First 50-miler of the year

Jones Bike Loop H-Bar

A week or so ago I changed out the handlebars on the 2011 Specialized Sirrus Elite. My intention was to dump the straight bar, which I found uncomfortable both due to reach and due to lack of hand positions. Since my goal this year is to get more comfortable in order to do some longer rides, I knew I needed to either deal with neck and shoulder pain from the road bike or get more comfortable on the hybrid bike.

On Saturday I decided to give it a good test, and I did the longest ride I've done in probably two years. I did 51 miles, all along the Madison County trail system. At first I thought this was going to be impossible because tornadoes in the area had brought down many trees and power lines along the trails. But MCT was very effective in getting everything cleaned up and open. So I started early at the parking lot on Wanda Road near South Roxana, and rode into Edwardsville, then along the Nature trail to Horseshoe Lake park, and on out to Madison, Illinois, where the trail effectively ends. Then back, looping through Collinsville and Maryville before returning to Edwardsville and back to the trail head at Wanda.

My first thought at finishing the ride was that I could have ridden 50 more! I'm elated at how successful the new handlebars are at meeting my needs. I'm sure I'll have lots of rough rides and in time I may find that I need to do more tweaking. But after years of experimenting, I really feel like I've got a bike that works for me! And I've tried a lot of things to get to this point.

Next up: taping the handlebars. The Specialized Body Glove ergonomic grips are really good, and I find that I am most comfortable without gloves. But I need some cushioning and cover for the top part of the bar. So I'll be putting that on next weekend.

* * *

Later the same week I did a 13 mile ride one afternoon after work. It was extremely windy. Was this even the same bike? I really struggled. I wondered if I would have done better on the road bike in dealing with the wind. Makes me wonder how bike tourists are able to do those long days into the wind, day after day sometimes.

Converting the Specialized Sirrus to Jones Loop H-Bars

Jones Bike Loop H-Bar

Sometime back I posted about my discomfort with the straight handlebar on my Specialized Sirrus hybrid bike. I experience problems with my neck and shoulders as well as my hands and wrists with this setup, and began researching alternative handlebars.

Raleigh DL-1 with shellacked cork grips


About the same time I started doing a bit more riding on my old 1974 Raleigh Tourist DL-1 with the swept back handlebars and the traditional "sit up and beg" posture. I found it comfortable for the majority of my riding, but too limiting for longer rides. But it did make me want to be able to sit up a little higher, not craning my neck so much. I'm much more interested in looking at the scenery than in trying to go faster.

I also think that the straight bar creates a problem for me because it of the length of my reach. There's almost no variability to your posture with a straight bar. You're stuck with the same reach all the time. Plus, I feel like my wrists want a bit of a curve back rather than having to hold them at a straight angle. To me, it feels a bit unnatural. And after two years of trying this style of handlebar, I think I should have adapted to it if I'm ever going to.

I finally settled on an alternative handlebar made by Jeff Jones Bicycles. The handlebar is called the Jones H-Bar. It comes in two models, a Loop H-Bar and a Cut H-Bar. I chose the Loop Bar because, according to the web site, "Shimano and SRAM under-bar trigger-shifters won't work" on the Cut bar. It also appears to me that the loop bar sweeps back further, which is part of what I'm trying to accomplish.



The combination of the loop and the swept back bars provides a lot of different hand positions. I'm also able to use my Body Glove ergonomic grips with this bar, which I like.

I got the bar on Friday and began installing it on Saturday, but ran into the problem of needing to replace the cables -- my existing cables and housing were too short to fit the new bar. And that really complicated things, because the Specialized Sirrus has internally routed cables. I've never dealt with that. After talking to the folks at the bike shop, they convinced me that changing cables in a bike with internal routing was beyond my abilities.

So I ended up taking the bike in to have them install the handlebars and do the setup. It turned out to cost a lot more than I wanted to spend, and I'm not too happy about it. Never say never, they say. And don't burn your bridges behind you. But I don't think I'll be using that bike shop much anymore unless I'm completely out of alternatives. I already do most of my own maintenance and repairs, and I will learn how to change out the internally routed cables the next time it needs to be done.

