response 1 of 74:

Jul 7 04:03 UTC 2000

well. I am not the person to ask. I just wore out my second set of tires and
my car only has 55,000 miles on it. 

response 3 of 74:

Jul 8 20:17 UTC 2000

Jim just gave my bike a real overhaul.  I had been complaining of grinding
or scraping noises and wondered if the bearings or raceway that had been in
need of replacing ten years ago might be more in need now.  Turns out it was
everything but that.  He thinks the main problem was the chain, which had
stretched 1/4" overall (1/2?").  Each link was a bit too long and was not
going over the sprockets correctly, so he replaced it with a chain that was
not quite as worn, after oiling the chain by dunking it into used motor oil,
and bending the rusted parts so they would move, and cutting off two links
to shorten it to fit my derailleur.
        He also scraped a lot of dirt off all the sprockets and the derailleur
and other parts that did not matter but looked dirty.  Turned the bike on its
side and brushed off the dirt and dripped some gear oil into the pedals, which
do not have sealed bearings.  The bearings in the part between the pedals felt
okay to him so he did not take that apart this time.
        I replaced a very worn tire a couple of years ago, along with a tube
that had too many patches.  The new tube (from a store going out of business)
had a defective valve so we went back to the old one.
        Oiled the gear change mechanism so it would change gears on the first
try again.
        What I think made the biggest difference was to oil the rear brake
mechanism so that the brake pad is no longer dragging on the wheel.  Jim
insists the chain made the biggest difference.  I can now bike in two gears
higher and get up hills without walking.  Seems like all the moving parts
needed something done to them.  The wheels did not come untrued in the past
ten years (since we built them ourselves).
        We don't normally clean our bikes at all and they keep working anyway.
Jim is thinking of putting together something with an internal 5-speed hub
that will not get dirty, but it is more work to pedal.  He said the sprockets
are showing wear and will eventually need replacing, at least the ones used
most often (around town).  My rear wheel reflector mysteriously disappeared.
This is not a lot of work done on the bike - maybe 2 hours every five years,
and we bike about 5 miles/day not counting special trips, from March through
December.  Tomorrow we are going to a friend's farm to pick raspberries and
my bike was simply getting too hard to pedal.

response 5 of 74:

Jul 10 05:23 UTC 2000

I certainly don't ride my bike nearly as much as Keesan & Jim do theirs.
If the weather is good, and I get up in time, and La Fiesta is open,
I'll often bike there for lunch or dinner - that's at most 2 miles from
home.  The La Fiesta folks have been on vacation, so I haven't done any
riding in the past week.

The most frequent maintenace I need to do seems so be pumping up the
tires, which I do when I notice it's getting harder to pedal and the
tires look flat.  I probably ought to check them more often and be
generally more scientific about it all.  I've lubricated the chain a few
times - basically, when it looks dry.  It's important to keep it
lubricated - besides making it easier to pedal, it also discourages
corrosion, and wear.  Chain "stretch" is a symptom of wear - it
indicates the pivots have worn enough to permit the chain to elongate.
One of the reasons I don't like to ride in the rain is that exposes the
bicycle to a lot more corrosion/rust, which I'd really rather avoid.
Unfortunately I got a small leak in a water pipe right over the bike
over the last winter, so I still managed to get some rust I hadn't
expected.  I think my wheels are going a bit out of true because of
going over bumps; this causes uneven braking, which annoys me.  I
fiddled with the sprockets once to try to fix this, but I think I'll
need to do it again soon.  With the 3 speed I rode as a teenager, I
remember having to do the same thing every year or so.  The plastic
pedals on my current bike are definitely wearing out (it's not so much
wear as poor design, cracks that, well, ripped through and so now I have
twisted bits - it's as if something chewed on them then gave it up as a
bad job.) The bearings for the pedals are also going - apparently they
chintzed a bit on the balls so as it wore, the balls have come lose in
the race and rattle as I pedal.  This may take many years to actually
wear out however, so I may well get tired of the bike first.  The
shifter mechanism is something else that definitely seems to go out of
adjustment with time and getting banged against things - I haven't
figured out what all the parameters are here yet.  I think the front
shifter is more liable to going out of adjustment however.  I probably
should lubricate the cables sometime.  Chains and cables are both things
that are hard to lubricate too often.

response 7 of 74:

Jul 12 18:27 UTC 2000

I think Jim measured 18" and was over about 1/4"
We have a little gadget for truing wheels that you use to shorten or lengthen
individual spokes.  It does not do much for rims damaged by going over curbs.
Jim says lubrication on chains just attracts more dirt.  But he lubricated
my 'new' chain anyway because it was already rusted.  Marcus, if you want to
bike over we can get you replacement pedals and maybe help with adjusting
other things.  Jim enjoys helping people help themselves and we have a yardful
of bikes that should be parted out - take some parts!
It is a nice ride ride from Ypsi through Gallup Park along the river, which
I am not far from (just north of Main St.).

response 9 of 74:

Jul 12 23:32 UTC 2000

But does it pick up dirt and hold it?
My newly oiled (with used oil) bike is way easier to pedal now, but I still
think the main reason is that the brake is no longer always dragging.

response 11 of 74:

Jul 13 07:18 UTC 2000

Yeah, you don't want to true wheels if you don't know what you're doing, or
at least not on wheels you care about.  The "art" to it is to tighten or
losten the spokes very gradually, a quarter or half turn at a time (I forget
which; it's been several years), and to loosen one side when you tighten the
other side.  It takes a bit of practice, but there was a time when I was able
to do a pretty good job of it.  I'm not sure how comfortable I'd be doing it
now.

I tried wheel building once too, but managed to destroy the rim, and then took
the hub to Cycle Cellar and had them build me a wheel around it.

response 13 of 74:

Jul 13 11:30 UTC 2000

(The point to wax-based lubes is that dirt doesn't stick to it)

response 15 of 74:

Jul 13 18:36 UTC 2000

It's just that there are a lot of subtle things to get right; for example,
you want to keep the rim centered over the hub as you do it, unless it's a
back wheel, in which case you want to "dish" it on the side the sprockets
are on.  To me, it's just something I'd rather have an expert do for me;
it'll be much quicker, and the results will probably be better.  I don't
spend enough time working on my bike to want to learn the specialized skill
involved in wheel truing.  I'm comfortable adjusting brakes and dereilleurs
(sp?), though, and simple things like that.

response 17 of 74:

Jul 13 19:46 UTC 2000

When I was a kid and really abused my bikes I was not hesitant to
adjust spoke tensions, especially as they loosened up so fast. Now
that I have not ridden serously for some time, I would have no idea how to
get it "tuned" correctly. It may be, of course, that I really didn't, when
I was a kid!

response 19 of 74:

Jul 13 21:12 UTC 2000

The rear wheel needs to be dished to make room for the gears.

response 21 of 74:

Jul 15 01:18 UTC 2000

A piece of tape on the right size opening?  Jim would be curious to take a
look at Marcus's symmetrical wheel.  He says the right pedal sticks out more.

response 23 of 74:

Jul 18 06:38 UTC 2000

Ok, I'm impressed.  After reading the first part of that, I was about to
interject that the rims were dead.