Hi-ten steel. Hi-ten steel everywhere.
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My chain lube wonāt come in until monday but my new tires, inner tubes, and bike mountable pump arrived. Thanks again to everyone in the thread for the help. 
(Iāll be watching youtube videos to help with the tire and tube changes but Iām open to other suggestions on that stuff also. lol)
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I just got back from a two-week vacation with family in California. We took one afternoon to resurrect my nieceās bike which had been down for about three years. This was good for me because I got to practice, and good for her because she got her bike up and running. We had to replace the rear tube, and we were both learning as we went, with a book open next to us, but we declared it easy-peasy afterward.
The only trick was taking the tire all the way off the rim then putting a tiny bit of air in the new tube before putting the new tube in the tire and remounting the tire. For some reason, the last time I had to change a tube, I did it without fully taking the tire off, but this seemed much easier.
Then we went shopping and got her goodies, including a seat post tool bag, replacement grips, water bottle cage (hose clamp mounting, unfortunately, no braze-ons), frame pump, spare tube, and chain lube. Thatās good times for an uncle. Plus, there was ice cream.
Both the front and rear derailleurs needed adjusting (before we did anything with the wheels) because the chain in the front keeps lifting and dropping back and it ticks in the rear, but we didnāt have time to get to that because we WENT TO YOSEMITE. Mist Trail to Vernal Falls with good water. ::triplefistpump::
Also, I seem to remember, back when I had a road bike, that there was some front-to-back positioning of the rear axle, but hers slotted back into the only place it could go.
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Older road bikes had horizontal dropouts so that you could fit the same frame with derailleurs or fit a 3 speed hub gear like a Sturmey Archer. Also good for fixed/single speed conversions. Sometimes they lack a tab for the derailleur on the dropout and instead it fitted to a little semicircular washer-like part that slotted into the back of the dropout and additionally helped locate the axle correctly.
Modern road bikes have vertical dropouts as the same model rarely gets offered in derailleur or 3-speed versions any more.
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Good call.
Also used to adjust the wheelbase on vintage race bikes (to better suit the course).
A rarity these days, regardless.
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I finally bought myself a bike! itās been trickier than I expected - I donāt think Iām that tall, but most bikes I tried made me feel like
But I finally found an old specialized hybrid (year/model unknown) on kijiji and I bought it yesterday - I love it but it needs some work! The main issue right now is that the crankset is wobbling - like itās not 100% connected to the frame. Also the stem is 135mm, which is feeling like quite a reach. The frame has some rust - as long as itās not a structural issue I donāt mind
my new baby:
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Judging by the stem length and height of the seat post, that bike looks like it belonged to someone who either (1) outgrew it, (2) bought too small a frame in the first place, or (3) has a leg:torso ratio resembling an Alberto Giacometti sculpture.
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Do not rely on a bike mounted pump for your everyday maintenance. Please make sure you have access to a floor pump. Well inflated tires are happy tires. Under inflated tires are more likely to be damaged and increase your effort needed to ride.
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I had other pumps. Just nothing I could take with me on a ride.
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How the Dutch Bike Co. thought Seattle would be great city for their next store, I will never understand. From a cyclistās perspective, I mean. From a marketing perspective, itās a no-brainer. Still, I donāt get it. Even with an 8-speed Nexus on a 2:1 ratio, going uphill means youāre either torquing away while awkwardly hunched (Dutch riders will know what I mean) or spinning like crazy. Madness.
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Actually, 135mm is a pretty common length for a stem on a serious flat-bar bike, since the bars donāt hang off the front of the stem like drop bars.
As for the wobbly crank, youāll probably find the NDS (non-drive side) cup is loose in the frame, which is often easy to sort, even without proper tools. Thereāll be a lockring with some notches in it, which you can unscrew a little, then you can screw the cup up tight either by hand, or by tapping the flats (or it might have internal splines) on it with a screwdriver and a hammer. Then tighten the lockring with the screwdriver and hammer.
Alternatively, the DS cup will be loose, which means you need proper tools to sort it. Or there wonāt be a lockring, which means itās a cartridge BB, in which case the bike has done a great many miles and worn out the BB bearings.
Or itās not actually the BB thatās loose, and itās one or both of the crank arms loose on the BB spindle, which you should be able to determine by careful investigation. Good luck.
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Thatās not a hybrid- thatās a vintage mountain bike. Itās got 26" wheels (instead of the larger 700c), and the parts appear to be moderately high-end. Itās hard to tell from here, but that rear derailleur appears to be older Deore XT (which is damn fine stuff), and that crankset has had the outer ring removed- it would have had a triple ring setup previously. Indeed, there seems to be no front derailleur at all, so thereās that.
Iād be guessing, but Iād be likely to say thatās a vintage Specialized Stumpjumper- a lovely bit of kit. Shorter stem, maybe a set of riser bars for a handlebar, level off that saddle, (maybe) a newer set of brakesā¦ be a damn fine kick around bike.
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Well spotted. the rear derailleur/shifter are indeed deore XT (SIS 7S) - itās quite stiff when downshifting, but otherwise in good shape. The brakes seems to be in excellent shape, although the V-brakes in the front need to be adjusted a bit - I think the cable is just too long at the moment. The rear brakes are actually crazy effective, although gentle braking demonstrates that the rear wheel could use truing.
