Old 10 Speed Gallery : Bike of the Day 24-Sep-08

Just a quick item worth mentioning. The 1985 Schwinn Sprint which I recently acquired and restored from the ground up has been featured as the bike of the day for 24 September, 2008 at the Old Ten Speed Gallery. Please show support for their great site and give it a visit. I've found some serious inspiration for future projects, and a considerable appreciation for already featured bicycles on that site.

As a side note, I'm restricted to riding on my stationary bicycle (by Giant) at the moment because in the process of working on my new storage shed (hand built & designed) I pulled my muscles/tore something in both arms, making riding very painful and difficult on anything other than my Voyageur (which I need to adjust the rear dérailleur).

Eric

First Short Workout Ride on the Sprint

Today I finally had the time to take out the completed 1985 Schwinn Sprint road bike out for a light workout ride. By light workout I mean several things.

First, I haven't had the opportunity to ride this bike more than 750 m around two blocks to make sure that the wheels were solid and the tyres were holding their air (and not ballooning out of the sidewall like when I first installed them in a absent-minded manner).

Second, I haven't acquired a tool kit, or a secondary patch kit for this bike, nor do I have a strap on water bottle cage for this bike (as it has no brazed on mount points for normal bolt on attachments.

Lastly, it was 34° C today and quite frankly the humidity made it feel as if I were basting in an oven. I'd rather bike quasi-lightly today to be able to bike again, another day. This route involves starting at the bottom of a hill (in Hilltown Township) and climbing 29 metres over ¹/₂ km. The are enough flat areas on this route that make it an enjoyable ride, but given that I was always trying to keep spinning, it did take some effort and I did sweat. Hopefully this will subside as it has when i ride my hybrid 30+ km.

The results of the 11 km route I took (on a whim mind you, there was no predetermined plan outside of which direction I was going to head at the start of my journey) were rather interesting. I need to move my seat further back, I need to adjust the height of my seat and ultimately, I need to get better padded gloves as even with the wonderful supportive drop bar wrap from Specialized, I was feeling a bit of pressure in my hands.

It has been a long time since rode a road bike and while I know that I'm a bit out of shape for that kind of riding, I know that I'll be able to start dropping kilos If I keep this kind of workout as part of my regular exercise.

This bike is a success but does need some fine adjustments both to its seat and bars, as well as to the rider who happens to not be used to the harshness of the terrain on this 35 year old back which once suffered two slipped discs. Looking forward to the next ride.

1985 Schwinn Sprint: A Success Story!

No more than 15 days after receiving a 1985 Schwinn Sprint, I can happily state that the rebuild is hereby declared a success. I would have been done sooner had I not needed to get to Scooter's Bike Shop in Souderton, PA to pickup supplies.

Last evening whilst watching the Daily Show and the Colbert Report with my trusty multi-sized spoke wrench, spent considerable amounts of time truing the rear wheel (which required the most work) and to a lesser extent, the front. If one takes their time, seemingly lost wheels can be brought back to their original roundness.

Finally, this morning I was able to put on my black Phat Wrap handlebar wrap from Specialized on the Sprint. There was only one last thing to do and that was give it a quick test ride. This was a dramatic difference from the previous test ride. I find that the combination of having proper round wheels along with the shock absorbing bar wrap has transformed this bicycle into something else. It feels like a brand new bike, so much to the point that had I bought this bicycle new, I would not be disappointed.

The fun part beings tomorrow morning when I take my first hour or so ride up and through Peace Valley Park. I do need to get a bike pack for storing a patch kit and what not, but simply for tomorrow I will take the bag from my Voyageur Hybrid. The Sprint also lacks any brazed on mountings for a water bottle, so I will need to figure out something about that as well.

New Project Bicycle

In about two hours from now I'll be stopping at a nearby home in relation to my own to pickup an older 10 speed (in good condition) which is being donated to bucksbicycling.com's as part an effort to refurbish and reuse older bicycles rather than allow them to sit idle and/or become simple refuse.

This will also kick off the "Project Bike" series as an interspersed supplement to this blog. We will be detailing the start condition, tear down, rebuild/conversion, and finishing of a series of bikes as time progresses. Utilising knowledge from a multitude of sources (all of which will be referenced via hyperlinks for all to explore) we intend to provide advice on how to go about refurbishing and/converting not only adult bicycles, but those for children as well. There will be 10 speed and such vintage rebuilds as well as fixed gear and single speed (not to be confused, though not mutually exclusive either) conversions.

Additional updates will be posted later today if possible showing the initial pictures of the received donor bicycle and we'll proceed from there after our assessment.

Note: Those wishing to donate bicycles towards future projects may do so by sending an email directly to donations@bucksbicycling.com

My Early Cycling Years

I remember the first time I rode a real bicycle. I'm not counting those old banana seat kids bike bought from Sears by grandparents to replace the one I had with integrated training wheels. I was at said grandparents home and being that this was the central familial meeting place, there were usually several cousins over at any given time.

I don't recall as to whom it was to which the green three speed Schwinn belonged, but I do recall that I was roughly 5 years old when I first rode it. One must know that I was exceptionally tall as a child, due I believe to my Dutch genes. I do remember quite clearly that no one thought I'd be able to ride this teenager oriented machine given that my previous experience was rather limited. I loved the feel of three speed, even though I didn't understand gearing at the time. This was the beginning of my appreciation of bicycling.

Flash forward 9 years to the age of 14, circa 1987. Years had passed and I was still riding hand me down bicycles when all of my friends were riding brand new Mongoose and BMX style dirt bikes. I wanted to get a new bicycle, but was never into the whole dirt bike scene. I wanted a road bicycle, a sport one at that. So I went to what it now called (and maybe was called then) Bustleton Bikes and purchased my first real bicycle meant for serious riding. A Raleigh Record 10-Speed, 22" frame which in retrospect was far too small for my tall stature.

I used to ride this bike as if there were no tomorrow. It wasn't only riden to school every day, and to my friends houses on a very regular basis but was so well liked by my best friend at the time that he too went and purcahsed the identical model from the same cycle shop. We would bike together through the once beautiful Pennypack Park in Northeast Philadelphia. The asphalt bike paths led from the Far Northeast entrance(s) to the park to within 2.5 km from the Tacony Palmyra Bridge linking Philadelphia, PA to Palmyra, NJ. We must've ridden this path up and back 4 out of every 5 week days for a year. I would even get up at a ridiculous hour just to go ride to the park (7 km away).

Time progressed and I stopped riding with my friend, but I end up riding with my new best friend (now my wife) but even that ended abruptly once I acquired my driver's license. It sadly ends this way for many people, but I'm glad to see that this isn't the end. While I do not live in the city of Philadelphia where bicycling is a far more viable form of transport, I do live in beauftiful Central Bucks County and it has a bountiful supply of roads as well as trails.

Flash forward to current day. I recently was fitted for, and purchased a 2007 Schwinn Voyageur GS from Scooters Bike Shop in Souderton, PA. Needless to say I've returned home again to not only a mode of transport on which I used to depend soely, but I've returned to that mindset and community which for so many years I've considered family.

Well, that's enough writing for me tonight, I have to be up early as I have a 32 km ride in the morning from Holland, PA to New Britain, PA.