I also love working on old steel bikes, such as this one.

Amelia's O'Ridely

As a birthday present for his girlfriend, Nico Monday, a cook at Chez Panisse Restaurant, bought this beauty at the Alameda Antique Market. Amelia O’Riley was a lucky girl. This beautiful 1971 Schwinn Collegiate was in pretty good shape and it just needed a general overhaul and cleaning with a few added accoutrement.

So I set up shop in my one-bedroom apartment in Downtown Oakland.

Needless to say, I have a very loving and supportive girlfriend.

I loved the retro look of this beauty. I definitely wanted to maintain that aspect and perhaps accentuate the starburst icons with a little bit more white on the bike and some great lights. The sparkling green paint job was in great condition and I was hoping to find replacements for the whitewall tires which had succumbed to dry-rot. Not so much. Those specific tires were not made in the last 10 years and were extremely difficult to find. Thanks for trying to help find them Bay Area Bikes (www.bayareabikes.com).

Kenda Blackwalls it is!

Oh well, I was still going to make this baby shine! I deconstructed her down to the frame and found that the headset and bottom bracket were in great shape. The rest of the drive train needed a little TLC as age rusted her a little, but she still held strong as steel.

A little rust, but a lot of love

I changed the cables and changed the cable housing to a white color. The old housing I donated to the Schwinn Bicycle Museum as it was ooooollllllldddddd and installed a new chain. The breaking system needed a lot of work. The rims on the wheels were chrome and while that makes for a pretty profile, it sucks as a breaking surface. Nothing but squeaks as the break arms twist and vibrate as the pads try to hold the surface for breaking. I found some great hybrid break pads that minimized the noise and even used a little toe-in to help, thankfully that did the job.

Now, I’m not an artist at all. I love art and was surprised to have received a B in Studio Art in High School, but I do have vision for my bikes. Unfortunately, I needed a little more art skills. The writing on the chaingaurd was coming

off with just a little water that I was cleaning it with. No bueno. It had already faded dramatically and I was hoping to find a stencil on the internet that I could use to reapply the paint. No luck there either. I was going to have to do this by hand.

I did the best that I could. and I think it turned out well. I used white nail enamel and a small straw and a lot of nail polish remover. In the end, it’s not too bad. Thanks for being forgiving Amelia and Nico.

Now came the accessories. A basket was a must for all the goodies from the farmer’s market. And lights and bell for safety. But I found some great items at Manifesto Oakland (www.wearemanifesto.com) including an awesome retro bell light and two silver bullet rear lights made by SOMA Fabrications (www.somafab.com).

A final clean and presto…..

ouah laah or howerver that is spelled.

This baby was ready to ride!

I know it's sideways, but I wanted to show you those sick lights.

Yeah, one more time for all the cheap seats in the rear.

Working on her made me love those old bikes so much more. Amelia and Nico were happy to have her back and in such shape. I can’t wait to get my hands on one of those old girls again!

Man, was she pretty. A Raleigh Technium frame with hardly a ding in the steel frame or a nick in the paint job. Now, I am sorry I don’t have a “before” picture, I wasn’t thinking about posting a blog before hand, but I know better now. She was running on 27″ Akai wheels (that needed just a little true) with old Akai tires. She needed a more race-worthy saddle; the worn Selle San Marco had seen better days and wasn’t comfortable for Big D.

Tah Dah

Big Red for Big D

I found a great Bontrager saddle for next to nothing on Craigslist and added the water bottle cage and bottle (from Stone’s Cyclery in Alameda, www.stonescyclery.com). I wrapped the handlebars in white microfiber handlebar tape. I know, I know, white tape gets dirty really quickly, but I think it is worth it. I swapped out the old tires for new Continental Ultra GatorSkin. A deep clean and a thorough lube and she was ready for the race. I’ll post a pic of Big D crossing the finish line if I get his permission.

I’ve realized that this is a blog about bikes and that I haven’t posted much about bikes other than the ones at UBI. So I will be updating a section called Catch and Release witht bikes that I have worked on for others. Let me know if you liked what I did and I’ll post more as I do more.

A Marin MTB Bottom

of course, that wouldn’t be possible without the cranks and pedals.

Shimano Ultegra 2piece cranks and pedals (not Shimano)

Exploded Ultegra crankset

And you cannot work on this beautiful steel drivetrain without working on the rear derailleur.

Yeah, I know, it's a side view. Sorry I'm working on it

A Pic of the dear "La Puma" in happier times (with Laura)

Another great part of the UBI is that on Tuesday’s and Thursday’s, you have late night, which allows you to bring in your own bike to work on until 7.00. This is a great time to put your education to the test as you work on your bike, using all those great tools that you certainly can’t afford for your personal garage. Of course, if you have a question or need some help, one or two of the instructors is there to assist you and offer tips. Well, on Thursday evening I decided that I should look at the bottom bracket and bottom bracket shell on my old Motobecane, not because anything was particularly wrong, but because I wanted to have the chance to see what was in the old girl. Wrong move, I took it out, dirty and grimey after who-knows-how-long in the bottom bracket shell, only to find out that it was installed incorrectly and that the ball bearings had caused pitting in the cups. Yeah no bueno. I thought that it could be a bent axel, but nope, the uneven wear on the cones proved that the bearing cups were installed incorrectly Lord knows when. It seems that the non-drive side cup was installed incorrectly and thus the threads have been destroyed and relaced incorrectly. I have reinstalled everything, at least consistent in its wrong fashion and found that it worked, but once you know that it isn’t working in an optimum fashion, you learn exactly how bad it is. I can pedal, but it certainly isn’t as comfortable as it could be. I know, I know, it’s old and therefore there is charm and character in its flaws. But function plays a big part too. Tomorrow I will try chasing the threads and we will see what happens. I know i don’t have to throw the baby out of the bathwater, but those Giant OCR Composite 2 or the Cannondale 6 Carbon 5 do look nice. I only have to save up for around two years. What do you think?