Specialized Sirrus Elite with Jones Loop H-Bar


I finally got in a couple of test rides on the bike and I am happy overall with the new setup. The bars are not swept back quite as far as I'd imagined, and my hands and wrists still had discomfort. But I had plenty of options for changing my hand positions, so that more than compensates. And I'm surprised at how you can get into a kind of "aero" position much more effectively than I'd have guessed.

The weight and balance of the bike is a little different, I feel, but I should soon adapt to that. Hopefully these will be the handlebars that get me through my first century ride. Whether it's a metric century (100 kilometers) or 100 mile century, we will wait and see!

Here's a link showing a video/animation of the many hand positions and variations using the Jones H-Bars: http://www.jonesbikes.com/images/stories/document-images/hbar_positions_anim.gif

Cork Grips and Shellac

[caption id="attachment_71" align="aligncenter" width="558" caption="Raleigh DL-1 with shellacked cork grips"][/caption]

This past week I decided to follow the trend I’ve seen on some vintage bike blogs, notably on Velo Orange and on Lovely Bike, of shellacking my cork grips. Really, nothing to it. Just pulled the grips off the bike before they had a chance to get dirty and grimy, and put a couple of coats of amber shellac on them, letting each coat dry for around 30 minutes to an hour between coats.

If there was anything the least bit challenging about doing this, it was finding a can of amber shellac. I’d paid a grand total of $6.00 for the grips. When I finally found the shellac, I paid almost $14 for a one-quart can at Menard’s. I have enough shellac now to last the rest of my life.

It’s a great look, I think, and I took a 15 mile ride on Sunday to try things out. I didn’t notice any real difference in the texture or comfort of the grips as a result of the shellac, so that’s a good thing.

Now I’m looking at pictures of bikes with burlap twine that’s been wound around various parts of the bike and then shellacked. Perhaps because I have this huge can of shellac hanging around, I’m pretty tempted to use it up. We’ll see if I go completely bonkers. In the case of bicycle adornments, sometimes less is more.

I will say that the natural next step is going to be adding a Brooks B-67 honey colored saddle.

The B-66 is the usual choice. It was one of the two usual choices for Raleigh bikes of this era. It fits on a straight seat post. But it lacks adjustability. And that’s something I think is really necessary with most Brooks saddles. At least for me, the Brooks saddle is the most comfortable thing around, but only if you can get it set up at exactly the correct tilt. I prefer a two-bolt seat post, so I’ve got one on order. I’ll make sure that it fits okay, then order a B-67, which fits on modern style seat posts.



Once that’s done, about the only other thing I am considering is to find, or build, some kind of saddle bag support. As seen in this photo, my saddle bag is almost hanging down to the rear mud guard (or fender), and the leather straps are starting to strain a bit.

1970s Three-Speed Schwinn Project

The Schwinn three-speed “bike build” turned into the most involved project I’ve ever attempted. It began with the idea that I could simply clean up and tune up an old bike that had belonged to my family. My dad bought it at a flea market for my mom to ride, but I’m not sure she ever did. It was in a shed, then in the bushes. Years went by, in the sun and rain, and that didn’t help it much.

One day I noticed that it had a Sturmey-Archer SC3 hub, and I was intrigued with the idea of getting the bike working again. It’s a three-speed hub with a coaster brake. I decided to either re-purpose the hub or fix up the bike. Or something.

While things looked pretty good, as I got cleaning it up I discovered one rusted out problem area after another. It was beginning to look like the hub was about all that was really good about the bike. I found a bent spot in the frame. I found that the seat post and the stem were both seized. One pedal was rusted and seized. The rims were terribly rusted.



So I decided the frame was toast. I probably could have salvaged it, but knowing that it was just another ‘70s gas pipe steel Schwinn frame, I wasn’t going to stick money into it. For $10 (plus $30 for shipping!) I bought a men’s 70s Schwinn Speedster frame.

Then I discovered that the front wheel was rusted through. I had one more old bike lying out in the yard, and as luck would have it, it had 26x1-3/8 wheels as well, and it wasn’t a bike I had any interest in saving. So I pulled that wheel into service for this project. It was turning into a true Franken-bike, with parts from at least three bikes on it.

