Oh SNAP!

Crap. I was working on the Peugeot and was fine-tuning the front derailure and I snapped the friggen clamp! I thought that I'd just pop over to VO and get a new one. Nope. Out of NOS. Grrrr..... SO thats TWO front Ds that I have busted in the last month! (the other was on a trek MTB). I gotta lay off the 'roids man.

Update:
Suzette Symplex got you down?
Sally Shamino is ALWAYS around!

There are no followers yet. Be the first!

I got the fantastic opportunity to watch a film recently about the exploits of a young woman blogging about a cook-book. Fascinating stuff to be sure. One thing mentioned in the movie was her angst that no one would read her blog. Well, I don't know what medium she was using to manage her blog, but here on Blogspot there is a big box of nothingness right nest to my posts telling me that there are in fact NO followers of my blog. Now, I understand that my bikes are less important than cookbooks to every one except me. I also understand the subtle difference between no body "reading" this and no body "following" this. Perhaps I don't use enough "labels" for my posts and that makes it hard to find. Perhaps no one is interested in reading about some fat dude peddling around the out-lying urbanish suburbs of Boston (and truth be told, I'm sure that it's more the later than the former). A further truth is that it matters not. You see, I started this for myself as an exercise. I want to use this space to document how I feel about riding, and what parts of it are bringing me enjoyment or displeasure. It is a test of consistency and creativity as I am taking a semester off from school and I want to keep my "writing juices" flowing. Only lastly do I hope for some public usefulness from this blog. If something that I did or said inspires some one else or causes them to have something to add or suggest about my experience that would be great. To those ends I am going to add the word "Haverhill" some where and include the links to a few LBSs that I think are worth and one far, far away in Gardner that is more worth than the ones close at hand but is, unfortunately, in Gardner which, by the way, is a fantastic little Bike City. I saw more winter cyclists there in the hour that I was walking around than I have all season in Haverhill.

I picked this little number up right before Cristmas but did not get a chance to really look at her till tonight. She's a Triumph 3-speed, all black and made in Nottingham! Very nice. It came without fenders and that makes me just a little sad. It DID come with a nice looking OEM Brooks sprung saddle and another, non-branded leather springer. I got the hub's little chain un-buggered and pumped up the tires and adjusted the shifter and took her out for a ride. OW! I need to adjust the chain tighter. I didn't want to make it too tight but in the process I left it slack enough that the chain jumped forward on the sprocket and I smashed my knee. I'm not sure that I have the shifters adjusted just right, even following the Sheldon Brown article ( http://www.sheldonbrown.com/sturmey-archer.html ). I need to make a few final adjustments. get some fenders for her and a nice rack, and voila! I can tell you rigth now, just from riding it up and down the hills in my neighborhood, three speeds with a stock rear sprocket is NOT GROVY on the hills.

UPDATE: The little chain thingie was NOT un-buggered. IT was still very much buggered! It looked like this:
Now, I could find no pictures on the internet of the right side of a Sturmey Archer hub installed on a bike so...here it is. Installed incorrectly. That little chain thingie needs to be sticking out of the END of the knurled metal part. Trust me: it works SO MUCH better that way! Once again, here is the chain from an internally geared Sturmey Archer Hub incorrectly installed.

"My" Bike

This is the one. She's my first adult bike and I waited a long, long time into adulthood to get her! That was in, 1998ish or so. I was SO glad that I had her that I barely, if ever rode her. In fact, I have no recollection of having ever ridden this bike until about 2005 or so when a few buddies from work decided that we would start mountain biking at a local park and reservoir in town. That lasted about a dozen rides when we were transitioning between the two and were soundly passed by a hobo on an old ten-speed piled high with plastic bags full of bottles, smoking a cigarette and riding one handed. That wa the last ride of the season for all of us. She has sat idle ever since until this past summer when I thought that I would dust her off and use her to try to get in shape. I have ridden this bike on and off road for training and on errands. I had my first big wipe out on this bike. It's certainly not a high end bike and I think that if I keep to MTBing I'll get a better one this season. I have three old-school road bikes to ride ON pavement and bunch of bike parts in the basement. Who knows what bikes I'll have in the future. All of these bike have their designations. Mostly I identify them by brand name, like "The Peugeot" or "The Raleigh". Only one bike is simply called "My Bike" and that is this one.

She LOVES me!

The best feeling is when you are supported by your loved ones in an endevor that they do not really approve of, but that is important to you. In this case, I am referring to my growing colection of Junk Bicycles. Of the 4 mostly complete bicycles that I own, one works flawlessly, another works prety well and the other two are works in progress. My wife similarly has one that works and one that doesn't. I love to tinker with these bikes. In the kitchen. Now, she has expressed her displeasure with having bikes and bike parts in "her" kitchen on numerous occasions. Most often I simply remind he that bikes are not drugs or strippers and are not, therefore a bad thing to spend my money and time on. Ha! Take that Wife. Well, Christmas came this year and as I opened my presents I found, under my tree, a Park bicycle repair stand!!!!!! Now I can elevate my bikes in free-floating glory as I tinker on them! She's a keeper, that one.

So, about this bike thing. It all started....

... last spring. I thought that it would be a great way that riding my mountain bike around would be a great way to get into shape for riding my dirt bike (motorcycle). I hit a few trails and quickly decided that I was in need of a way to get into shape for riding my mountain bike! I took to the streets. I started street riding with that bike, and old Diamonback Sorrento DX from about 1999 or so. I got to the point where I could go six or eight miles or so in a sitting but I knew that that was nto very far. I knew that people routinely went twenty, thirty, fifty even a hundred miles at a time but it was taking me the best part of an hour to go 12 miles on the MTB. I just don't have that kind of time for getting in shape for the hobby that I do to get in shape for the hobby that I do! I needed a "road" bike!

I passed this information around and, mostly based on information and bragging on the internet from guys scoring valuable bikes in the trash, I thought that I might be able to "find" a nice bike some where. Well, I didn't but a friend of mine that knew what I was up to did. He found and old Peugeot! Very nice. I took her home and cleaned her up and got her running pretty well, if not perfectly, again. I did a little research and found outt hat she was a PRN-10 and that this model was second only to the PX series in the late seventies when she was born. Yep. My bike is older than my wife!

Considering where and when my buddy found this bike and the general condition of it I would have to guess that it was ridden around by a homeless dude until "something broke" and he abandoned it in place. Well, that homeless dude had one sweet ride! The bike was almost ALL stock except for the wheels and tires and they remain un-stock. Sorry to say that this is for one and only one sad, simple reason: the bike does not fit me! She;s about a 52cm bike and at 5'11, I should be on a 58 or even 60cm bike. I AM looking for a trade!

What the Hell Am I Talking about?

Out here. Between. I live between the places where it is "cool" to cycle as an adult who has not drunk himself into a court order prohibiting him from driving. It's not rural enough to attract the throngs of lycra-clad yuppies on multi-thousand dollar bikes clogging the roadways every week end like ou might find in Acton or Chelmsford. It's not Urban enough to attract the the "I have to et from point A to point B" set like Boston and the like are. It's not wealthy enough to attract granola-cruncy, planet saving do-gooders or even compact enough in geography to make cycling practical for many things. Heck we don't even have any descent trails for mountain biking herabouts. But, it is where I live and this past summer I re-discovered the joys or simply riding a bike. THIS is the space I hope to discuss it in!