“When man invented the bicycle he reached the peak of his attainments. Here was a machine of precision and balance for the convenience of man. And (unlike subsequent inventions for man’s convenience) the more he used it, the fitter his body became. Here, for once, was a product of man’s brain that was entirely beneficial to those who used it, and of no harm or irritation to others. Progress should have stopped when man invented the bicycle.”

--- Elizabeth West

Ya boy has neglected his blog for far too long so he’s back with a post about his fresh new hobby. A pretty expensive one, I’ve definitely sank a few hundred dollars into my bikes in the span of 2 months.

Anyways, the title isn’t entirely true, but I definitely know a lot more about repairing and maintaining bikes than I did at the start of the summer.

Back in May when I first moved to London (Ontario) for my current summer research position, I felt that I would need a bike for running errands. My bike at home was in serious disrepair, so I had to get one in London. I never really cared much about getting good bikes, I just went to Walmart and picked out a random bike. However, both of my brakes ended up failing in the span of 3 rides. I returned the bike. PSA: do not get bikes from Walmart. I now found myself, once again, bikeless. I didn’t want to buy one from Walmart again, but the higher quality bikes at Sportchek and Canadian Tire were far too expensive for me (400+ CAD!). I decided to get a bike off of Facebook Marketplace, the holy grail of online thrifting. There are some insane deals on there, man.

It was here where I first laid my eyes on a vintage road bike. Thin chromoly steel tubes gleaming in the sun and a sexy red finish: a 125 dollar Nishiki road bike. Unfortunately, it had been sold by the time I messaged the seller. I instead settled for a 150 dollar step-through model of a mid-70s Raleigh Record. I had to get the order in before my dad pulled up to help me move out (I got kicked out so I had to find a different place, long story), so I didn’t end up looking through any more options.

I was initially quite happy with my purchase. However, buyer’s remorse hit me a little hard. The more I scrolled marketplace, the more unsatisfied I felt. I definitely liked the look of a diamond frame better, and there were bikes out there that sold for cheaper. So two weeks later in mid-June, I bussed halfway across the city to pick up a 1972 Raleigh Grand Prix for 80 bucks. My plan was to swap out the frame and any components I wanted from either bikes and make a nice, personal bike. I’d sell the other one.

I didn’t really anticipate this becoming such a time sink at this point in time, but holy shit I ended up giving myself a second full time job.

Anyways, the seller gave me free handlebar tape, so one of the first things I did was replace the ugly ass original red-black camo tape. There was also a lot of rust on several components, so I disassembled them and dropped them into a citric acid bath.

The biggest issue I ran into was with the crankset. One of the screws attaching the smaller chain ring had come loose, and the chain tension ended up significantly warping the ring. I had to take off the crank arms to take the ring out. It was warped beyond repair so I ended up just removing the ring and turning by bike into a 1x5. The crank arms were held in by cotter pins (like railroad spikes), which is a very old mechanism that was phased out by the mid 70s.

I also replaced the brake levers with new Tektro RL341s. The original brake levers were a little uncomfortable. Some people like them, though. I put them up on Facebook Marketplace for 15 bucks.

This adventure has made me want to fix up the old mountain bikes back home. It’s pretty crazy how much life you can breathe into an old bike with a little elbow grease. Hopefully I’ll post more of my bike projects here.

Until next time, my beautiful readers.