tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4817618840776532991.post7120502380941755980..comments2024-02-13T09:32:29.609-08:00Comments on bikelovejones: ben's bike: a rebuildbikelovejoneshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16141991025526354179noreply@blogger.comBlogger3125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4817618840776532991.post-51023729887606359702020-04-20T09:35:01.410-07:002020-04-20T09:35:01.410-07:00hi Eric and thanks for your interesting reply.
I ...hi Eric and thanks for your interesting reply.<br /><br />I worked in the industry full time 1995 through 2012, with some part-time forays into non-profit bike work between 2014 and 2018.<br />During that time,I watched as the co-op shop I worked in transitioned from buying, refurbishing and selling strictly used bikes into selling new bikes almost exclusively.<br />Today that shop no longer pays cash for use bikes or parts, in order to circumvent the city's stiffened recordkeeping requirements for dealing in used goods.<br /><br />I learned how to overhaul Sturmey-Archer 3-speed hubs and why to avoid doing the same on Shimano 3-speeds; why Campy was desirable mostly by older men with money to burn, and how to make mixtures of Suntour and Shimano work like butter in the same drivetrain; how to make old junky bikes safe to ride (until taking in those bikes for repair was no longer cost-effective); and in the end I gained and then let go of a sense of snobbery about brands and cache so that, by the time I left Citybikes in 2012, I was able to appreciate a department store bike as a bike instead of calling it a turd.<br /><br />I also worked in the industry during a time when manufacturers began churning out, faster and more frequently, new component groups that wouldn't function with parts from a previous model year ON PURPOSE; where shocks became the rage on COMMUTER bikes (remember that? Ugh.) but shock manufacturers stopped offering tech or parts support on any shock more than four years old; and where disc brake became the new saviour and then became ubiquitous on nearly every bicycle leaving the showroom floor, whether they made sense or not in a given application.<br /><br />That last part was coming into play just as I left. As a shop catering to transportation riders, we didn't yet have a lot of bikes in stock with disc brakes so I actually seldom worked on them. The few times I did I found them to be grossly heavy, fussy and unsustainable because the "pads" -- tiny shards of metal coated with a fine layer of rubber-cork mixture -- wore out t an alarming rate. I left the shop underwhelmed by early mass-produced disc brake technology and remain unconvinced that they solve all problems.<br /><br />And I say that as someone living in the PNW where it still rains quite a lot. I have never had a problem riding in Portland with rim brakes.<br /><br />Since most of the bikes that come my way are either donated, purchased outright for peanuts or abandoned, discs generally aren't a big part of my landscape, and I'm fine with that. As for shocks, one of my greatest joys is replacing a dead shock fork (like the one above) with a plain, boring rigid fork. I often score these from older guys who are selling off the contens of their home workshops -- there are usually a few each week in the want-ads -- and so I get them for a few bucks each.<br /><br />In short, I enjoy the process of scavenging for old stuff and making it work again. Now that I do it for bikes that are donated to refugee families, sold for stupid-cheap to essential hourly-wage workers or fixed up for friends on a budget (like this one), I feel like THIS is why I spent all those years learning to fix bikes -- for people who will really ride them and not treat them as status symbols or wall-hangers.<br />I am slower now -- arthritis and Crohn's have made me slower and less-efficient a mechanic these days and I could not get a shop job now if I tried -- but I am the happeist bike mechanic I've ever been in my life, and grateful I can still do this for all the folks who really benefit from bicycles. <br />Best of all, I still believe with all my heart that bicycles will help save the world.bikelovejoneshttps://www.blogger.com/profile/16141991025526354179noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4817618840776532991.post-83528284753510435922020-04-19T21:23:16.931-07:002020-04-19T21:23:16.931-07:00Hi Beth,
Love reading about your work in "re...Hi Beth,<br /><br />Love reading about your work in "rescueing" bikes and getting them back on the road to needy people.<br /><br />I used to wrench for a Connecticut bike shop in 1980 -1981, this was pre-shock, pre-threadless headset, pre-indexed shifting, pre-mountain bike, pre-suspension. Bikes came in British, French, or Italian threading for bottom brackets, SunTour was king, TA cranks/chainwheels were the rage, and every shop had a wall with TA chainrings hanging on it so you could construct your own double or triple chainring to whatever gear system you desired. "Half step plus granny" schemes brought out the nerd in many of us. <br /><br />Shifters were all down tube, some of us radicals put bar end shifters on our own bikes, and took Raleigh sport touring road frames and had local framebuilders like Peter Weigle braze cantilever brake bosses onto them to create a decent touring frame.<br /><br />Freewheels threaded onto hubs, and debates over center pull vs. sidepull brakes bordered on the theological. We also had a Campagnolo parts cabinet with loose parts so that you could rebuild any Campie front or rear derailleur that was in production as needed.<br /><br />When you're repurposing your rescue bikes, how do you negotiate the wide variety of parts, standards, freewheels, shifters, and bottom brackets now out there today? It seems like such a Tower of Babel today, do you end up with shortages of some parts, and too many of other parts?<br /><br />Just curious what this looks like today...I enjoy your blog posts and admire your continued dedication to "tikkum olam"...<br /><br />Keep up the good work.<br /><br />Eric in Santa Clara, CAEric in Californiahttps://www.blogger.com/profile/10781503322232931529noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4817618840776532991.post-31545875305054237452020-04-19T21:21:50.191-07:002020-04-19T21:21:50.191-07:00Hi Beth,
Love reading about your work in "re...Hi Beth,<br /><br />Love reading about your work in "rescueing" bikes and getting them back on the road to needy people.<br /><br />I used to wrench for a Connecticut bike shop in 1980 -1981, this was pre-shock, pre-threadless headset, pre-indexed shifting, pre-mountain bike, pre-suspension. Bikes came in British, French, or Italian threading for bottom brackets, SunTour was king, TA cranks/chainwheels were the rage, and every shop had a wall with TA chainrings hanging on it so you could construct your own double or triple chainring to whatever gear system you desired. "Half step plus granny" schemes brought out the nerd in many of us. <br /><br />Shifters were all down tube, some of us radicals put bar end shifters on our own bikes, and took Raleigh sport touring road frames and had local framebuilders like Peter Weigle braze cantilever brake bosses onto them to create a decent touring frame.<br /><br />Freewheels threaded onto hubs, and debates over center pull vs. sidepull brakes bordered on the theological. We also had a Campagnolo parts cabinet with loose parts so that you could rebuild any Campie front or rear derailleur that was in production as needed.<br /><br />When you're repurposing your rescue bikes, how do you negotiate the wide variety of parts, standards, freewheels, shifters, and bottom brackets now out there today? It seems like such a Tower of Babel today, do you end up with shortages of some parts, and too many of other parts?<br /><br />Just curious what this looks like today...I enjoy your blog posts and admire your continued dedication to "tikkum olam"...<br /><br />Keep up the good work.<br /><br />Eric in Santa Clara, CAEric in Californiahttps://www.blogger.com/profile/10781503322232931529noreply@blogger.com