Introducing the Bike Commuting Series

There has for a converging variety of reasons been increased interest in commuting and generally travelling by bicycle. As more and more of my friends are beginning to explore two-wheeled alternatives, they've asked me for the occasional piece of advice. Though not an expert, I've decided to begin a series within the Bikes topic of The Miscellanies on "Commuting and Basic Maintenance". My approach will be a very beginner-friendly one. There will be lots of pictures. My instructions will be appropriate to the level of the repair under discussion: "Changing a Flat" will have some tedium for experienced riders. "Adjusting your Bottom Bracket" will assume some basic knowledge, etc. Please leave a comment if there is any particular topic you would like to see addressed in a future post.

Raleigh Sprite, Day 5, or: 'Back on Track'

The frame is primed, but will be on hold for a bit awaiting: decals, final paint selection, buying some big plastic things to hang from the ceiling to prevent dust during application, etc... More details on the process later.

Why BBQ's were invented.

For pizza, naturally... 

We tried our first pizzas on the grill tonight. Excellent, and something we will be doing a lot more of.

Notes: I found some tips (too late) on the blogosphere that would have aided the grilling. The primary thing that I will remember next time is to lightly brown the topping-side (sans toppings, of course) before adding the toppings and beginning the grilling proper. This allows the crust to cook evenly through. Why? Although naturally it's quite hot inside the BBQ when it's closed, it is not true convection cooking. So the tendency is to get a burnt bottom before the thing is fully cooked. I somewhat mitigated this problem by putting the pizzas off to one side, with that burner off, and turning up the other burner to create a more generalized heat. However, in the future, I would not only follow the brown-then-flip suggestion, but would a) heat the grill up hot prior to placing the pizzas on the grate, and b) subsequently put the heat on medium low, and attempt to keep the lid closed for most of the cooking time. The problem is, I'm such a tinkerer while I'm cooking, it's hard not to continually open the lid and see how things are doing. Net effect: I might as well just cook over a campfire, because I'm getting only radiant heat from underneath the cooking surface.

After dinner, we had a great walk/bike ride/trailer ride/running stroller ride.

Raleigh Sprite Detour, or: 'A Short Study in Compromise'

There comes a time in every man's life when he realizes that the dreams of his youth will not be fulfilled...

For some, this juncture passes with little conscious notice. As the great Waters once put it:

Tired of lying in the sun
Staying home to watch the rain
But you are young and life is long
And there is time to kill today.
And then one day you find
Ten years have got behind you.
No one told you when to run;
You missed the starting gun.

In the realm of vintage bike restoration, compromise begins with a slight dread of finishing the sanding job to prepare the frame for paint. It deepens as one realizes that perhaps one purchased the wrong wheels on E-bay-- at a great price, but wrong nonetheless. Soon, effortlessly, the idea of 'settling' develops from being distasteful and demeaning to being 'the practical thing'. If one adopts a certain face-to-the-wind, stoical attitude, the acceptance of "life as it really is" becomes almost enobling. One imagines oneself growing old, having given up greater dreams in exchange for "the middle way". And perhaps one looks back, calmly and steady-eyed, at a life of solidity and function....

No, I tell you! No! Bike restoration is a romantic undertaking, one which calls forth every fibre of impracticality one posesses! There is risk; there is uncertainty; there is the possibility of failure. If not here, then when? Tell me! In what part of life may we put it on the line and shout, "I will live to the utmost of my ideals! I will put aside all duplicity and doubt: I will make this bike perfect, if it costs me my fortune and my life!"

[All that to say, I found a Raleigh--a heretical, 1979, not-made-in-England Raleigh, but still a Raleigh--that is perfectly functional for all of Meghan's current transportational needs. It was a great price on Craigs, so I grabbed it. It will serve as surrogate until I finish the True Article. Incidentally, it has an internal three-speed Sturmey-Archer hub, which both Megs and I really like. So I'll probably do some sort of internal hub for the '76 Raleigh.]

Anyway, the Raleigh Sprite will continue its journey to perfection, but Megs and I will be able to ride together in the interim. (Enjoy the cameo: a special treat for my readers. Both of you.)

Raleigh Sprite, Day 4: "Raleigh Proprietary Threading"

Verdict: Raleigh-specific threading.
Reaction: "I was born ready."


Man hours: 2ish
Project hours to-date: 7.5

Here's the gist of how it went down...


1. Raleigh is a very old bicycle company (118 years now, I think). Back when they started making bicycles, there really weren't standards for part-matching, etc. Also, Raleigh made all their own parts &mdash they didn't just make a frame and shop around for the component mix to put on the bike. The upshot*: they made stuff how they wanted, and everything worked together nicely. One of the particularities was: Raleigh bikes had 26 TPI (threads per inch) threading on their bottom brackets and their headsets. "Big whoop." I hear you say. Well, round about the 70's, things started getting more reg'ulurized. I don't know that there wasn't some sort of guvment innerference. Be that as it may, the "standard English threading", or "ISO" (which is different than Raleigh specific) became the standard threading, and it measured... wait.... 24 TPI. So, you can't screw normal, post-1975 parts into a "Raleigh-specific" bike. So, after weeks of anticipation, I finally had the opportunity (after removing the bottom bracket as described below) to measure the threads on the Sprite's bottom bracket and it is, in fact, Raleigh proprietary threading. There are workarounds to enable modern componetry on a Raleigh-specific bike, but I will outline those when the time comes.
* Odd word, this. Looking up now... OED says that it originated from an English term for the last shot taken in an archery match. Pretty early on it acquired its analogous meaning of 'the result or conclusion of something'. Which confirms my suspicion that archery is an unusually productive source of borrowings, as far as martial sports go.
2. The real triumph of the day was the removal of the bottom bracket retaining cup without the proper tools. In short: I used Sheldon's already jimmy-rigged method of screwing a bolt + washers through the spindle hole, and added to the mix some additional hackery. Sheldon's method: you stick a big bolt through, add some washer and a nut, tighten 'em down real good, and then you can use that friction grip to unscrew the cup. Well, after bloodying my hand again using Visegrips to no avail, I thought I'd give his method a try. The problem: I had no nuts or bolts. And... it had just crossed the magic threshold of 11pm when Fred Meyer closes. But wait... there in my top storage bin was that excrement of vintage bikes: a kickstand! I had removed it from the Sprite when I first started disassembling it. It was held on by a thick bolt. No nut though; the bolt just threaded directly into the kickstand housing. Which, incidentally, turned out perfectly as I had no second large wrench to use. I stacked up the washers, tightened the bolt and kickstand as much as I could, and gave it a go. Even with all that force, the large washers dispersed the pressure enough that they slipped and effectively hampered applying the torque to the bottom bracket cup. Final solution: super-gluing all the washers together, and then tightening the bolt even more. After letting it sit for a half hour, it finally caved. (Another factor: despite indications to the contrary by Sheldon and the LBS, the side I was working on was reverse threading.)
3. There is an imprint of a figure in robes in the middle of the spindle (close up photo). I think it's a code, and my spindle might be worth a very lot of money.