Fixing Some Bikes

Gumby and Pokey observe..... fixing a Repco family bike

Repco family bike on test ride

Dead Dahon

Damaged fork from Dahon with oversize thread - fork is bent backwards

Cut fork thread ready for brazing onto replacement fork.

Hi

Since Monday when 6 folding or shopper bikes arrived home in my small car, I've been fixing them up with no real goal in mind, one or two I might keep, I'll give others away, who knows, some might end up as resumbents.  The work on the bikes is quite rewarding, to get one of these bikes going takes 4-8 hours or so.  By way of contrast, my last from-the ground up recumbent took 7 months to build between designing, finding contractors, employing them and doing my stuff.  And its not even painted yet!  Although at certain stages I have culled stuff,  I still have quite a lot of old bike bits in the shed which makes it easy to work on bikes.

So here we go, a rough description of fixing some bikes.

Repco 24" Shopper

Bike had steel wheels and no brakes but servicable tyres.  A bike being kept for parts had 24" aluminium wheels but horrible tyres.   Swapped wheels, fitted a clutch to replace the rear cluster.  Cleaned chain.  Grovelled for servicable brakes and levers.  Fitted brakes last night in the kitchen while my wife watched "Silent Witness".  This morning I rode the bike down to the recycling depot with the denuded frame of the parts bike and left it there on the way to various op shops in the rain.  Good fun to ride a non-recumbent bike like this every now and then.

Dahon 20" Boardwalk Folder  

Not a bad bike and relatively recent but the seat and seatpost are missing and the front forks are bent backwards and unservicable.  Down the bottom of my pile of forks was a 20" fork that was ok with a bit of creative rearrangement of the threaded bit.  Have now painted the forks black and found a (bit of mild steel tube which will do as a) seatpost and seat so am well on the way to fixing this bike.  Will see how this bike goes, might keep this one and get rid of all my other folders.  To be continued....

Klapprad Culture not Dead

My Mazda 121 on return from Carrum Downs with 6 various folding and shopper Bikes

Just when I thought crappy folding (Klapprad) bike culture was dead, I used a Google Image Search on "Klapprad" to find this site which seeks to prove that folding bike culture is actually alive and that despite rumours to the contrary, Germans have a sense of humour. And a couple of clicks away is this site, dedicated to making a bike from an Ikea chair.

To keep my own personal exploration of folding bike culture going, on Sunday I bought 6 of them from "Darren's No Guts No Glory Auctions" through ebay.  Yesterday (Monday) I went down to pick them up.  I was somewhat unprepared but Darren helped me out and gave me a rope to tie down the boot on the frame of a Ricardo shopping bike, and somehow everything was jammed in. (Thanks Darren)  But wait!  When I got back in the car, one of the bikes was getting in the way of the gearstick so I had to do some rearrangements.  Eventually got on the way, no incidents on the way home.  An inventory revealed 2 Repcos, A Ricardo shopper, a slightly battered Dahon, a Toyosha and a Malvern Star shopper.  A similar, older post about buying bikes is here and a recent photo of the National bike I bought back then is here.

Fortunately we have misplaced the key to the side door so my wife Christine can't open it.  If we had a key, any attempt to open it would fail, there are lots of old bikes stacked up there.  Hopefully it is not all one-way traffic, I have this folding and this recumbent bike on ebay now.  So c'mon, help keep the love moving and bid!

All for now, Steve

New bike Part 10

Finished Bike with new rear triangle installed

Hi,
Now seems as good a time as any to post a picture of the finished bike.  For about 2 weeks I've been riding it to work twice a week and its going well, in fact having it motivates me to ride more.  No obvious problems, I think its at least as fast as the old model.

With the original rear triangle installed the seat seemed a bit high so I spent a bit of time making a new one but have yet to try it.  The new one seems a bit flaky from rattling it on the bike.  The old one actually was fine but the bike might have been hard to ride for anyone a bit shorter than me.  The new rear triangle makes me a bit lower to the ground and its possible the bike would be a bit faster.   Not sure this actually matters......   Anyway I'll try it soon and report.

Regards

Steve

New bike on the way, part 9

Lining corflute up next to the bike for marking out....

A block of wood supports the plastic sheet so its at the right height

Besides corflute you need a scoring tool (tyre lever), straight edge (bit of wood), square ('nother bit of wood), hole puncher (spade drill bit), scissors (scissors) and pen (pen)

Hi

Today, on an otherwise quiet, wet, cold and rainy Sunday, I've been preparing the back wheel  and making the corflute box for my bike.  The current estimate is about halfway through the box and the wheel is done.  Fortunately I have a reasonable sized garage to work in. All for now, will hopefully finish the box tomorrow.

Regards

Steve