I bought a bike! (bicycle)

djf

[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...

[hal ogen]

No problems with the frames. One the first, the rear bearings wore out. On the second, the front brake failed. One the third, the seat post bent. In each instance, the warranty place sent me a full refund and I got to keep the bike. Not bad.

[ExCTCitizen]

My son's bike is at the bike shop 🚲, his derailleur needs adjustment and his wheel is slightly bent. I do lots of repair myself, but truing is not my forte. The bike shop I use is about 100 years old. Good shop.

[Monterrosa-24]

I’ll ad Trek Bicycles to the long list of Leftist companies that I try to avoid.

I’ve never caught on to adjusting gears and breaks well on bikes. I should have taken classes in it long ago.

[Carthego delenda est]

As a few posters have mentioned, some sort of flat proofing is a great idea. In my area there is a low growing vining plant called referred to as Goat Heads or Puncture Vine. It tends to be incredibly invasive. Anybody who lives in an area where it grows is very familiar with it because they’ll have had many flats on any small inflatable wheels they own. As others have suggested, you could buy specially made liners to try and cut down on flats, but after having repaired dozens and dozens of flats due to Goat Heads I’ve come up with a standard procedure I use for ALL my small inflatable tires. Rather than buying a liner, I use an old innertube made for the size wheel I am working on. Using a pair of scissors, I cut the inner two thirds of the old innertube away, so I am left with a piece that fits around the outer circumference of the new tube. After installing the liner and new tube, I use a product called “Slime”, adding the recommended amount into the new tube. With the combination of the home made liner and the green slime, rarely do I ever get another flat on that wheel. At worst, it may develop a very slow leak requiring a bit of added air every few months. The website for the green slime is www.slime.com BTW, I’ve found that my homemade liners actually tend to work better than the expensive Kevlar ones for some reason.

[cicero2k]

Great explanation and tip. My repair was using a rubber layer similar to what you suggest, though professionally installed.

These spurs are all over and for my Golden Retriever, particularly uncomfortable ingested.

[samtheman]

When you say rural, is it wide-open, wide-road rural, with lots of visibility for you and the occasional vehicle, or is it hilly, curvy, wooded, narrow-laned, no-shouldered?

If the later, please be careful.

[hecticskeptic]

Incidentally, in the interest of ‘being green’, a lot of communities have put money into ‘recycle cycle’ and ‘bicycle resource’ shops where people can bring in their bikes and fix them there free of charge. Quite often, these are places where bikes are donated and then fixed up by volunteers as a community service. I’ve used the local one to me quite often as they have a great supply of hard to find parts for old bikes but I’ve also looked at some of the used bikes they have for sale. They usually are dirt cheap with the understanding that you will eventually just give it back to them when you are done with it. If you don’t want to spend much money, these are an option until you get cycling enough again that you know what you want if you want to spend some money.

One piece of advice I have which was gained after years of experience and it basically is this…. never repair spokes in a wheel unless it is an emergency somewhere and you don’t have access to a new wheel. Spokes fail because of fatigue and once the first one goes, it is a sign that the next ones are soon to fail also. The best thing to do when the first one fails is always just replace the wheel and throw the old one out. Essentially, when the first one fails it is at the leading edge of the bell curve….. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Normal_distribution

[ogen hal]

I live in S Ut so it depends...hills & mountains.

[ken5050]

Here in flat Florida I have to go 30 miles to find a little hill

[djf]

Well I adjusted the front derailleurs today. Between two sprockets, it wouldn’t go into the high one, so I had to tighten it up. That part was easy.
The hard part was adjusting the front brake so the cable would go through a fitting that was designed for it, took a while.

Took it for a quick 3 miler up to the lake.

Finally found my old Schwinn receipt. For a V43, back in 85, it cost 600 bucks. But that bike was seriously tripped out - quick release on the brakes, quick release on the wheels, you name it!

But it was LIGHT compared to this bike.

And since I have now over 100 invested in this bike, I’m thinking about backing off and buying a GOOD touring bike... time will tell...

[djf]

Update:

I bought another bike. It’s a Nishiki hybrid, made around 1993 or so.

Aluminum frame. Quick release wheels, quick release brakes, rotary speed shifters on the front handlebars. 10 bucks!

But it needed work - so I took it to the bike shop.

They looked at it and said they couldn’t fix it.

So I bought the parts and fixed it myself, which at my age is getting a bit more difficult, I don’t have as much hand-eye coordination as I used to.

But it is up to par now!