Vintage Japanese Bicycle Restoration

While waisting some time on Youtube, time well wasted, I came across this video about a fellow Japanese blogger into vintage japanese bicycle restoration, namely retr Richard. These old bikes are true works of art with their elaborate decorations and pinstriping that can put even an old English classic to shame!

What is even more impressive is that this enthusiast Master restorer brings back those bikes to life with an insane amount of talent and patience, Check out his blog here: Vintage Japanese Bicycles There are post in English and for whatever isn't, just use Google translate.

The information there and eye candy is well worth the bandwidth.



Don't forget to check out the how-to articles post
and download my free bike maintenance book if you haven't already.

Until next time, ride safe and free.

Gerry :)

How to install a bicycle cargo rack

A bike is a great way to get around and becomes even more practical when you are able to carry some cargo. May it be a bag of groceries or an entire saddle bag kit for touring, you can't get around that if you want to carry your stuff safely. Installing a a bicycle rack is quite simple and anybody can do it. Here we go:

First things first, buy a proper rack. Do not grab one of those cheapy steel racks that you unfold the legs and bolt on your bike by squeezing the the living daylights out of your seat stays. Those press rivets that hold the legs will eventually give out and you'll have to fork the bucks for a decent rack anyways. Unless you already have one and it's free, stay away from those pieces of junk.

For a few dollars more, invest in a lightweight aluminum cargo rack like the one pictured here. I have yet to go through one or see one busted. Just make sure that when you buy it, all the hardware, nuts and bolt are included. It should be.

The first thing you should do is to bolt the legs on the eyelets at the bottom of the frame near the rear wheel nut. This is usually threaded so you can go right ahead with the bolt. If not, use a nut provided with the rack, just make sure that you have enough clearance for that nut between the chain and the frame. Don't go too tight yet, we need to adjust the level of the rack.

Next, pull out the bracket that will hold the rack to the seat stays on top. Bend the bracket if you need to and attach it with the nuts, bolts and small brackets. On this bike I had some threaded eyelets already there for that purpose, so all I needed was the bolts. Check to see if the rack is level, make sure that the installation hasn't affected the operation of the brake caliper and tightened everything down.

click on image for full size

Now you can strap all kinds of things to your bike and ride on safely with your cargo. Just make sure you go around all the bolts every so often to make sure they remain tight.

Don't forget to check out the how-to articles post
and download my free bike maintenance book if you haven't already.

Until next time, ride safe and free.

Gerry :)

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

click on the image for larger view

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  :)