I salvaged some pedals. One of the original pedals was good, the other was rusted and wouldn’t spin. Since they were not serviceable pedals, I rooted around and found a matching pedal from another old bike that looked right. So that was the fourth bike that donated.

I had replaced the seat post from the Murray bike I rebuilt over the winter, and it had the same style of seat post as this bike, so that made parts from five different bikes.

I finally had to start buying parts. I needed all new cables, a new chain, a new 3-speed trigger shifter, a new stem, new rim strips, tubes and tires. I needed new head cups, cones and bearings. Same for the bottom bracket.

I put it all together while waiting for the tires to arrive. Here’s a photo of it as of this week:



I’m not sure I can live with a stem that long! But I won’t know until I get everything put together and tires on it and take it for a test ride. I have another bike that would be happy to swap with it, a single speed cruiser that would look fine with high handlebars.

The tires finally arrived. I did the front wheel first, since it’s a little easier to get on and off the bike right now. Everything worked great.

Then I tried to mount the back tire. No go! I had run across this issue before, and it’s hard to figure out. Schwinn had its own proprietary 26” bike wheel size that was different from other manufacturers’ 26” wheel. The front wheel worked fine, using a conventional 26x1-3/8 tire. But the back wheel, the Schwinn wheel, is 7 mm larger. So I’ve had to order a special S7 Schwinn tire for it. The tires are by the same manufacturer and have the same style, but it bugs my sense of symmetry that the two wheels will be a different size and use different size tires.

Now to wait for the new tire. In the meantime, I can replace the front fender and start cleaning rust off the back fender and the rear rack.

Rainy Day Riding

Rain, rain, go away. I really do understand that we need rain in April. But this past month has been a deluge. I was able to do more riding in January this year than in April. I'm sure my work schedule contributed to that somewhat. But the primary reason is that I've learned to tolerate riding in cold better than in the rain. This year, January was a little warmer than average, and with some sunshine, that yielded some decent riding days.

But April was wet. And May is falling right in line with April. On two consecutive days last week my rain gauge total was 7.25 inches of rain. Less than a week later, I had a 24 hour period that produced 3 inches.

On Sunday my cabin fever had reached its limit. I've been trying to finish up a bike build, a three-speed Schwinn. Waiting on parts. I finally took the time to shellac my cork grips on the Raleigh DL-1. Looking good. But I had to get out for a ride, and it was raining.

I decided that since there wasn't any lightning, the worst thing that was going to happen to me was that I was going to get wet. I don't really have proper rain attire for riding, but decided to cobble something together to get as comfortable as I could, and make a break for it.

The temperature was in the 50s and the rain was light but steady. I wore an old long-sleeve silk Wintersilk® shirt for a base, then my Specialized windproof base layer, then a bike jersey, and shorts. I wore thick ugly wool socks with tennis shoes. Put a paper thin windbreaker on and loaded up my Specialized Sirrus, a hybrid set up with fenders. The Raleigh DL-1 has become my bike of choice for short rides near home, but it is a bad choice for riding in the rain or in wet conditions because of the rod brakes. Even with the Kool Stops salmon brake pads it just doesn't brake well when the rims get wet.

I rode on the Hamel to Staunton trail, a nice flat paved section. I think attitude had a lot to do with it. The rain never bothered me. It was actually refreshing, and I'm hoping that I'll learn to enjoy the occasional rainy ride like I do the occasional cold weather ride. It was a bit windy riding toward the northeast, but I just kept a nice slow, steady pace going and didn't let it get to me.

Much of riding seems to be just that: not letting things get to me. The fenders definitely are a great thing for riding in the wet. I had some concerns about riding with my leather Brooks B-17 saddle, but I know people get them wet all the time and live to tell about it. Since I was sitting on it the whole time, that kept it a bit drier, at least until I packed the bike up to go home.

I didn't actually think about being wet until I was almost done with my ride. I realized then that my arms were soaked through to the skin. But my trunk was still dry, and I felt good, not cold, not hot. It just felt so good to finally get a ride in.

I got 15 miles in. While I really like to do at least 20 miles, and I'm at the time of year where I'd like to be doing some 30+ rides, I recognize the need to stay flexible and get my riding in whenever and however I can. It's better to do a few short rides than none at all.

