Past Projects: Raleigh/Abley Colt

Since I've been working on my project for Tinkernation, mechanical and restoration-themed posts have been pretty scant.  So instead of leaving the blog barren of such material, I thought I'd put down some notes on past projects that I've undertaken - projects that were completed before this blog was launched.  I haven't always done a great job of photographically documenting my work, so images may be lacking for some of my Past Projects posts.  Also, some of these bikes were sold or given away long ago and I may not be able to remember some of the details of the projects.  But I'm hoping that this will be a fun, and certainly reminiscent, series of posts covering a bit of the bicycle restoration work that I've done in the past.

For my first Past Projects installment, I'd like to introduce you to the bicycle that I somewhat lovingly referred to as 'Frankenstein.'  This was the first vintage bike that I ever owned (unless you count an early-90s BMX bike that I worked on for a while and subsequently gave up on).  I bought this bike sometime around 2006-ish from University of Missouri surplus property auction for about 40 bones.  It was made up of a mish-mash of parts from an old Raleigh Colt and an Abley Cycle Works Colt-knockoff (from what I've read, Abley was an Indian company that produced cheap versions of popular British bicycles).  While the bike lacked pedigree, it was definitely pretty cool.  It was a single-speed with rod brakes, and the brake system is what really set this bike apart.  It didn't take much work to make the old bike truly road-worthy.  I trued up the wheels, tightened the brake rod connections, replaced the rusted chain, and overhauled the bottom bracket.  This was, by the way, my first encounter with cotter cranks and I've grown no fonder of them over the years.

I rode Frankenstein around campus for a couple years, until I developed a keenness for vintage road bikes and the old machine spent too much time hanging in the garage and not enough time on the road.  I ended up selling it to an excited college student from Truman State for a very meager profit.  Though I'm glad I owned Frankenstein for a short while, and it was a lot of fun to pedal around campus on, I rarely wish I still had it.  That machine taught me that I prefer geared bicycles.  And the cotter cranks, rod brakes, and other obsolete parts occasionally turned even minor repairs into major challenges.  I learned a lot, though, and that's gotta count for something.

Today's Joyride is Cancelled

Well, folks, the image below is what I found when I checked the radar for our area.  Doesn't look like the rain's going to let up anytime soon.  And we may have some heavier storms intermittently coming through our area.  Thus, today's Sunday Joyride is cancelled.

Also, just a heads up:  we've got some family stuff going on next weekend, so unless we can find someone else to lead next week's Joyride, we'll have to cancel that one as well.

Most Joyriders Ever!

I couldn't believe it. Seven new people joined the Joyride last Sunday! Cody's sister Miranda came up from Springfield to visit us and see David Sedaris, who was very awesome but did not come on the ride. Neil and Holly came with their son and Matt came with his wife Kristen and his sister Kristen. That makes seven first-time riders in addition to the usuals. Not a bad turnout for a chilly, cloudy Sunday afternoon.

 We took the trail out to Twin Lakes again. On the way my camera batteries died. Boo! A lot of these pictures were taken with my phone.

But we turned the kids loose to play while we did grown-up gabbing and snacking.

The little dudes had a great time. It's a pretty neat playground out there at Twin Lakes.

Then we loaded up and rode back. 

Some of us wanted to make it back to Peace Park to catch some Earth Day festivities. I was too cold, though, and wanted to go back home instead. So that's what we did. I love my sister-in-law, btw.
I hope you'll join us this Sunday at 2:00 for another ride. We decided to meet up at Flat Branch Park again, but this time we'll take a tour of downtown and campus and end up at Shakespeare's for some pizza and brewskis before disbanding. 

One shirt, two ways

Hey guys, I got a new hairdo. I decided to go shorter and do some bangs. Cody said I look Asian. Funny, huh? I'm pretty happy with the new 'do. It's fun to play with and easy to wear so I'm pleased.

