That is, until winter arrives.

Most winters, I can honestly say, I’ve been a wimp. I put the bike away and take the bus or walk to my destination. Last winter was the first time I ever rode a bicycle in the snow to get to the store. It was surprisingly easy, but I didn’t really have a bike in condition to do it on a regular basis – so I filed it away in the back of my mind.

Over the course of the summer of 2008, I collected a few bicycle frames, wheels, parts and whatever bicycle related items I could scavenge when people cleaned out their garages. I found a fairly intact department store mountain bike – I’m usually fairly picky about these because of their low-quality manufacturing and questionable design decisions. This one I saved with the intent of putting it on the heavily salted roads in Ottawa. It’s a bike that I can get to the store with, but can leave covered in slush outside without concern about how badly the water and salt are corroding the parts.

Here we are, part way into January and I’m still riding it nearly every day. I even took it out twice yesterday during the massive snow fall we had, just for kicks. I’ve discovered not only is it a great workout, it’s fun and easy! The roads are usually kept clear for the cars, so riding on those is not much different from riding in the rain. The snow, when it’s powdery presents little challenge to cut through in a low gear.

I guess people just aren’t used to the idea – I wasn’t until recently, so I guess I can’t blame them. These same people would likely go skating or skiing in the same weather however, so the name calling is a little undeserved. I think the neighbor that called me ‘brave’ was really only searching for a polite term because I’d shoveled her walkway that day.

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It started off as a mountain bike in rough shape that my brother gave me. I cleaned and lubed the whole bike, upgraded the brakes, added fenders, added road tires, and swapped out the cranks. Sadly, none of this resolved a drive train issue where it seems to skip on the smallest rear cogs while under any sort of load.

A little creative thinking later, and I took a three-speed internal geared hub and built it up to a modern 26″ aluminum rim. Immediately upon attaching it to the bicycle I realized I was going to have a few technical issues to contend with.

The first problem was that the derailleur chain was the wrong size. I was very dismayed by this issue since the chain that went with the hub is destroyed by a mass of rust and not worth attempting to recover. A little research revealed that there was a pretty good chance the issue was the chain width – internal gear hubs and single speed bikes use a 1/8″ wide chain which is slightly wider and less flexible.
A quick visit to the local bike shop was very helpful since they had such a chain for $9.99.

I cold-set the rear triangle to the narrower width of the internal hub and sized the chain. Ideally the chainline wants to be to the innermost gear on a 3-gear crank, however the gear ratio that produces leaves little to be desired. Coasting works fine, however back pedaling quickly will throw the chain so it needs to be tensioned. The reason for this is the rear dropouts are vertical, meaning the wheel cannot be pulled back into position to tighten the chain.
To solve this, I filed an axle sized groove into the dropouts so the chain can be tensioned. Unexpectedly this raised another problem – since the chain is going to the middle cog, the chainline is not perfectly straight. Once the chain is tensioned it starts to bind on the cogs since it is less flexible than the narrower chain.

That’s pretty much where I took a break from it so I can devise the best method of resolving this. Somehow I need to reduce the angle of the chainline while maintaining an adequate gear ratio. I may have to re-examine the angles on the rear triangle and do another round of cold-setting the metal.

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Rust has built up on various portions of the bicycle, leaving it’s restoration dubious besides it being too small a frame for me. The reason I had for picking it up in the first place was the three speed Shimano hub on the back wheel. It’s internally geared, sealed and still ratchets fine.

The only problem (or is it…) – the rim is steel and slightly too large to fit a bike designed for 26″ mountain bike wheels. The brilliant plan I have is to learn how to build a bicycle wheel!

Indeed this is what I did this weekend, with eventual success. Following instructions from the late Mr. Sheldon Brown’s website, referencing existing wheels and finally following truing instructions on the late Mr. Ken Kifer’s website. As an aside – it’s very sad that some of the best sites regarding cycling where created by people who are now deceased.

Sadly, while test fitting the wheel to a bicycle I discovered the sprocket teeth are slightly differently spaced than modern multi-speed bike chains. I suspect it has more in common with a track bike.

That basically puts this project on hold. I now need to source appropriate sized chain and cranks to match this cog before proceeding.

The ultimate goal was to convert a mountain bike into an all weather grocery hauler. With the sealed gearing I could eliminate some of the mechanical wear caused by the elements and still have a small range of gears.

Despite the stall to this project, I’m pleased to have learned all about wheel building and truing – this was a gap in my mechanical abilities that should prove valuable in the years to come.

