Preparing the bicycles for spring

Preparing the Bicycles for Spring

You need to do some work on your bicycles in preparation for a new season, some of this can and should be done before you start riding for the springummer. There are two kinds of work that can be done. First is a rebuild, this is done about every 7-10 years, it requires striping everything down, you basically disassemble and clean everything, replacing parts that are consumable, brake pads, cables, tires and tubes, hand grips or tape, chain, sometimes it even involves painting. I’m not going into this, year as it’s quite involved, the road bike needs to be done next winter, and I may do a series on it. Most years you do more inspection and adjustment then anything else.

First you inspect the bicycle, you’re looking for things that may need work, you air up the tires to the proper pressure, do they hold pressure? You inspect all of the cables, do they run smooth, any nicks or rust, any cables that don’t run smooth or show rust, should be replaced. I don’t use fancy expensive cables, I find inexpensive ones work just as well, put a layer of grease on them before feeding them through the housings, and they work quite well. Use a sharp pair of diagonal wire cutters, and then put an end on them. I often get out the soldering iron, put a little solder on the cable about 3/4cm down from where I want to cut it, to a little past, then after it cools, cut through the soldered part. It doesn’t crush and gives a nice clean end, rather then using cutters you can use a Dremel with a cutoff disk.

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Brake pads should be checked, if they are not used for a long time, they can get dry and hard, you can use a little sand paper, and take the hard edges off, although considering the importance of working brakes, and the fact that they are not that hard to replace, and can be purchased for a fairly low cost, if they are hard, your better to replace them.

Of tires and tubes, tubes are the easiest, simply add air, if they stay inflated, they are still good. However when replacing tires, I always use new tubes, if the old ones still work, then they get placed in the spares supply. Cheaper tubes tend to be thicker as well as heavier, so work better for regular riding, where as thin expensive tubes are lighter for racing. Tires should be inspected, if they show excessive wear or the threads, or cracking on the sidewalls, they should be replaced. Chains should be inspected, set a ruler beside the chain, if 1’ of chain measures more then 1/8” longer then it should be replaced, otherwise, simple lubricate it and run through all of the gears to make sure it is shifting well.

This weeks image is the Mountain bike, it's pretty much the same as this image.  

The bicycle fleet

After last posting, I decided to move to bi-weekly posting, and this is for a couple of reasons, one is to actually allow myself the time to write the postings, keep working on ImageFix and to reduce the number of actual topics I need to come up with.

So this week I will attack the bicycle fleet, I actually have two bicycles, they are quite different beasts, at least they started out that way. First is the 2004 Norco Bushpilot. This is designed as a mountain bike or all terrain bike. 8 speeds in the rear and 3 in the front, although it’s called a 24 speed, it’s really 8 speeds in 3 ranges, Low range is used for going uphill, the middle range on the flats, and high range going down hill. It’s not a particularly fast bicycle, but that may have more to do with the “motor”, more then anything else. It’s a little on the heavy side, and passed the half century mark more then half a decade ago…. The bike needs some work, suspension forks are made for 70kg riders, not 100kg+, so it needs to be replaced or repaired, and they can’t really be repaired. Not only is the motor heavy, so is the bicycle, it’s about 16kg.

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The other bicycle, is quite different, built by Raleigh in Canada, at their Waterloo, Quebec plant in 1975, it’s a classic style road bicycle, it’s built for speed, it has six gears in each of two ranges. These are controlled by manual down tube shifters, thinner tires, and 700C aluminum wheels running Presta tubes, the gearing is quite high, it’s a bike for August when you are already in cycling shape, not when your just coming out of Hibernation, and are at “winter” weight. All decked out, this bike is around 12kg.

The Raleigh was being tossed out by a neighbour, so I essentially got it for free. I completely disassembled the entire bicycle, then reassembled it, replacing some parts like brake pads, cables, cable housings, tires and tubes. The image this week, is the Raleigh upon completion of the rebuild, later the same summer I changed out the shifters, then replaced the 27” rusty chrome wheels with some 700C aluminum ones. This weekend when it’s forecast to snow for 4 solid days, thinking about bicycles and getting out to ride, seems a long way away, but it isn’t. Another month I expect the Norco to see the sun the first time since last fall.