Anyway, this black button down is one of the most versatile things I own. Even though I didn't really style it differently, I find it pretty easy to reach into the closet and pair it with almost anything. Like a simple pair of slacks I wore today or this pencil skirt I wore last week...

The skirt, by the way is one I haven't biked in before. As a general rule, it's a bad idea to bike in a pencil skirt, but his one has a zipper going down the front of it. For the ride I unzipped a high slit and twisted the skirt sideways a little bit for a modest, if peculiar-feeling ride in. And when I got to the office I just zipped up and headed in.

Both the pants and the skirt are pre-pregnancy items that I kept around just in case I could squeeze into them again. Turns out, I can squeeze into them again. And it didn't even take any squeezing. I just fit into them, which is a pretty good feeling.

My Downton Abbey Confession

OK, I admit it.  I'm a fiend for Downton Abbey.
 
I'm totally involved with the characters and it's easily one of my favorite television shows.  But what really turns be into a slobbering Pavlovian dog are the bicycles.  One of the main characters, the heir of Downton, is cousin Matthew, and he spends a great deal of screen time with a bicycle in his hands.  Although you rarely see him riding one, as he's usually walking his bike alongside the lovely-yet-fickle Lady Mary.  Regardless, the early 20th century bicycles that are used as props throughout the show are totally bitchin' and I've spent a lot of time ogling them throughout the course of the series.

A fairly thorough internet search revealed that there are a couple blogs that have compiled images of the bicycles of Downton Abbey.  Check them out here and here.  Unfortunately, I was unable to find any information on the specific bicycles that were used in the series.  And I'm not versed well enough on pre-war era British bicycles to attempt to identify them myself.  There is a documentary on Downton Abbey called Behind the Drama, which I haven't seen, but I wouldn't count on there being much information on bicycles included.

Oh well.  Perhaps someday someone more resourceful than I can shed some light on the fantastic machines of Downton.  Until then, I'll just keep gushing over every little glimpse of bicycle that the show provides me.

This Sunday's Joyride

This week we're going to do the same ride we got rained out of last week.

Where: Flat Branch Park playground
When: 2:00 p.m. Sunday
Who: You! If you're reading this, you're invited.
What to bring: Picnic supplies - enough for yourself

We plan to bike out to Twin Lakes again for a picnic. When we come back we'll probably meander around and explore the Earth Day festivities if our toddler allows us to do that. It's been too long since we went on a Joyride so we're really looking forward to this one.

Hope to see you Sunday!

Leftovers

I've been out sick, but here's an outfit I wore on the bike last week.

Trench, mittens and tights for the commute and a simple wrap dress and boots for the office.

On the Auction Block: 1972 Raleigh Record

UPDATE:  THIS BIKE HAS BEEN SOLD

Price:  $250, Size:  56 cm

 
With a heavy heart, I've decided to sell my 1972 Raleigh Record road bike.  This rig has served me faithfully for commuting and recreational rides for years, but with my latest project finished, it's not getting much use and it deserves better than to collect dust in my garage.  I bought what was left of this bike circa 2007-2008.  I really wish that I would've had the presence of mind to snap some pictures of this bike as soon as I brought it home, because I quickly realized that it wasn't even worth the gas needed to haul it to the dump.  But I stubbornly pressed on with the restoration anyways.  I'm glad I did; this has been a great bike.  I worked on it continually - adding, rebuilding, and altering things here and there - until it came to its current state a couple years ago.

Here is a comprehensive list of the major changes and replacements that brought this bike back to life.  The old wheels were in piss poor shape, so they were recycled.  In their place, I bolted on a set of brand new wheels with Alex rims and a cheap Falcon freewheel (I've found that I like the Falcon freewheels better than the Shimano freewheels because they're well built and simple, whereas Shimano always tries to church things up).  I also slapped some new rim strips, tubes, and rubber onto the wheels.  The biggest investment for this rebuild was the drivetrain.  I ripped out the shitty old cotter cranks and axle a while back and had a Phil Wood press-fit bottom bracket installed, along with a lightly used Sugino crankset.  And since there was no way I was putting the old rusty pedals on my sweet new cranks, I added some shiny new MKS Sylvan road pedals.  The original leather saddle on the bike had completely disintegrated, so I replaced it with a Brooks CR-3 vinyl saddle.  It's not as fancy as a nice leather saddle, but it's super comfortable, looks pretty nice, and I don't have to fuss over it like I do the leather saddles that are on a couple of our other bikes.  And of course the bars were retaped - several times now - and the cables and housing were all ripped out and rerun.