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A paradigm shift isn’t happening overnight, either – but it’s slowly entering Western conciousness. SUVs are being dumped for a fraction of their purchase price by status climbers who realized they can’t afford to fill up the tank daily on these monstrosities any more. Some people are still driving them around, so these prices haven’t hit the pocket books of those with abundant finances yet.

A few more bicycles are on the road now. I’ve not taken the public transportation recently, but I’ll bet the busses are starting to gain new riders as well. This happened last price jump, and it wasn’t this high. It was the test run I think. Push the market value up, get people used to the idea, lower it a bit to regain consumer confidence, then slowly raise it again. It’s like sitting in a pot of water and slowly raising the temperature – eventually the water’s boiling fatally but it was done gradually enough that nobody noticed.

The solution however, is right in front of our noses – and people are starting to consider it. Walk, or ride a bicycle! It works in Europe. Too many people will hop in their cars to drive < 5km to the store for a loaf of bread. That’s easily walkable in 15 minutes, or five on a bicycle – and you’d get some exercise at the same time. I’ve done it in the rain, I’ve done it in a blizzard – I don’t own a car and never have.

However, most of us car-free bicycle riders are still being looked at as the crazy ones. That’s OK. We know you’ll come around eventually if the pricing trends continue. Think of it this way – prices for produce and consumer items will rise due to increased transportation costs – so high gas prices affect drivers twice as much as cyclists. Just some food for thought.

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I’ve also learned more about the bike thanks to members of Bike Forums. Near as I can tell, I’m at minimum the third owner. It was manufactured here in Canada in 1980 and was a low-end model for the manufacturer – Sekine. Sekine is a Japanese company that made bicycles in Canada for a period of time to avoid the import tariffs imposed by the Canadian government. Local companies such as CCM and Raleigh Canada could not compete with the Asian bicycle prices during the bike boom of the ’70s and typical of our government, it imposed taxes to compensate.

Since coming into my possession I’ve put a good deal of work into repairing this 26 year old cycle. Rust removal, and cleaning/lubricating the parts has been my main focus. I’ve also added some extra gear since it had the mounting points – fenders, a rear rack, cycle-computer, LED headlamp, LED rear blinker, reflective tape and more recently panniers. Still in progress is a custom 20w halogen light system I’ve been building from spare parts and uniquely used plumbing materials.

In the third picture above, you can see the 20w halogen MR16 light in it’s custom enclosure just below and in front of the handlebar stem. The white box seen near the rear brakes (hanging just in front of the seat stays at the back) is the enclosure for the electronics required to run such a light. I’m trying to make the battery holder myself, but will more than likely fail and end up buying a pair of quad-AA holders to fit inside. It’s not a rush, since I can’t afford the rechargable batteries I’ll be needing until next week.

The first picture was taken at the beginning of October, on my way to work. For the past little while I’ve been commuting to work (about 42km round trip) on my bicycle – since I added the cycle-computer just before the beginning of the month I’ve gone over 500km.

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Due to the recent demise of my 1968 Raleigh Grand Prix, I really haven’t been bicycle riding much. By demise, I mean that every time I took it out for a short spin something would break! It got so that I didn’t really want to risk riding it, or going through the pains of listening to it creak as I rode.

Upon hearing of my plight, a coworker mentioned that she had an old 10 speed her husband had left outside to rust after purchasing a new bicycle. She kindly brought it into work where it sat for a week while I figured the best way to move it.

First attempt involved inflating the tires – they where both flat. This resulted in the air shooting straight back out on the back wheel! The valve was missing the center-pin entirely, which I neglected to notice at first. The front tire inflated with no problem but it turned out to have a slow leak and was flat by the next morning.

No problem, grabbed an inner-tube out of my Raleigh’s front wheel and replaced the totally dead one at work. Inflated both tires, adjusted the seat and started peddling up the road a bit to my girlfriend’s house. It sat there overnight and I strapped it to a bus in the morning and hauled it home for the real work to begin.

The bike is a 1970′s (I think) model of Sekine, made in Canada. Let me tell you, this thing was in rough shape. Rust was making it’s insidious way around the bike, and more than a few parts where inhabited by dead spiders and seized. I’ve dealt with worse – you should have seen the Raleigh ten years ago, wow.

It’s been two weeks and a pretty penny spent on new tires, inner-tubes, grips and a headlight. However, the bike now rides great and has already been under my butt for a few hundred kilometers… Oh, which is where all my free time has been lately – hence the lack of posting.

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Not too bad for a bike built in 1968.

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Thankfully I have a spare. Changing bicycle tires is never fun though.

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