response 38 of 291:

Jun 27 15:53 UTC 2002

Jim says you want oil in the enclosed hubs, 3-speed and otherwise.
The 5-speed hub gives you one shifter on one side, acts like a normal 3-speed,
he cannot remember the percentage - up a third down a fourth?  No.  Anyway,
then there's a 2-range lever on the other side, which  essentially puts you
into a wide-range 3-speed with the same middle but two different ends.  To
go up a steep hill you go to wide range and low gear.

The bikes Jim's been working on were already left out in the rain for a few
years by the previous owners so he cannot make them a whole lot worse.  He
says he takes apart and greases things eventually, but to get them going he
first tries oil.  He has taken things apart (that he did not oil) and found
NO grease in them, so oil is better than nothing and he says it washes the
dirt out.  

The internal hub loses about 5% efficiency in the non-middle-gear as compared
with direct chain drive, he heard. 

He has one hub with coaster brake but not 5-speed and he thinks you can get
a combination.  Look for Sturmey Archer hubs online.  The coaster brake hub
can be used with a derailleur, he has heard, but it is currently part of a
3-speed bike.  He had another bike with a shoe brake, a drum brake, enclosed
in the hub, hand brake but enclosed, good for mud, and it has a freewheel and
multiple gears (5-speed cluster but you can sometimes change that).  He kept
the wheel when the frame broke.  He had some disk brakes but gave those away.
Good if you made a heavy duty trailer they are easier to put on the trailer.

Yesterday on the way to the dentist I found two free bikes.  One had a
shredded seat and good wheels and the gears don't work but are the ratchet
type which I like (if it works).  THe other had a new seat but a mismatched
post (the top two pieces did not fit the post itself) so wobbled, and a wheel
was gone, and it has a nice rear rack so we fixed it up for me as we could
not find a long enough seat post for Jim.  The open frame bikes are now being
made with 16 or 17" seat tubes.  6-speed, pink purple and turquoise era, twist
grips, upright handlebars which we will replace some day.  The bottom bracket
is loose and needs to be taken apart and maybe parts replaced, or at least
inspected before tightening it.  Jim trued a front wheel and added that - we
walked there and biked back, carefully.  This bike has working gears and he
adjusted the brakes so now they work too.  

We are going out of the 3-speed business, does anybody want one?  They are
heavy as they all have steel wheels.  Jim may keep the one with coaster brake
to haul large object but he cannot find long enough seat posts for the open
frame style and he does not haul on a top-tube bike.  We should make a trailer
some time soon.

response 40 of 291:

Jun 28 13:22 UTC 2002

Do you suggest trying to pull the rusty cables out of the rusty housings in
order to grease them?  What liner material would be harmed by oil?

Today we are invited to check out Bruce Price's $4.50 for 3 bikes - Huffy and
Murray mountain bikes.  They need a brake adjusted and one wheel which is
quick release is not staying on the bike (and who knows what else).  He lives
somewhere near the top of Broadway hill so we are lucky with today's cool
weather.  Jim will bike there on his own hybrid (purple front fork from
another bike) green Murray and I may take my old mixte frame with the front
basket so as to carry library books.  Does anyone still make mixte frames,
not for only skinny tires?

response 42 of 291:

Jun 28 23:24 UTC 2002

Our cables always go bad at the lever end, so we don't worry about the rust.
Jim had to true all of Bruce's bikes' wheels before he could adjust the
brakes.  He adjusted seat heights and gear shifters.  The main problem with
the rear wheel was that it came from another bike and was 7-speed and the bike
was 2x5 speed so we took a very rusty wheel off their old bike, removed the
bad tire, took the slightly better tire off the other rusty wheel and used
that, and then trued the wheel.  The derailleurs were also bent, etc.  
Bruce has not biked in 20 years or so but wants to get into more biking
again, Rhiannon wants to bike to work (4 miles each way on the bike path next
to Huron Parkway, to Arborland) and Twila has no interest in biking but Bruce
is hoping to change her mind.  She is short so has a 20" bike.  The bids
started at $1 and Bruce had to outbid someone else on one of the bikes.
We got a 7-speed wheel with bad tire to take home.

We found a much better way to come home - a few lightly trafficked roads to
Traver Road, which is mostly dirt, through Leslie Park and a golf course, then
it got bad at Barton Drive so we turned west and then crossed something else
bad and left onto Chandler, which is labelled bike route.  Through a park and
cemetary and then due south to Broadway and over the bridge again.  Almost
no traffic except on Barton Drive, which was bad but had sidewalks.  Not
nearly as steep as Broadway.