I can't stress enough how well dialed in this machine is.  It's comfortable, fluid, and shifts smoothly.  I should note that the hubs should probably be repacked sometime soon and it may need new rubber sometime in the next couple years depending on how heavily it's used.  I left the frame in the state that it was in when I bought it, so it's pretty beat up.  I thought that might be a bit of a theft-deterrent.  But while there are a number of chips and scratches, there's no observable rust.  Oh, and those halfsy toe clips in the pictures don't come with the bike.  Those are all mine.

The frame size is 56 cm.  I'm about 5'8" and the bike is definitely a little big for me.  I guess I'd recommend it for someone 5'9"-6' or thereabouts.

I'm asking $250 for this bike.  I'd like to get more out of it, since this doesn't come close to covering the cost for the parts that I put into it, but I just don't think it would be reasonable to ask any more than that for an old bike.  So if you're interested, shoot me an email at cyclelikeastringer@gmail.com and we'll set up a test ride.

Attention Joyriders

Given that the weather is lousy and I woke up with a terrible case of the yucks, today's ride is canceled.

See you next Sunday!

Get psyched for the Joyride

Joyride. Sunday. Two o'clock. Flat Branch Park playground. Get psyched. PSYCHED!

Everybody is welcome so bring your special lady, your special dude, your parents and/or your kids. We're going to meander from Flat Branch Park to Twin Lakes, where we will picnic, and then we will ride back. Bring enough food and drink for yourself if you want to eat something. We don't expect you to feed everybody.

There is a chance of rain on Sunday. If it's raining, one of us (probably Cody) will stay at home with the little dude. I'll be there at the park, though, to meet you and we can decide together whether we want to embark on a possibly-messy-though-joyful trail ride.

See you Sunday!

Easy outfit

Really, a boxy top, skinny pants, heels and some kind of shiny bauble is all really need when I'm rushing to get out the door. It was sort of chilly this morning so I threw on a hoodie and some socks for the morning commute.

I'm baaaack

I've been riding to work like crazy, but have been running out of time to take pictures of myself before I head out. And the last couple times I did take a picture I neglected to upload it. So, here are a couple things I wore recently.

This is the dress I demanded from Cody for Valentine's day. It's so perfect. I love it. I did take the seam ripper to the sleeves, which came with an extra poof at the ends that did some odd things to my arms, which are short like the rest of me. We all know it got really hot recently, and this dress was great for keeping me comfortable both on the bike and in the office.

I also jumped on the hi-lo bandwagon. I saw one on Tanesha over at Girl With Curves, and snapped a not-too-dramatic one up from Target. Not everyone loves this hemline, according to the most recent Tribune style poll, but I obviously love sheer fabric and this makes me feel so, so pretty. It flutters nicely on the bike, too. The slip keeps me covered, and the sheer layer goes flying about merrily. Very fun.

The Trailing Joyride

I don't often ride on the trail. Maybe because I normally ride solely for transportation, and we don't live close to the trail and don't usually go to places off the trail. But this ride was so much fun it made me wish I took the trail to work.

We met up with Charlie, Steve, Liz and Kyle over at Flat Branch Park.

Then we rode over to Twin Lakes.

The ride was really nice and very relaxing. One of us found it extra relaxing.

The rest of us had a picnic, which was both delicious and delightful. Hooray for making new friends!

