We make it on MAKE's top 10!

Wow what a kick. A recent post on the MAKEZINE blog list the top 10 homebuilt recumbents and 2 of my creations make it at number 5 and 6. Too bad that number 5 was a failure but I did learn a lot while building it.

There are two things to remember when trying to build your own recumbent, the R&D is the fun part and when in doubt, overbuild. You'll always come out on top.

The Bart Simpson fairing served on 2 of my creations. The one pictured being the worst. The fairing was made of Coroplast held together with Duct tape and silicone. I had painted the whole thing black and made the Bart skull from reflective vinyl. It worked great and never went unnoticed. I made quite a few fairings and tail boxes out of coroplast. All of them were inspired by Bill Volk's coroplast craziness page on ihpva.org.

Don't forget that you can consult all the how-to articles here
and you can always download my free bike repair book here.

Until next time, ride safe and free.

Gerry :)

A basic bicycle tune-up

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I have a friend who has this twenty something Rocky Mountain and he brings it to me every year to do the annual check up. I taught some of you might find it interesting to see what the process is when going over a typical tune up for a very well loved mountain bike.

First off this bike and its owner have a very good relationship and it's been a long one. To buy a similar bike today would cost a fortune but the owner throughout the years has made the smart choice of investing in regular maintenance and it has paid off. This vintage bike still runs great and has many great years of service in front of it.

Now to the task at hand, the first thing I do is go over the basic stuff like checking if the brakes work fine, check if the pads are not worn out, at the same time I turn the wheels to see if they are true using the brake pads to eyeball this and check the general condition of the tires. Next I shift in all the gears front and back to see it needs any adjustment. In this case I'm happy to see that all is still in order since last year.

After that I check if the cables for brake and shifters are frayed or rusted. If they don't require to be replaced, I lube the exposed portions using ATF or regular bike oil. I then go over the entire bike to tighten everything that can be, keeping an eye out for less obvious stuff like missing bolts, cracked metal, loose parts or anything out of the ordinary. This is also a good time to see if any of the main bearings are loose. Rock both wheels from side to side and if you feel any movement or clunking, the bearings are loose and require your attention. In the case of the main pedal axle, or bottom bracket, grab one of the cranks and try to shake it from side to side as well. If it moves, grab the other crank arm and try again. If both of them jiggle in unison, you have loose bearings. If only one jiggles, your crank arm is about to fall off. Adjust and tightened as needed.

click on the image for larger view

In the case of the Rocky Mountain the following problems were found: A flat rear tire, a loose cassette, a missing seat post bolt and a few loose bolts on the goose neck. I also had a chance to look over the general condition of the bike and I will recommend to my friend to start shopping for new tires, a chain and cassette for next year. Even though sometimes parts are still good, some may be border line. Taking the time the tune up ones ride gives you a chance to see the possible problems down the road and prepare for them.

click on the image for larger view

Once all of this is done, all that is left is to do is bring up the tires to the proper air pressure and lube the chain and gears (Don't forget to clean everything before you do this) and go for a test ride.

Don't foget that you can always check all of my previous how-to articles here: HOW-TO ARTICLES
And you can download my free Ebook for beginner bike mechanics here: Free Bike Maintenance book

Until next time ride safe and free.

Gerry :)

Free Bike maintenance Book now in Spanish

We live in an awesome world. This morning I opened my email to find a wonderful gift from one of my readers in Chile. Eugenio Valencia of San Felipe took the time to translate my free Ebook on bike maintenance into Spanish.Eugenio told me that he has cycled since he was 5 and that he has covered at least half of his country by bike since then.

Join me in thanking him for his great gift and all the best to you all for the festive season. Take note that the Spanish version is a bit big since it is a Word document. Anybody out there that could convert it to pdf would be greatly appreciated since I don't have the means to do so right now.

Update: Neil Massey, a reader from the US, provided me with a pdf copy which you can download now.

Free Bike Maintenance Book in Spanish .doc

Free Bike Maintenance Book in Spanish .pdf  (Thanks Neil )

Free Bike Maintenance Book in English

Gerry  :)

Cadbury's bicycle factory, not a scam.

Back in September my cage was rattled when someone spammed my comments section with something about the bicycle factory and I ranted about it in a post.

I'm happy to report that I received a personnal Email from a real human being who represents Cadbury's venture to help out people to get bikes in Africa. It's legit, it helps people and they were profusely sorry that the blog ended up being spammed that way. Seems they found out about it by accident and they had no idea that this type of tactic was being used.

I have a lot of respect when people own up to their mistakes and they did. So feel free to visit the site and help out if you can. Here's a brief explanation that was sent to me today from Sara Beckford :

"In a nutshell: Canadians can visit www.thebicyclefactory.ca and enter the UPC from any Cadbury goodie includingCaramilk, Dairy Milk¸ Maynards, Dentyne, Stride, Trident and Halls and watch it magically transform into a virtual bicycle part that will help build a new bicycle for a child in Africa.  Each UPC code is equal to one bicycle part, and 100 UPC codes equal a bicycle. With your help, Cadbury will send 5,000 bicycles to Ghana, Africa.  The factory closes on November 14, 2010.

This is the second year for the program.  In 2009 Cadbury delivered 5,000 to Ghana."

Here's a video about the program as well

Until next time, ride safe and Godspeed.

Gerry :)

STORING YOUR BIKE FOR THE WINTER

I've already published a post about bike storage previously and I invite you to read it here: WINTER BIKE STORAGE.

But over the week end it was time for me to store away my big cargo bike "Jenna Saykwa" and the shear size of it prohibits storage indoors. Off to the shed she must go for the winter months. The humid plywood shed that is.

Since I can't store the entire bike inside the warmth of my family dwelling, I elected to remove some parts that would stay warm inside for those cold weather months.

I used to ride junk bikes made from junk parts, but this one has a nice Brooks leather saddle and an expensive set of cream Schwalbe Fat franks that cost me over $100 for the set. I don't know why, maybe some of you more enlightened about the subject can comment on this, but tires left outside in the cold too long seem to become biodegradable and just rot away.

So I think I made a smart move by getting these parts indoors. I know for a fact that the leather saddle should be treated as if it was a living thing, after all it is made from real cows and it doesn't fair too well when exposed for too long to humid conditions. As far as tires go, I've seen my fair share of rotten ones and I feel that bringing those inside would at the very least not be harmful.

One last thing, I turned the handlebars and removed the pedals so I could make it melt into the wall. Space is at a premium in my shed! I played it smart and left the pedals in the saddle bag. That is the best way to avoid going around like a mad man trying to find them 5 months from now on the first nice sunny day begging to be ridden. It's also a good time to oil your chain and look over the bike for potential problems for next spring.

I know that I have a full bottom bracket rebuild waiting for me next April, nice.

Until next time, ride safe and Godspeed.

Gerry :)