Nice, isn't it? Ok, not so much. It's the definition of a beater bike.I suppose to get to this point, you have to let me backtrack to December. That's when I decided it would be a good idea to start winter bike commuting. Why did I think that would be a good idea? Well, running hadn't been going all that great and there's no snow this year, so skiing takes a lot of planning. I'd been thinking and reading about winter biking quite a bit, so I talked myself into it. It's 10 miles one way to work, depending on how you go and I chose a way that avoided most traffic, using the river bike path, the U of M Transitway and a wander through the U of M St. Paul campus.
This summer, I found an old Huffy Cherokee mountain bike in the trash on my street. All it needed was new tires & tubes, some new brake pads and a tune up. I didn't ride it more than once or twice when the weather was good. But hey, a free bike. I figured I could ride that when there's ice and snow and salt. Well, I can. Just really, really slowly. I am the slowest biker in the world. Fat smoking college boys on fixies pass me routinely. But I get there eventually. It takes about an hour, give or take. There's more downhill on the way home, so that's usually faster, even though I'm more tired.
I rode three days in December, four days in January, seven days in February and one day so far in March. The coldest morning ride, it was -5 degrees. Once I got the layers right, it was fine, and I was only too cold once or twice. Neoprene face mask all the way when it's below 10. Light myself and my bike up like a christmas tree and everyone can see me coming & going. I lost one light when it fell off my bag. There was a spare in the shed.
This mid 1980s Raleigh Marathon has been hanging in my shed since I moved in here in 2009. One of my old softball teammates gave it to the boy sometime around 2006 or so. The boy was riding it to school in 2008 (?) when he was t-boned by a pickup truck running a stop sign. The drive side seat stay was bent into the rear wheel, so it was unrideable. But, this is a steel framed bike...
I decided to see if I could salvage it. I got bronchitis last week and I needed a project. I removed the wheels. I convinced the seat stay to bend itself back into a more tire-freeing position (i.e. cold forged it). Enough so there's sufficient tire clearance, and the tire is centered with the rest of the frame, but the rear brake isn't going back on. Can't get it straightened enough.
I was thinking of taking apart the cassette on the old wheel and seeing if I could singlespeed this thing myself, but it turned out that the crash had broken the axle. The wheel was really toast, bearings from the hub all over the floor. I cut the derailleur cables, took off front and rear derailleurs and took off the rear brake. I bought a new 27" wheel ($59) and an ACS Crossfire 16t freewheel ($27). I reused the rim tape and the tire & tube from the toast tire. Surprisingly, both front and rear tubes are holding air just fine. The chainrings are welded together, so taking them apart was not an option and I didn't want to futz with removing the cranks and shopping for a new chainring. I checked the chainline from the smaller 40t chainring to the new 16t freewheel and it looked good. Small chainring it is. I shortened the chain with the rear wheel as far forward in the (luckily horizontal) dropouts as it would go, then backed it up tight into the dropouts. Straight line from wheel to frame to front wheel and straight chainline. No redishing of the rear wheel needed because I didn't get a singlespeed wheel (it could take a 6 speed cassette). Less than 1/2 inch of chain slack - within tolerable limits. Success!
That left just a few things. No seatpost. No saddle. No pedals. The seatpost from my Bianchi was too big and the one from the free Huffy was way too small. I don't have a calipers and guess what, a tape measure doesn't really give a good read on the inside diameter of a cylinder. Who knew? I bought a couple of seatposts at REI (27.2mm and 27mm), but both were too big. REI had a decent saddle on sale for a price I was willing to pay ($30) and the mechanic sold me a bolt ($4) for the seatpost (also missing from the bike and neither the bolt from the Huffy or the Bianchi's quick release would work). I returned the too-big seatposts to REI and went to the Hub for some more prospects (26.6mm, 26.4mm and 25.8mm). Turns out that 25.8mm was just right ($20). The bolt was also just right. That just left pedals, which I managed to find in the spare parts crate. They look like the originals that were removed for the clipless pedal fad.
But how does it ride? I tried it out today on a short jaunt to the Hub to return the extra seatposts and then to the co-op to get some Breathe Easy tea (and more ice cream). I haven't ridden a singlespeed bike since the 70s (orange Stingray, awesome bike, thanks Mom). Google maps promised me that my route was "mostly flat" and it was. It was pretty fun. The bike is quiet and nothing seems out of whack. The front brake works well, but I have to true up the front wheel a bit so the one brake pad doesn't randomly skip off the rim. I was riding slowly & carefully (I still have bronchitis and feel like walking up the stairs is a big endeavor), but it turned out that my not-healthy, not-breathing-well self was cranking 13 mph on this new singlespeed. That is slow, yes, but a measurable improvement over the 8-10 mph that I can get going on the 18 speed Huffy.
The $140 I spent could have realistically bought me about 2/3 of a new bike, if I shopped hard enough. But this was fun. And C would really make fun of me if I suddenly had four bikes...
