I realised two things working on this bike: firstly, that you can only do so much in the workshop without actually taking the bike out for a ride, especially if you are still getting to grips with how bikes work. Something may look terrible but feel fine when you are on the bike, or it may look fine but feel completely wrong. The tactical experience riding the bike may highlight things you hadn't even begun to think about. Example: I thought we were close to finishing when I took the bike for its first test ride, but once I got on it was immediately apparent that the left hand crank was bent, which felt very strange indeed. Luckily, my boyfriend is an apprentice metal worker, so he took the crank to work and hammered it roughly back in to shape.
Still a little bent though.... might need to do it again. Sigh.Secondly, it occurred to me that restoration is entirely a question of what you find acceptable and how much work you can be bothered doing. You may be a perfectionist who will send a frame off to be powdercoated at the slightest sign of rust, or you may not care so long as the rust is not actually damaging anything. You may want a bike that can perform well at high speeds, or you might just want something that rolls down the street without falling apart.
On this bike, for instance, both the front and back wheels had rusty and buckled rims, but the front was worse than the back. The front wheel could easily be replaced for another, but the back wheel had a coaster brake hub we didn't want to lose. We could have kept the back hub, discarded the rim and spokes, hunted down a new 40-spoke rim (which would have been very hard to find) and re-built the wheel..... but instead we bought some electrical tape and covered up, as best we could, the rusty bits which might have punctured the tube; then bent the kinks back in to shape with pliers. Not perfect, but ride-able.
To give you an idea of the kind of work involved in restoring an old bike to this standard, here's a list of all the stuff we did to it:- Replace the front wheel with a new one
- Tightening the spoke tension on the back wheel to try and correct some of the kinks
- Bending out the remaining kinks on the back wheel rim with pliers
- Re-greasing the bearings in the new wheel and re-oiling the hub in the old back wheel.
- Taking apart the bottom bracket (where the pedals are) and re-greasing the bearings there.
- Taking apart the headset (where the handlebars sit) and re-greasing the bearings on the top and bottom
- Banging back in to shape the left hand crank that was bent
- Replacing the chain with a new one
- Taping all over the rust on the back rim with electrical tape
- Replacing both tyre tubes
- Raising the handlebars and seat to make it a better size for Helen
- Adjusting the front calliper brakes once everything was back together
Some of these jobs were easier than others. Getting the pedals off so we could take apart the bottom bracket was a bit of a drama: bikes of this age have cotters - small tapering pegs with a nut on one side that you hammer in to secure the cranks. Like so:
If they haven't been serviced in a few years they are likely to be difficult to bang out again, as we discovered. We ended up completely destroying one while trying to get it out, and had to saw it off then find a new one.Thankfully all the volunteer mechanics at Mechanical Tempest really know their stuff. They also have a great attitude of 'salvage if possible', rather than 'sell them a new one if possible' as you would get from (some) bike shops. Highly, highly recommended! So much I'm going to link them again.
And also, my bike and I are now slightly famous.