I felt really good the rest of the day. The rain has been depressing me. I think of the time I want to spend outside, I think of not being able to get our vegetable garden started, and I think about the water seeping into the basement (and the expense we're going to face soon as we've decided to get that fixed).

I gave the Specialized a good bath with some sudsy water and dried it off good when I got home. Wiped down the Raleigh while I had a bucket of warm water handy. The days are getting longer now. Soon I think I'll be getting some late afternoon and evening rides in!

Riding the Glen Carbon Heritage Trail

[caption id="attachment_60" align="aligncenter" width="538" caption="On the Glen Carbon Heritage Trail"][/caption]

On Sunday I decided to do my longest ride yet on the Raleigh DL-1. I've done quite a few rides in the range of 12 to 18 miles, even one 20 miler. But I've always been cautious about starting in the middle and riding out a few miles, then back, then out in another direction, then back again. That way I'm never too far from my starting point if I have a problem on the trail.

And one thing about the DL-1 is that, solid as it seems, it can certainly have some problems. During a previous long ride I had a flat on the back tire, and although I'm usually pretty prepared for trouble, I was stuck that time. My brother rescued me, and I've made a number of changes to make sure I'm better prepared for the next problem. Because there's always a next problem!

Sunday's ride was a pretty involved test of both the bike and me. I rode a 23 mile loop, starting at the Wanda Road parking lot in South Roxana, up the bluff into Edwardsville, out to Mont Station outside Glen Carbon, then took the Heritage Trail back into Glen Carbon. Then back up the bluff into Edwardsville, then back down the bluff to Wanda Road again.

So the ride involved going up and down the bluff twice, and riding the very irregular surface of the Heritage Trail. I had a couple of minor problems, all caused by me, but was able to resolve things on the trail. I had decided to move my handlebars and seat up a little bit. I ended up with the handlebars slightly crooked. And I ended up not getting the seat as tight as I'd like, and it did twist a little bit on me once. I was able to tighten the seat enough to prevent any problems (though I need to look at that more closely) and I got the handlebars pretty straight.

One problem with adjusting the handlebars is that they connect the rods to the brakes. So that means you also have to loosen the brake rods. Getting them properly adjusted afterwards requires some attention. I've learned that I have the best results when I pull the brake pads up into the wheel with one hand just as I tighten the rod bolts.

I just changed the hand grips to the cork ones shown in the photo. Overall I found them to be comfortable, and I like the look. I do need to get some shellac on them, as they're going to really show the dirt. They also may need to have a little adhesive to keep them from slipping around.

I was pleased that being limited to only three speeds did not prove to be a problem on tackling the bluffs. Those hills are very gently graded, intended for locomotives, so you typically spend several miles going up or down them. I was really happy with how nicely the Schwalbe Delta Cruiser tires rolled, especially on the gravelly surface on the Heritage Trail section. There are a lot of potholes and there's loose rock and asphalt all over the place, but these tires roll right through it.

Handlebar Modification to Specialized Sirrus Elite

Endless tinkering with my bikes, and I just can't ever get things perfect.

After getting my "new to me" 1974 Raleigh DL-1 three-speed back in January, I've become a big fan of the comfortable posture of what's called the "sit up and beg" riding style. Sitting upright on a large all-steel bike with relaxed geometry, North Roads handlebars, easy rolling.

So much so that I've almost completely neglected my other bikes. And once nicer weather hits (and it's nearly here), I'm going to want to put in some serious mileage. For many reasons, that means I'm going to want to get back to riding either the road bike or my hybrid, since they have the modern amenities that make longer rides such a joy. The hybrid is a 2011 Specialized Sirrus Elite, and it's got almost every feature of a good bike that I could want. But I'm still trying to get the comfort factor right.

But I keep thinking of what it would be like with a set of North Roads handlebars. North Roads are the style of handlebar used on the old English three speeds, and are a variation of a cruiser type handlebar. Upright, curved in. The road bike naturally has drop bars, and that's always been a problem for me, so much so that I'm on the verge of giving up on it.

