A New Old Bike in Progress

Not for me, but for Mr. Dottie! Thus far he’s gotten by with his Jamis Coda Sport, but has been saving up for another. Instead of buying a new bike, he’s custom building it himself with a vintage frame.

Greg testing the Raleigh

He started with an early 1970’s Raleigh Gran Sport frame that he bought for a low price on eBay. He’s a practical engineer, building it up with components to make the most utilitarian bike for his purposes, including a lot of winter riding. I’ll have a full write-up when he’s finished, but it includes an internal hub, roller brakes, generator lights, and mustache bars. He still has to adjust the parts for the perfect fit and add accessories, but he was able to take his first test ride today. He’s having fun, learning a lot and soon will have the perfect bike that he deserves!

Zen and the art of…oh screw this! Can I ride my bike now?

Some people are into bicycle maintenance. They get a kick out of lubricating derailleurs and messing with thingamabobs. (See ecovelo) These are the same people who spend pretty Saturdays waxing their cars, if they own them. I am decidedly not one of those people. Quite the opposite. I neglect maintenance even when I know it’s wrong.

Sparkling Clean Oma and Betty

Aha! Saddle Position Breakthrough

All this time I’ve been riding around with a poorly positioned saddle. How could I not have realized it?

New Saddle Position

On Sunday I brought Oma to the Dutch Bike Chicago doctor for a regular check-up and to have her studded tires swapped (a task I could not figure out due to the enclosed chain case). He was super helpful with everything, fixing a spring that keeps my handlebars from swinging around while parked and treating my Brooks saddle. He noticed from the saddle’s breaking-in pattern that I was riding too far forward and offered to adjust the tilt. Of course! Once he mentioned it, I realized that I often have to scoot myself back while riding, but it never occurred to me to investigate. I thought maybe that was simply how the saddle was supposed to be, nevermind my instincts. As you can see in the picture, the saddle is now titled up slightly, making the back part level with the ground.

Huge improvement! On the way home I realized how bad it was before when I kept pushing on the handlebars to scoot myself back, only to realize that I did not need to scoot back. Why didn’t I address the problem before someone in the know brought it up? I don’t need to be a bike expert to know what my body is feeling. This super comfy saddle is a lesson learned.

Spring Cleaning

Spring is here for real! Time to swap out the Schwalbe Marathon Winter studded tires for the good ol’ regular tires and clean up the nasty snow grit. On Saturday I spent a couple of hours with my garage set up as a temporary workshop to accomplish these tasks.

Riding Smurfette

While my husband changed his tires, I installed the Wald basket and Planet Bike rack on Smurfette. Now everything is set up – except the bell. I don’t want just any bell and have been trolling eBay for something vintage. I think Smurfette now looks quite snazzy!

Possible Peugeot Project

Le Peug has been well-loved. There are a few deep scratches on the top tube and down tube,  some of which have rusted over — not especially pretty.

Le Peug and friends at happy hour last week

I had been thinking since he arrived that a touch-up might not be a bad idea, so on Sunday morning I read a few posts on bike forum and decided I knew enough to give it a try. The process seemed simple: sand off rust, clean with alcohol, mask (if using spray can), apply primer, apply paint. One of the bike forum visitors even suggested a good match for white Peugeots: Duplicolor White Wheel Paint, which I thought I had a good chance of finding at the O’Reilly Auto Parts close to my house.

So we set out,