I took a small bump today and the chain came right off the chainwheel - that may be a side-effect of not having a front derailleur. Iām not planning to change that part of the bike in the near future - 7 speed has been enough to get me up a small hill (montreal isnāt vancouver) and on the other end I actually feel like I can go scary fast without using the highest gear
The only other bike Iāve been riding recently is a bixi, so Iām primed to expect something a bit heavy, but holy heck does it ever seem light & fast when I ride it.
I want to give a huge thank you to everyone in this thread who had advice about what to look for when shopping for a bike! I feel like I got the perfect bike
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Cool!
Re: front brakes- v-brakes require a different amount of cable pull than old school canti brakes- so the levers are actually different. If itās feeling a bit mushy, that could be why.
If the chain got thrown off on a small bump, there are a couple of options (Iām actually dealing with this on one of my bikes, for totally different reasons):
- The chainring might be worn out- when the teeth wear down, they get (wait for it!) shorter, and thus it becomes easier for the chain to pop off.
- The chainring is meant to be in the middle of a triple chainring setup- as a result, it has some teeth cut extra short (to aid downshifting) and some pins/ramps to help the chain climb to a bigger ring. In a single ring setup, that makes it easier for the chain to derail that youād like.
- The chain may be too long as well- if the chain was sized when there were three chainrings, thereās likely extra chain in the system that doesnāt need to be there, and that could be exacerbating the situation.
So: what to do? - You can shorten the chain somewhat- requires a chain tool, and might help a bit.
- You can replace the main chainring with a single-speed version (that has all teeth the same height). Might help.
- You can replace the main chainring with a Narrow/Wide chainring- this is a new-school thing, but apparently they have teeth that alternate between narrow and wide profiles, and that helps retain the chain. Iāll likely go this route myself, but I need to research somewhat more.
- You can chuck a front derailleur on- doesnāt have to be hooked up to anything- youād just be using it as a chain guide.
Anyway.
Iām really glad you like it- it looks like a lovely fun bike to ride. Should serve you well.
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I was thinking this, but couldnāt say as authoritatively. It really does look like a vintage Stumpjumper or Hardrock, which is good stuff. Iām so glad you got a cool used bike, @TooGoodToCheck_! Too bad about having some head-achy fixes up front, but a little sorting and youāve got a great lifetime bike there.
the cable-pull issue on that v-brake: if thatās what the issue is (which is probable, the levers look like a stock, matched pair) you could keep your lever and revert the front brake back to canti, or keep the V and upgrade its lever, in which case Tektro is a good company for new, quality levers at a good price, but probably only sell in pairs? maybe you can scavenge a single, left v-brake lever from a bike co-op or ebay. or buy the pair of levers and also upgrade the rear brake to V. Or just deal with a mushy front brake, I guess, but thatās where your main brake power is supposed to be, and really a waste of a V. Depends on what you want and how much time and money you want to invest. Keeping your current setup and futzing with the cable tension or perhaps the pads might give you a āgood enoughā result, you never know.
ETA: @TooGoodToCheck_ I knew there are similar gadgets for shifters, so I asked around and found this thing that amplifies the tension from a standard brake lever to work with a v-brake. pretty neat.
http://problemsolversbike.com/products/travel_agents/
hot a bad price from Jenson
I have a special fender bolt made by Problem Solvers, they seem a reputable mfr.
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Actually, thereās more power than normal with a canti lever pulling a V. The extra leverage is what makes it mushy. If the rim is nice and straight (likely on the front), you can just adjust it so thereās a minimal pad gap and it should be fine; maybe even easier to modulate if the cable is in decent shape.
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Iām going to head out tomorrow to the Eroica Britannia. Riding 100 miles through the beautiful Peak District on a Bill Nickson road bike made in the first half of the 1980s. Quite a lot of steep climbs and some hairy descents.
If I donāt post here again, youāll know why!
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The Headstone viaduct, now part of the Monsal trail. Great poster! Reminiscent of those gorgeous pre-war railway posters. [quote=āAnonyMouse, post:399, topic:76376ā]
Riding 100 miles through the beautiful Peak District
[/quote]
You might be going past my door. I wonāt be there 
, Iāll be on a train to Edinburgh. Have a lot of fun!
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Finally got my new tires and tubes on. The air gauge I have seems to be worthless so I donāt know how much more air I need to put in the tires. They still feel soft but Iām not sure I know what 60 PSI feels like. Gauge says 5PSI but itās definitely more than that. Borrowed one of those ones you use for car tires and Iām really not sure itās going to get a read on my bike tires.
Still trying to figure out how to get my chain off so I can clean the factory whatever off it. When I replaced the chain (died within three rides of buying the bike ā¦ ergh, crappy chain) I got a nice one so it has a first link that I should just be able to push together to pull it off. I got close once and then after that the links just flop and I canāt get good leverage on them.
I am sore all over from riding a few times around the cul-de-sac. Pressure issues not withstanding, the slick-er Kendas I put on it are a big improvement.
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hmā¦ try cranking to get the quicklink on the lower stretch of the chainās loop. then de-tension the chain by pushing the rear derailer cage forward with your foot or something, thatās the bit with the pulleys that the chain runs an S-shape through. getting the chain slackened this way will free up your finger strength to fiddle with the quicklink.
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