A Failed Jump?

I took my sister's Fuji road bike to my local bike shop to get the brake cables replaced.  There's the possibility that it might need more than just that, but based on how much wear the drivetrain has, I doubt it was ridden very much at all.  The chainrings have minimal wear, the cassette's cogs' teeth are all nice and square, the chain is still good, the brake pads are fine.

While I was in the bike shop and staring at the clipless pedals and wireless cyclocomputers, a guy came in to pick up his bike.  The repairman brought it over, and I glanced at it.

It was a hardtail mountain bike complete with disc brakes and other accoutrements.  The thing that really struck me was the chain was all jacked up, the crank arms were all sorts of bent out, and the rear derailleur was in several pieces, dragging on the ground by its cable.  The repairman told the guy, "You definitely need a rear derailleur and bottom bracket, and probably a new chain."

I kind of felt like asking the repairman what happened, but I think I know.  The guy was riding his little mountain bike on a trail and figured he'd attempt to get airborn off a ramp, or do some sort of a jump.  He stood up on the pedals with the crank arms horizontal, and when he landed the rear tire either collapsed, crushing the rear derailleur, or he lost control and fell on his right side which would also crush the derailleur.  The bottom bracket spindle/axle probably couldn't handle the force of a 170lb guy accelerating towards the earth at 9.8m/s/s and then suddenly stopping, so I'm guessing it probably snapped.  I think BMX bikes are designed to do jumps and stuff like that. Mountain bikes are designed to take spills and everything, but probably not the type this guy had.

Anyway, I thought it was kind of cool seeing that much wreckage on a bike. Personally, when I go to pick my bike up tomorrow, I'm hoping to see a guy with his road bike in pieces arguing with the repairman, "Whaddya mean you can't fix this?! This cost me 4 grand!"

This Bike's a pain in the

So I've had my grandmother's bike for a long time now. Longer than is really necessary, but what with everything that's been going on in my life, it's somewhat understandable that I haven't fixed the Schwinn Breeze just yet.

When I first decided to fix it, I figured the most important thing it needed was rust removal and a new paint job.  But just to be sure, I dismantled the entire thing and found rust all in the rims, the ball bearings were completely shot, the fork was frozen, the actual Sturmey Archer shifting lever was about to fall apart, and the 3 speed hub drained something that looked like tar, and the spokes were about as stiff as you'd expect cooked linguini to be.

In short, I screwed myself over saying I could fix it.

If the amount of problems with the bike wasn't large enough, I'm also coupled with the Schwinn problem.  They made some interesting sized components on their bikes, with the ultimate result that you could only use parts designed solely for Schwinns.  This obviously wasn't a problem when Chicago based Schwinn was top dog bicycle manufacturer in the 50's and 60's. But they went bankrupt and reorganized, and they're not the same company anymore (which means they produce different bikes that have universal components).

I supposed I could replace all the parts, but that presents a problem in itself.  The tires on the Breeze are 26x1 3/8 and are designed for an S6 rim. I was able to locate the tire size through an obscure online bike parts dealer, and found out that although the size was correct, the tire would not fit an S6 rim. And as of right now, I haven't been able to find anyone who carries tires exclusively for the S6 rim.  The crank is one piece and it just sort of "fits" into the bottom bracket shell, which is the hole that the crank arms come out of.  I took it apart and everything looked good, so I packed the cup and cone containing the ball bearings with grease.  And I tried rotating the crank arms expecting them to go whizzing in glorious circles with no evidence of friction.  They made about a half revolution before I heard a crunching sound, and the entire thing started grinding metal on metal.  I opened it up and looked at the ball bearings and noticed that they didn't really seem to roll at all.  They just sort of pushed up against the inside of the cup and froze.  I'm deathly afraid that the bottom bracket shell is some insanely weird size and that no one makes the cup and cone ball bearings anymore.

The wheels are a pain too.  The ISO rim size is 597mm which is absolutely obscure and with the way the frame is designed, if I replaced the original wheels with a bigger size, there might not be enough clearance, and the front wheel would rub against the weird down tube.  But the original wheels are scary enough. There's extensive pitting on the inner rim, and I'm afraid that they'll soon buckle.

And then there's the internal hub.  It's a Sturmey Archer 3 speed, and it was possibly great at one time.  Now it seems to have trapped all the world's evils and dust in its inner cogs.  I took it apart and tried to blast out the old, thick grease with air and WD-40.  Black gobs of sand flew almost everywhere, but they seemed to mostly land on my face.  Apart from the crud, and all hyperbole aside, all it needs is some sort of motor oil to function adequately.  I don't expect the bike to be ridden much, so I'm betting the cog teeth won't catastrophically fail.