The Sirrus has a straight mountain bike bar, and I have not gotten totally comfortable with it either. Either type handlebar seems to cause me to crane my neck uncomfortably, and that adds up over many miles. I've come away from rides with bad headaches from the tension in my neck and shoulders.

On the old Raleigh with the North Roads bars, I've gone as far as 20 miles in relative comfort. My concern is that what may work well for 20 miles or less may not on longer rides. I think the inward curve on the hands and wrists, and the lack of other hand positions, will be a problem after my 20 miles comes and goes.

I tried putting an adjustable stem on the bike so I could get the bar a bit higher, but that may have been the wrong direction, because now I'm stretching out a bit too far -- the angle of the stem puts the handlebars further away from me.

Possibly a stem riser? Possibly different handlebars entirely?

I stopped by Bike Surgeon in Shiloh, Illinois yesterday to talk about my options. They suggested I bring the bike in, put it up on a trainer where they could try different adjustments. They have more choice of adjustable stems and risers and different handlebars that have less curve, and different degrees of height, and they believe we can solve the problem.

With all the nice features on the Sirrus Elite, that sounds very attractive to me. I'd love to have one good, modern bicycle that I have confidence in for most of my riding. I still want to do a lot of riding on the Raleigh DL-1, but I also know that any kind of mechanical failure or even a flat tire on the road can be a big headache. It's a difficult bike to work on even in my basement bike shop, and is very finicky when trying to get everything back into adjustment.

One other consideration: as I sit more upright, I may need to go with a wider saddle than the Brooks B-17 that's on there now. I've got a Brooks B-72 on the Raleigh -- it's a bit wider and has springs. It's a good candidate. But of course, a brand new B-66 would be fantastic.

1960s Murray slimline tank bike

One of my recent projects was the "rejuvenation" of a circa 1962 Murray slimline tank bike. This is what is known as a "middleweight" bike, popularized during the late 1950s and through the 1960s (and a bit beyond). It has narrower tires (26" x 1.75") than the older balloon tire coaster brake bikes. And the "tank" feature below the top bar is narrower than in the previous decades, more slimline.

I found this in a trash pile about 15 years ago and couldn't resist. Tough to guess the model with no markings remaining, but it could be either a Jet Star, a Sonic Flite, a Meteor Flite...lots of similar models with different names.

This is a new hobby to me, in most respects. As a kid I learned to work on my own bikes, and I was comfortable doing so. Later in life, I started riding coaster brake bikes, and learned how to work on them pretty well. But as an older adult, I was intimidated by the idea of working on my bikes of the "new" generation. I still don't know as much as I'd like about overhauling and working on my road bike or my hybrid.

But working on older bikes has gained my interest. I'm becoming one of those people who enjoys the tinkering on a bike as an enjoyment in itself. It's not just the final project, it's the fun of getting all the parts off of it, getting them cleaned up, cleaning off the dirt and rust, repacking bearings that I like. Once I get to the end of the project, there's a bit of a letdown. I still haven't figured out what I'm going to do with all these bikes.

So, back to the Murray: I didn't "restore" it with authentic old parts, but chose to mix and match some new parts in order to keep it looking appropriate, but very rideable. I think I'm more influenced by the "rat rod" bike people than the vintage bike restoration people. I like to take an old heap and get it rideable again, regardless of what it takes to get there.

It was a tough decision on whether to repaint or not, but I ended up loving the faded patina of the old paint. Lots of bare spots, lots of fading, but a cool old bike. I haven't done a (proper) spray painting of a bike yet, so that's still a lesson to come.

One of the issues I'm facing in fixing up these old bikes is that I'd like to save money by not buying new or replacement parts. I'd prefer to make due with what I have around. But I don't have that many bikes or old parts that I can often find anything. So I end up buying new parts, and that gets expensive.

The fenders were really banged up. But I thought I'd be able to get them to look pretty good. Get the worst of the dents out, and just let it look rough but useful. Unfortunately the paint was about gone, the dents were worst than I thought, and I wasn't planning a repaint. And new fenders are pretty cheap. So I abandoned the idea of using the original fenders.



Now the original Murray would have had a plastic headlight assembly that mounts to the front of the tank, sticking out past the head tube. This bike was missing that, and replacements are rare and expensive.

