Carl Fogel wrote:
> Dear Scott and Jacob,
>
> I have no idea what either of you is talking about.
>
> You can't prove a thing.
>
> And I only did it to two or three spokes.
>
> Incidentally, the reinforced cutting wheels will wear down
> into tinier and tinier circles, whose edges will spin
> slower and slower. Don't throw them away--the worn-down
> small wheels will fit into places that new ones can't.
>
> Like inside a bicycle rim.
>
> Carl Fogel
Well I did it. I couldn't for the life of me figure out how
to use cutting discs to cut off the ends of spokes that were
already in the wheel, (even my left over little tiny worn
down discs wouldn't fit) so I used a pink grinding wheel. I
removed less than 1mm from most of the spokes, so hopefully
I will have enough threads left and no problems later on. I
just coulnd't wait till tomorrow to visit the bike shop and
get new spokes, let me explain:
I am cycling on a budget. A very, very tight budget. I have
one bike, and I ride it all year. This winter, it ate a lot
of salt and was in a pretty poor way. I was faced with the
option of trying to find a new bike that fit my budget, or
for slightly less money trying to overhaul my poor beater
(slightly less because there were a lot of repairs to be
done, but I would be able to do them myself, and using some
parts I already had). I was riding around visiting bike shop
after bike shop, mostly being told they had nothing in my
price range, and generally not finding bikes I liked anyhow,
when my poor beater finally died. The freewheel somehow fell
apart (still not sure exactly how). It was fairly new too, I
had replaced a worn one at the end of last year.
My rear wheel was already in a bad way, so simply replacing
the freewheel wasn't an option. I was suddenly without a
bike for the first time in two years. Being someone who
can't stay off his bike for long enough to let it stop
hailing, I stole my moms bike. An old, rusted, 5 speed
supercycle, much too small, unused for years and barely able
to roll down a hill (although it does have a nice straw
basket on front). I got a lot of admiring looks and comments
riding it to class.
Since I hadn't found a new bike I liked, the matter of what
to do became quite a bit more urgent, and I decided to fix
up my old bike. This meant: Building a new rear wheel, with
new freewheel and chain; replacing all the cables; replacing
and repacking the bearings in the BB, pedals and front hub;
cleaning the chainwheels; removing, cleaning, lubing and
adjusting the derailers (the front was seized, the rear was
just really dirty); replacing the brake pads front and rear
and of course adjusting the brakes. I also cleaned off the
frame, and removed all those old bits of string, elastics,
twist ties, plastic clamps and various other things that had
accumulated from temporary attachements over the years. This
process turned out to cost a lot more time, effort and money
than I had expected (particularly time, on acount of I don't
really know what I'm doing half the time), and probably
wasn't worth it, but once I had started I was commited.
Today being Saturday (well, yesterday being saturday) I had
a whole day to devote to the overhaul, but of course that
wasn't enough time. I finally finished all the repairs and
resolved all the unexpected problems around
4:30AM sunday morning. I went out for a ride, fully
expecting my bike to fall apart and probably kill me in
the process, but instead I had a really pleasant ride.
Actually it was a totally kickass ride. When I got back my
new wheel (my first wheelbuild) was still true. I'm so
excited to have a bike with gears that index properly, and
brakes that are adjusted so the cable can come out to
remove the wheel, not so the pads clear the wobbling rim.
It's so nice to be able to stand up on the pedals and not
worry about the chain skipping, or the pedals falling off.
It's so nice to be free of all those damned knocking and
squeaking noises I've been living with since the first
heavy snowfall last year. It's also nice that I was able
to do it all myself.
The moral of the story is to always have a spare bike
hanging around! Well, I'm in the habit of rescuing old bikes
and bike parts that people have thrown out, and it occured
to me that I have enough working parts to build at least one
road bike, and now that I know I can build bikes...
Anyway I felt like I needed to share my triumph with
someone, and since all the sane people in my time zone are
asleep, I posted it here. Now I gotta shower and go to bed.
If I hurry I can beat the sunrise