This took from 9:30 to about 6 (we stopped with a box full of motherboards
and to drop off library books) after which Jim adjusted my handlebars and
brakes to give a longer reach and we got back around 7:00.  

Chandler will be a nice way to escape the traffic when coming south on Pontiac
Trail, after it gets back into town.  It was actually marked on our bike maps,
but Traver (lovely dirt, no cars) was not.  They marked Plymouth instead,
which is awful - noise and fumes constantly.  We have different criteria, our
preference being for dirt.  

Bruce lives near the big mall on Plymouth Road.  Interesting apartment complex
way back from the road, with lots of large trees, playground, swimming pool.
Jim fixed a useless front brake on a kid's bike.  A while later someone from
the apartment she was going to visit suddenly appeared with three cold bottles
of water on a tray for us!  Nice neighbors.  The bottle fit my bottle cage.
I needed a lesson in how to open and drink from it.  Bruce would like to be
a cook.  Jim thinks he should open a Middle Eastern food store for his
neighbors, most of whom seemed to be wearing shawls and long clothing
(Muslim), or a bakery.

response 44 of 291:

Jun 29 14:06 UTC 2002

Jim will be delighted to hear that it is already in use.

response 46 of 291:

Jun 30 12:58 UTC 2002

I bought a derailleur cable at Great Lakes yesterday, and since I was 
so impressed with it, I thought I'd mention it here. It's thinner than 
the regular cable, and looks less likely to stretch, which is a cool 
thing. Also, it's teflon-coated, so it should operate smoothly and it 
doesn't require any kind of end cap to keep it from fraying.

response 48 of 291:

Jul 1 02:18 UTC 2002

Teflon-coated cables sound good.  In addition to making them slide
easily, it should prevent them from corroding in the first place.

Hmmm, I know that you can get 200-pound test fishing line made of
Kevlar.  I wonder how that would do as a cable material....

response 50 of 291:

Jul 1 13:12 UTC 2002

What are your chances of getting Twila to join you for a short ride?

response 52 of 291:

Jul 1 15:45 UTC 2002

I've found it hard to want to get on my bike when it's been 90 degrees 
every day for over a week.  I've been spending all the time I can in 
the water.

response 54 of 291:

Jul 1 21:22 UTC 2002

With a heat index of up to 105 over the next couple days, I don't think you
should be encouraging people to ride their bikes.

response 56 of 291:

Jul 1 23:49 UTC 2002

Yeah, and by the time you biked back from the lake you'd be hotter and
sweatier than if you hadn't gone swimming at all...

response 58 of 291:

Jul 2 01:52 UTC 2002

We were fine biking to the river Sunday, leaving in the morning and coming
back in the evening, on shady roads, at our own pace, with water bottles
(courtesy of Bruce's neighbor).  Biking is a lot less effort than walking and
you are out in the sun for a shorter time, and the white helmets kept our
heads cooler.
        Someone totally out of condition would not want to start with a long
ride in any weather.
        We were a lot cooler at the river than if we had stayed home and a
quick shower deals with sweat (and we slept well despite the heat).
Independence Lake is under two hours - anyone want to join us?

response 60 of 291:

Jul 2 14:16 UTC 2002

Independence Lake was one hour and forty five minutes starting from my house,
and perhaps fifteen minutes shorter coming back as Ann Arbor is in a valley
(and it was cooler by then).  We can go slower if you like.  And spend a few
hours swimming.  There is a water play area there now, with lots of fountains
to run through.  On the map it is about 12 miles in a straight line but we
must have gone at least 15 to stay on dirt roads, maybe more.  The first part
is hilly (thru Barton Hills) and then there is one long uphill after which
it is pretty level.  I walked up the longest hill.  Another access method is
Newport Road.  Both go to north Main St.
        Perhaps in a month Bruce will be ready to join us, with Rhiannon and
Griffin (who is not yet old enough to ride in a child seat).
        John, if you are free some evening after work please join us (or me,
while Jim builds house) for a more local ride.  We can lend you a bike and
go along the river.  Jim will fix up another larger mountain bike soon (mine
are too short for you).  There is a nice short route that I found - across
Broadway Bridge north, then along a narrow strip of land between the waters
where you can see the fishes and water skimmers and joggers, past Argo Park
canoe rental, along Longshore Drive, over the bridge into Bandemer Park, back
along the train tracks (or thru the park but I did not figure out how).  It
stays light until after 9 now.