I mentioned all of this to my parents.  "Well, just buy what you need, and we'll reimburse you," they said.  I can only imagine what a bike mechanic would say when I tell him, "I need two wheels with an S6 rim."  Possibly, they might say, "We don't carry those, and they're not made any more," or they could be feeling generous and say, "We might be able to scavenge wheels that are in good shape for you," but the most likely response would be, "We'll have to custom make those wheels. It'll be very expensive. It might come to $400 total."

The point is the bike's not worth enough to try and repair it.  A Schwinn Breeze in good condition would probably cost $10-15 just because they were very common, they were mass produced during a long time span, and they're bicycles that are built with the main purpose of getting you from point A to point B with no regards for speed.

Right now I'm just tempted to scavenge a track frame and fork, put some drop handle bars, buy decent wheels with a track hub, put a scavenged drivetrain on there, and a brake, and just give it to my grandmother and say, "Ta da! I got you a new bike!"

Sketchy Old Bicycles

I visited my grandparents today and Granddaddy rode his bike again, but this time Hope and I were with him. He began shouting, "Oh, cuss! The brakes don't work! [Ernie of Bert and Ernie from Sesame Street laugh]." Hope and I ran after him and caught him at the edge of the pasture, and he had that grin on his face that totally said, "Children, that was a Shady MacDougal for the brakes DO work! Hee hee hee!"
And I finally figured out what model his bicycle is. It's a 1972 Schwinn Collegiate without the chainguard. Either the bike was sold like this or he decided he didn't need it.

We also took my grandmother's bike back to my house. Unlike my grandfather's bike which had oxidation and some light pitting, I think my grandmother's bike needs a complete overhaul. Tomorrow I'm stripping it down to it's frame to make sure it's still safe to ride, and I need to degrease EVERYTHING. The most curious part of the bike is that it has a rear wheel hub that has a small chain coming out of it. I wasn't sure what it was; I guessed that it was just some sort of coaster brake, but that seemed strange to me because it has rear and front caliper brakes, and a shifting lever. But, I have absolutely no idea how the shifting system could actually work considering there's no cassette, no derailleurs, no jack squat. It would be kind of funny if by shifting into higher gears with the Archer shifting system that you'd engage some sort of flywheel which would make going up hills easier, but that's just the inner dork in me poking its argyle sweater clad body around the corner.

UPDATE: So it's not exactly a flywheel, but the rear hub is actually an internal gear hub as shown in the diagram that uses epicyclic gearing. I guess shifting by pulling on the shifting lever would change the gear out of a low input gear with large secondary output gears, to a high input gear with small secondary output gears. I'm not absolutely sure how the gears would engage and disengage, but I've got a feeling that there might be some sort of ratchet and pawl type system that would allow all the gears to push together and lock together when you have the highest gear selected, and all the gears separated when you have the lowest gear chosen. I'm not sure; I'd have to take it apart to see how it works, but the only advantages it seems to have is that you'd be able to shift while standing still (which you can't do with a derailleur system) and because it's sealed, you wouldn't have to worry about dirt and grime causing accelerated tooth wear. The disadvantages are that a bicycle requiring more gears and cogs (such as a road bike) would have to have a lot of input and secondary output gears for the rear hub which would end up being pretty heavy, and it would be hard to actually take it apart and put together again if you needed to replace a gear.
And the thing that blows my mind? This type of gear system was developed in 1898 according to Wikipedia. That's 7 years before a derailleur system was developed. I'm not saying it's more advanced than its rival, the derailleur, but it's certainly more complex, and more intricate, and involves more moving parts. What kind of guy would look at a bicycle and think, "Hmm, if I had gears apart from that measly cog at the rear wheel, then I could go anywhere!" and then devises a complex device to engage different types of gears enclosed in a tube? Seriously, if I'd been there, I would've gone, "Dude! Just put a bunch of chain rings on the bottom bracket and cogs on the rear wheel and devise some sort of simple lever that will move the chain from gear to gear!"
Once again, this is a perfect example of simple being better.

Road Bike!

When I was dropping Lara off at her new home, I stared at the bike that was out on her back porch. 27 speed, and I wasn't about to touch it without anyone's permission. It looked like this
and it even with the lever type shifters on the down tube and straps on the pedals, instead of the more common shifting systems that are placed near the brakes on the handlebars and clip on pedals. I casually asked Katie, "How often does your roommate ride her bike?" "That's my bike! You can borrow it if you want to since Greenville isn't cyclist friendly. I bought it at some church sale for really cheap." Hallelujah! I proclaimed, here's a chance for me to try out a road bike. So I've planned a little outing for tomorrow morning to see what it's like. I'll update if I like the bike or not.