the drop outs.
- 1 quick release simply spun closed (still tighter than most of the other wheels though!)
- 2 extremely well "oiled" chains.
- 1 extremely dusty dry chain.
- 3 nearly useless sets of brakes.
- 1 seat that moved in the post.
- 1 valve stem that was about to be sheared off because of a mis-aligned tube.
- 3 extremely long zip ties.
It was a pretty extensive list and those were only the major things that I felt NEEDED my attention. They all could use serious tune-ups as well but I had neither the inclination or time to go to those extents so I did enough to keep my family from dying in the near future because of a front fork augering in at 30 mph.
All that being said, I'm still psyched that my parents and brother are riding so often now (my other brother rides a lot as well) and I'm sure that if I were to look back at my first real bike it probably was in a similar state of dis-repair. As a matter of fact, I distinctly remember getting the "WD-40 is not lube!" lecture from a bike shop employee shortly after buying my first bike.
Pile-o-bikes with my El on top.
5 comments:
Zip ties, duct tape, WD-40. What more do you need? Lets rally Mike again and meet at the 'bowl next week and we'll go squirrel!
sounds like a plan. my squirrel is getting ansy.
On my first mountain bike when I would break a spoke, I just ripped it out and kept going. Then once the wheel was TRULY f*cked I would take it to the shop and say "do you know why my wheel is rubbing like this??"
Wait, I think I did that last week! Just kidding, but I STILL do some stupid things. Good of you to look them over.
j
yeah, we all go through that phase but that doesn't make it any easire to watch!
Need to repair your bike? Then why not visit www.smbbearings.com/BB_BRGS.htm for a great article about replacing your bike's bottom bracket bearings, the photos are a real help too.
Post a Comment