After waking for class at 8.00 am everyday on my vacation (and loving it), it was time for some relaxation. So, Laura and I had a terrific brunch at Lark’s and then walked through the Ashland Artists Market (Saturday’s, along Guanajuato Way). We then enjoined a great couple’s massage and steam at the Waterstone Spa (www.waterstonespa.com) and a few drinks afterwards.

On Sunday, we took it easy and enjoyed visiting our friends Diane and David at Organic Nation Spirits (www.organicnationspirits.com) and helped to bottle and package a couple of cases of gin, with tastings of everything for quality control. One more week, and then it’s back to the Bay!

Tuesday came with a Zen koan-like lesson in patience and perseverance. Wheel building is a skill that seems insurmountable at the beginning. Spoke length calculations, rim size selection, lacing patterns, radial and lateral truing, and dishing are meticulous steps in building a wheel and each step has numerous factors and processes to attend to. It might seem impossible to start with just some hubs, spokes and rims and think that you can build a wheel that will actually turn straight and true. Yet, in all life’s challenges, just starting with the first step and steadily and consciously completing each part of the steps can lead you to success (no more life lessons in the post, I swear).

Let’s start at the beginning. We were lucky to have the the hubs, spokes and rims chosen for us by our instructors.  This takes a big mathematical part out of the equation, but if you want more info, just look on the UBI website for a spoke length calculator or checkout www.http://www.sheldonbrown.com/wheelbuild.html for a great tutorial on wheelbuilding. We built a 700cc wheels with 32 spokes in a 3-cross lacing pattern using round steel spokes, brass nipples and Shimano Deore hubs.

Wasn't it all so simple then....

The most important factor in building sturdy and true wheels, after checking the compatibility of your parts, is the lacing pattern. And that pattern starts with spoke placement and orientation. I wanted to get this right and found that reading and highlighting the instructions the night before was both helpful and confusing. Without the materials present to investigate the orientations discussed, I was lost in verbiage, but the next day I found a greater understanding of the concepts and physical application.

Eventually, I crissed and crossed our way to success, with only a few backups and redos.

Fifth times a charm

Then comes the tensioning and truing. This has to be the most intense and precise process of all, and I loved it.

Sorry it's on its side, but I wanted to post it

And then, there were wheels. I have to say the satisfaction that comes from making a wheelset that can bear the weight of a bike and rider is quite thrilling. I have to say I’m quite proud of learning this skill, though it will take me scores of attempts to perfect it.

Tah Dah!

There is one final note on this process. To show the futility of my endeavors, after we had completed the wheelset to the satisfaction of our instructors, within 1 mm of true and average 24.5 units of tension, we had to take apart our wheels and discard of the parts. Sort of like the way the Tibetan Buddhist monks destroy their sand Mandalas after completing those works of art.

PS – It only took the end of two extra hours after class to build my first set, and to celebrate, Laura and I went to see “Much Ado About Nothing” at the Oregon Shakespear Festival’s Elizabethan Theater.

We were walking in the park and then...

First of all, I must give say that Diane and David have graciously opened up their beautiful home on Ann St. to Laura and I for our stay. This quaint and charming bungalow is perfect for the two of us to sit back, relax, explore and rest. Here are some pictures and I encourage all interested in a respite in Ashland to look up this location provided by the artisan distillers of Organic Nation Spirits (http://www.organicnationspirits.com). And I encourage all interested in tasty, clean, organic vodka and delicious and vibrant gin to check out Organic Nation Spirits.

Our Ashland Sanctuary

Laura at a stag party

So I tried to get to sleep last night and after one REM cycle I awoke to that nervous feeling I haven’t had since my first day of college. What would the class be like? Would the instructors be friendly? Would I be able to keep up with the class with only a personal passion for bike mechanics and no formal training? Would I wake up on time for my 8.00 AM class? These questions kept me up until I had only an hour to sleep and then…I slept like a dog that had been slipped a sleeping pill in a pound of hamburger.

I got to the class and waited outside of the building with my classmates. Fixies, custom builds, road bikes and super slick oldsters were parked in the bike parking lot and everyone took a look at the rides of their soon to be classmates. Guys and Gals came from DC, Texas, Southern California and Tennessee to take the class. The age ranges from high schoolers to guys in their young 50′s; all with a passion for the two-wheeled machine.

We piled into the classroom that had a multitude of workbenches and a U-table around an instructor’s workbench. I saw tools I never knew existed and still have no clue as to their function. We had a set of Shimano hubs, a vernier caliper, our UBI Student Study Guide, Sutherland’s Handbook for Bicycle Mechanics and a nifty water bottle waiting for us. After John Baxter took us through the welcome and administrative information, we got down to disassembling our shimano hubs, cleaning them and reassembling them after making hub adjustments. Let me tell you, I think it took me around 5 attempts at adjusting the rear hub before I got it passable for the instructor. I then took another two tries before getting it just right. I can tell that patience is going to be a skill I will hone here. We then went on to work on Campagnolo Centaur hubs and that was a lot easier. With a significantly more compact and efficient system, the Campys were definitely my favorite to work at, but at a higher price than the Shimano hubs.

My workbench at UBI

Tomorrow, we conquer wheel building. Wish me luck!