Pro bike mechanics

Pro Bike Mechanics

Beer, scissors, tyres - #sopro

Quick version

Bike mechanic challenge

If your back wheel is so bent that the tyre rubs on the frame, drink a beer, and cut the edge of the tyre off with a pair of scissors, so that it no longer rubs - bike mechanic genius!
#sopro

The long version

I have several bikes, well a lot of bikes, I adhere strictly to the rule of n+1 http://www.velominati.com/the-rules/#12. Recently I have sold several of them as I prepare to downsize my life, which means that I am down to a mere 5 (Race bike, fixie, MTB, singlespeed, tandem, beater - actually - that's 6, but you get the idea!).

My beater is a beauty - I bought it in 2006, new for 150 GBP. It is a Claud Butler MTB, which originally was a 3x8 speed. It was very badly built, not surprising for a 150 GBP bike - the frame geometry is terrible, nothing ever fit particularly well. Despite that, it has been an absolute workhorse - it has seen me through a couple of years of adventure racing, trail riding in forests and recently has seen me through a tough Boston winter, being kept outside. Despite that it has gone on and on, through the crazy snow, and me leaving it locked outside without it being actually locked!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iUNjZJerlSc&list=UUnHivw3dRZQpUeLiqzDJB8Q

After the winter things were getting pretty bad. The rear wheel was struggling and more of an oval shape rather than round, and the derailleur was shot to pieces. So I decided to convert it to a single speed. I whipped off the front derailleur, the rear brake (it was rubbing), and disconnected the rear derailleur. It has still been trusty, and I love riding it - taking it on the trails round here, commuting every day, and jumping off kerbs like an excited schoolchild on every trip. It's inherent value is now considerably less than the lock I use to secure it - in fact, I would literally be more upset about the loss of the lock if it got stolen.

However, it is now completely shafted. Recently I added on some locking skewers so I wouldn't have to worry about the wheels being stolen, for the few cents they are worth.

http://www.amazon.com/Sunlite-Lock-n-Roll-Skewers/dp/B002K2IYPY/ref=sr_1_8?ie=UTF8&qid=1408678064&sr=8-8&keywords=locking+skewers

However, the jumping and the years and the snow have taken their toll. On Sunday the hub collapsed so that the back wheel constantly rubbed on the frame. I attempted some TLC, checked the bearings, and decided it was shot. Of course, a new wheel would cost approximately four times the entire value of the bike so I am doing all I can to keep it going.

So, after a couple of beers, I hit on a genius idea. If the wheel is so bent that the tyre rubs on the frame - cut off the knobbly bits of the tyre with a pair of scissors - and hey presto! no more rubbing. Genius.

#sopro

Spartacus wins the Tour of Flanders 8 April 2014

Short one today. At the weekend was the Ronde van Vlaanderen or the Tour of Flanders as it's known to most of the world (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tour_of_Flanders). This is one of the five monuments of the cycling calendar and is brutal. A brutal brutal 265 km slog across the Belgium countryside, taking on the harsh early spring weather of the flatlands and of course the brutal cobbles. Instead of looking for beautiful roads, the races this time of year look for the ugliest hardest cobbled roads. Nutbars. 

This year the race was won by Fabian Cancellara, also known as Spartacus (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fabian_Cancellara  https://twitter.com/f_cancellara). It was a spectacular race, a fine fine win, and an absolute classic demonstration of why he is one of the greatest riders of this generation. However, he topped all this off, whilst other riders were still rolling in, or rolling around on the floor in agony from dead legs, or broken bikes and bones, he sat in the interview tent, calmly popped the cap off a bottle of beer and chugged it down. Legend. 

 And then, to top it all, he goes out and starts doing some tricks on his daughter's scooter. This guy is truly a legend.

I'm not going to give any details on the racing or how he did it as there are plenty of other people who do this far better than me (velocast.cc, http://drunkcyclist.com/). Particularly Cosmo Catalano's How The Race Was Won 
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9RUYfFG87Ew


And for a throw back, here's a picture of him starting to turn the gas up the hill past my old house on Strada delle Tolfe as he went to win the Strade Bianche in 2012. 

 Ride hard. JJ