After a while we loaded up and headed back. This was more difficult with bellies full of snacks and beers, but we kept pace at about an 11 mph clip, which was just fast enough to keep a cool breeze on our faces, but slow enough to be called leisurely. Really, this may have been my favorite ride so far.

We decided to cancel this Sunday's Joyride so we could spend a little time with our family. But we encourage you to go out and ride your bike somewhere after your big Easter dinner. I highly recommend the Flat Branch to Twin Lakes ride.

Cody's Reading List: Eye Candy

When I started Cody's Reading List, I was really interested in sharing blogs of a particular type, which Ginger would refer to as 'bike porn.'  I was envisioning blogs that showcased the latest and greatest in custom and handmade bicycles.  Inspired by custom motorcycle blogs like BikeEXIF, Return of the Cafe Racers, and Pipeburn, I was initially tempted to author such a blog.  But it really helps to have connections in the industry, of which I have none, and I'm not even very familiar with the more well-known independent builders, let alone the multitude of smaller shops across the country.  So I decided to stick with discussing my work in The Tinkery and leave the showcasing to those who are more capable.  Here are a few of the capable bloggers that I've come across who are providing me with the bike porn that I so desperately desire.

While it may very well be the ugliest blog I've ever laid eyes on, the Bikeville blog showcases some great vintage and classic machines.  The blog appears to be authored by the staff of a Philadelphia bike shop, and while the page design is an eyesore and the pictures are too small (you have to click on an image, which opens a viewer, in order to see the photos at a decent resolution), the bikes are awesome.  The author(s) has a particular eye for well-preserved classic bicycles and I've noted a number of pre-war machines.  And to top it all off, the blog has been around for nearly 5 years, with regular updates like clockwork for the past 3 years.

Culture Cycles was the first blog that I discovered that really embodied the type of blog that I was searching for.  It has a super-clean, simple design and the photos and videos do most of the talking.  The content is straight badass and spans a wide range of bike-related material; a BMX post is followed by a shoe review, which is followed by a fat bike post.  The author of Culture Cycles also cranks out posts like it's his job, sometimes updating the blog several times a day.  Oh yeah, and he's recently launched a series of posts called Brew Review Thursday.  When I read this blog, it takes all my strength not to burst forth from my office, hop onto my Peugeot, and pedal over to the nearest pub for a delicious beverage.  Bikes and beers; you can't beat that.

If you're looking for a blog that exhibits the most rad bikes imaginable, CycleEXIF is it.  I mean, seriously, look at this bike.  Or this one.  That shit is just ridiculous.  Overall, this blog gets an A+; the photos are awesome, the content is astounding, and the posts just keep a-coming.  The author is obviously very knowledgeable and really has a passion for bicycles.  He is an Aussie, but I won't hold that against him.  If you haven't already bookmarked this blog, do it now.

And one last note:  if you're into restoring old bikes, check out the Classic Rigs and Rides thread in the Classic & Vintage section of BikeForums.net.  It's a great place to get ideas and inspiration for your next project.

How short is too short?

It's a question I struggle with every year when it warms up. How much leg am I comfortable showing? As soon as it gets too warm for stockings, biking in any kind of skirted garment with bare legs just feels different. Even if whatever I have on is perfectly conservative, it always feels obscenely short as soon as I settle into the saddle and lean forward into the drops.

See? This little frock is just fine when standing up like a lady, but hop on the bike and ...

...whoa. Even if this is the same amount (or less) leg than I would be showing in a regular pair of shorts, it's different. Maybe it's that there's essentially a giant slit up the front of this dress or maybe it's that I can't exactly keep my knees together while pedaling. I just don't feel secure going around town without an extra layer for modesty. That's why I like to layer bike shorts underneath my springtime skirts.

I don't want to be that lady biking around town with her panties showing. And it's awfully distracting to be worrying about a hemline during a whole commute, not to mention unsafe. I'd rather just play it safe and sweat it out in the extra layer so I can still feel like a lady and get where I'm going in one piece.