If you look back, you probably won’t see much of a difference. From the picture, all that appears to have happened is the bottle cage has been taken off, and the bars have been wrapped. But I assure you, much work has been done.

I stripped her down and cleaned every part. Put her back together and ran all new brake and shifter lines. I replaced the brake levers. Rebuilt the headset (steering bearings) and the bottom bracket (pedal bearings). And I took of the bottle cage and wrapped the handlebars.

She successfully made it through my commute on Friday. 6.5 miles to work, on a beautiful morning, 6.5 miles back, in the rain. Now she’s all dirty again…sigh. So her maiden voyage was a success.

She’s not done though. I’m still not happy with the crankset (pedals and gears). It’s not the right size for the bike, so for now I can only use the center gear up front, which means Rose is only a 5 speed right now. I’d like to replace it with an appropriate sized/styled crankset that will give me ten speeds. I can get up hills fine, but I can’t keep pedaling when I go fast…my legs just fly around all spastic like.

I like her a lot. She’s tons of fun to ride. My mountain bike feels huge in comparison. Rose feels like just enough steel and wheels to get you moving through town, and I really like the simplicity of that. Since I like her so much, I plan on keeping her. This means, sometime in the future, she will be painted. I had looked around for ideas, but I think I’m going to stick to a simple flat red. I may recreate the chevron accents just to keep her heritage, but other than that, I think I like the simple red.

Now I have to mope through the weekends waiting for the weekdays to arrive so I can ride her again. Ho Hum.

Filed under: cycling by tonybullard
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So I’ve spent the last couple nights cleaning. At the very least, every part had a sort of hard dust layer on it, just years of being in existence. I’d have to say that the guy who owned this before at the very least went several years without cleaning it.

Most of the issue came from the chain. I think it was lubed with crude oil. Thick black something, that it slung all over the back of the bike. Cleaning it off was no easy task. I took some pictures, but looking at them, it’s hard to see much of a difference. I’m going to blame that on the camera, cause she already looks a thousand times better than she did.

I had played around with the idea of repainting the frame, but I’ve decided I’m going to get her rolling again, and if I really like her, I’ll repaint the frame some time later. She could really use it. She’s got scratches all over her. Some places it looks like the chain ground against the frame for miles. But she’s still solid, and that’s all that really matters.

I overhauled the headset, which was remarkably easy. I had gotten the impression that it’s a place you don’t really want to go, but I found it to be super simple. Maybe it’s just Rose. So that was cleaned up and lubed up nicely, and while I’m no expert, the fork turns side to side nicely, so I imagine I did everything right.

So with all the components clean, I put everything back on. I still need to replaces all the cabling, and buy new brake levers, so the lines will wait til later. For now, I still need to get the crank set off, so I can overhaul the bottom bracket. Unfortunately I’m getting that “one use tool” issue again, and I need a “crank puller.” I’m thinking about just bringing it into the shop and asking them if I can borrow theirs for 5 minutes. Probably won’t fly, but maybe they’ll give me a break and do it for me if I buy some brake pads off them. Then again, I need tools to overhaul the bottom bracket, so maybe I should put it all off till I get a chance to go to Sopo Bikes again. I’ll need to go there to true the wheels anyways, so it’s not like she’ll be rolling before then.

There’s so many things to do I literally have a list so I don’t forget them. Oi. But I’ll still say that a bike is, overall, a pretty simple tool considering it’s usability. So that’s it for now. I imagine the next time I’ll post about Rose she’ll be rolling. Here’s hoping anyways.

Filed under: rambling by tonybullard
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October 13th, 2008. A day that will live, in infamy. Not really, but that sounds dramatic, if not inappropriate.

So yesterday I bought a new bike. Well, an old bike, but it’s new to me. It’s actually older than I am, so I’m told. I’m having a hard time figuring out just what it is. It has “Galaxy” emblazoned on the seat tube, but the front head badge has been torn off, and I can’t find any other identifying marks on it. From what I can find, it’s either a Dawes Galaxy, which is a fairly nice bike, or it’s a “Galaxy” made by who knows. Judging by the fact the the gold accents around the fork and crossbar are simply stickers, I imagine it may be the latter.

But I don’t care where she comes from, I only care about what she can become. I thought about naming her, and literally the first thing that popped into my head was “Rose.” Maybe ’cause she’s red. Not even sure. I don’t know a lot of Roses. There was a very nice girl in high school, and there’s my friend’s daughter, but that’s it. But now there’s a new one in my life, and I’m far too affectionate of her.

So I spent last night tearing Rose to pieces. She’s very dirt. Especially around the chain, which is SUPER greased. So the frame around that chain is literally caked in dirt filled grease. Also, while nothing is rusted, in general all the parts could use a good bath. Since I want to go everything with great detail, I just decided to strip her down and start from the beginning. If for no other reason, this forces me to take every step slowly and paying attention to detail, and have a plan. I’m bad at getting too excited about things and not planning, figuring out things as I go, which makes for mistakes and misspent money.

So for now she’s naked except for the chain and crank set. I can’t get the chain off without a chain tool, which is just a preview of bike building. Lots of tools that have only one use, which you really need. Luckily though, I’ve got Sopo Bikes to help me out with that kind of stuff.

So for now she sits on my garage floor, lonely and in pieces. I plan on overhauling the headset, overhauling the bottom bracket, repairing the front brake lever (maybe replacing), putting in new brake and shifter cables, and replacing the crank set. But none of that will be done before a whole bunch of cleaning.

So I’ll be posting about this whole adventure, mostly just to keep record for myself. This is my first bike rebuild (hopefully not my last) and I want to catalog everything I learn along the way. So this stuff will probably be boring for most everyone, interesting for the technically inclined, and frustrating to those who actually know how to do this.

Go ride a bike.

Filed under: cycling by tonybullard
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