Yes! Whenever bicycles are broken, or menaced by International Communism, Bicycle Repair Man is ready!
Posted on 06/07/2015 9:26:39 PM PDT by djf
It took quite a while, but I finally broke down and bought a bike at a garage sale. It ran a total of 30 bucks.
It's a twelve speed Spalding Blade manufactured in Taiwan.
So yesterday I decided to ride it a bit (about 2 miles) and did. It was VERY off, and I knew I would have some work to do - probably a LOT of work!
The seat was too low - I need to be fully extended on my downthrust, so I adjusted it. Then, I looked at the tires and what a mess... I spent this morning going to a bike shop, and bought two spankin brand new ones... and a tube, just in case.
Took me two hours or so to change out the tires, after cleaning up the rims, etc.
So then I have to adjust the brakes, which I do. I tried the same ride once again, and it was much smoother, more enjoyable.
So now I basically have the shifters to deal with (clean up, resetting the range, etc). Also, I am thinking that as ancient as I am, a helmet might not be a bad idea. I rode for many, many years without one... but those days are past.
Well, any questions or suggestions or comments, have at it!
BTW, it's very rural where I live, so I am not one of the jerks you see biking all the time...
At what speed?
You could have got a Richard Sachs custom for upwards of $5K
http://www.richardsachs.com/site/
http://bikeretrogrouch.blogspot.com/2013/11/that-bike-cost-how-much.html
But then you’d have to take out a 2nd mortgage on your home.
Yes! Whenever bicycles are broken, or menaced by International Communism, Bicycle Repair Man is ready!
I recently came to the conclusion that the best sustainable SHTF vehicle would be a mountain bike with a small trailer.
Thanks for your small contribution to the proletarization and Communization of America.
“BTW, it’s very rural where I live, so I am not one of the jerks you see biking all the time...”
I’d suggest some sort of rear view mirror.
I live in a rural area too. Saturday evening I’m driving the 30 mile trip back home from town. It’s a route that gets a fair share of bicyclists because we’re on the ‘cycling map’ due to the annual Tour de Gila. Anyway, I’m about halfway home and I see a cyclist a ways up the road. It’s a 60mph speed limit along this highway. There is nothing around, just me coming up on the cyclist, and he’s heading the same direction as I am. For some reason, maybe he just decided he’d gone far enough, he decides to do a U-turn right in front of me. I had to slam on the brakes and swerve onto the shoulder to avoid splattering him. Perhaps he was suicidal or something because he couldn’t have done a better job at trying to get run over. Maybe he didn’t have any sort of rear view mirror. Thus my suggestion.
As another poster mentioned, a pair of gloves is a must! I’ve still got a good sized bandage on the palm of my right hand from braking my fall in a decent wipe out almost two weeks ago now. However, my bike has a motor.
I'd like to find a cheap used one of these somewhere:
 See video clip - "Solar Powered Quadricycle!" |
Like anything else, the price of high-end bikes has gone up.
But you can find a good bike for $500 or less if you look. Craigslist is good, as are stores that carry bikes by companies like Marin and GT.
There are department store bikes, and they’re more or less crap in my opinion. They look good enough, but if you’re going to put any miles on them, you should probably look a step up. Front suspension is really nice, but rear suspension isn’t needed for most people. Something that can take a light trail is nice, because that means it’ll be beefier and stand up to more uneven streets.
Disc brakes are a must on bikes, in my opinion. They are just miles away from the old style brakes and give you a great deal of precision which only helps.
Spalding bikes used to be sold by Sears. I had one in the early 90s that actually wasn’t a bad bike, but it wasn’t top of the line. I rode it all over Norman, Oklahoma, though, put hundreds of miles on it.
Spandex pants and a goonball hat.
We had a Rhodes Car for several years. It actually was quite fun though not as fast as a bicycle. I sold it with an 800 watt electric motor and controller. It was a very good platform for this type of conversion.
Nice! Talk about inside baseball Floyd reference...
Oh wait....
>>>Just don’t ride it like John Kerry<<<
Unless you have access to a Taxpayer funded C-17 and a crack Medical Team that is.
“Perhaps he was suicidal or something because he couldn’t have done a better job at trying to get run over.”
I can relate to that because we have a Metropark with a main road that has a single speed limit of 35mph and double-yellow centerlines almost all the way around due to that speed limit, blind curves and an abundance of possible turns into and out of the driveways of picnic areas along the main road. It’s only been a month since three 17 year-old HS students tried to negotiate a 30mph turn there at 80+ but they didn’t make it. Two more of their buddies survived the plunge from 40-50 feet over the guardrail and fence into the rocks and a low-flowing river...Only a month later, scattered small groups of bicyclists are acting out by switching from a tandem formation to riding abreast just as my truck approaches their “comfort zone”. This tactic of theirs impedes traffic and it makes the environment even more unsafe for them, helmet and gloves or no helmet and gloves. The majority of these activists are not young people. They tend to be mid-50 to sixty-something and are out there trying to dominate the road, not share it...and to make things worse, they continue to agitate drivers the way they do, knowing full well what occurred there just one month ago. When it happens, it won’t be me, but when it does happen, I won’t feel a thing for the guy on the bike if it ends up being who I think it’ll be.
Good for you. Don’t let anti bike zombies here on FR get to you.
Thanks!
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