In addition to stripping off every nut and bolt, I replaced the head bearings, including cups and cones. I found the bottom bracket in reasonably good condition, so I just repacked the bearings in fresh grease. The spokes were completely trashed on the front wheel, and the cost of a new wheel was less than the replacement spokes.

Ultimately, I ended up replacing the fenders, the front wheel, the tires, tubes, rim strips, the handlebars, the pedals, the grips, the seat post and the seat. The seat was an old one that I already had, but it uses a different type of seat post, so I had to change it out.

And all of that adds up to quite a bit. Most of these parts can be purchased online from large online bicycle supplies companies, but you have to factor in shipping costs on everything you buy. A $5 part might cost another $5 to ship. So I try to save up until I have a number of items to buy at one time. Then I try to buy as much as possible from one vendor to save on shipping.

When I read on the various bike restoration web forums, I have to imagine that most of these hobbyists are building these old bikes for fun and to have something to do. There's no way most of these projects can ever be sold for enough to cover the expenses alone.

Here's how things ended up. I've wanted a nice looking 1960s coaster brake bike with tank for a long time, so I'm glad I finally got this project out of the weeds and into the basement.

Upgrading the DL-1 brake pads

On my first test ride of the DL-1 I quickly saw that the rod brakes were going to have to be kept pretty carefully adjusted, or look into some alternate ideas. There was no stopping power during that test ride, and when I coasted into the driveway I was applying my Fred Flintstone brakes -- dragging my feet to stop!

I experimented over the first few weeks. I sanded the brake pads a bit to get the hardened rubber out of the way. I moved the pads a bit closer to the rim. Still, I found myself slowing to a crawl whenever the bike trail crossed a street, in case I needed to make some drastic move.

I then learned about Kool Stops salmon brake pads designed as replacements for rod brake bikes. The price, at $30.00, seemed pretty high, but I'm pleased to say that I've reached a point where I can stop the bike pretty reliably. The toughest job was getting the old brake pads out of their holders. The new ones slid in pretty easily, and I just used a pair of pliers to cinch them in.

I've also gotten more adept at positioning the brakes close enough to the rim that you can get good leverage and more stopping power. One trick that seems to be working for me is to leave the rod adjustment nut loose, get the brakes where I want them, then slightly pull up on the entire brake just a tiny bit before tightening the nut. This seems to keep the brake levers in the tightest position, so that you don't encounter a lot of slack when you begin applying the brake.

I haven't ridden the bike in the rain, or in wet conditions since changing the brake pads, and I probably won't, unless accidental. Regardless of what you do to get the brakes finely tuned, I think that moisture on the rim will always be a problem when braking.

Small Adjustments to the DL-1 and Adding New Schwalbe Delta Cruiser Cremes

After I got my DL-1 I was happy to find that it was in really good shape. It had been well taken care of. I don't know if there was a long-time owner of it who rode it and maintained it regularly, or whether it was simply stored in a good place for many years. Or perhaps it was carefully cleaned and fixed up prior to it being sold to me.

There were a few things that I needed to do to make it into a rideable bike for me, and two of those things can tell you a lot about a bike's condition.

First, I needed to raise and adjust the saddle, and second, I needed to raise the handlebars. An old bike that has been abused or left out in the weather will usually give you problems with both of these things. Seat posts and stems are, in my experience, the two things that get corroded and tend to seize up on a bike. Sometimes there is almost nothing you can do to resolve this problem. But I was able to raise the saddle easily, and I did this to test ride it, so I knew it was good before I bought the bike.

I was less sure about moving the handlebars. For one thing, this bike has rod brakes, and without any experience with these, I wasn't sure what I was going to get into when I tried to adjust them.

To raise the handlebars on an English Roadster you need to loosen the nuts that connect the rods from the handlebars to the brakes. That's a pretty simple matter, assuming the nuts are not corroded, stripped or rounded off. Mine were fine. I find that a 9mm wrench fits them, though I am pretty sure that they are really a Whitworth standard measurement, and I don't have Whitworth wrenches.

The next step in raising the handlebars is to loosen the stem bolt a bit, at least a quarter-inch or so, then tap it with a hammer (I use a wooden block between the bolt and hammer to prevent marring the surface). This allows the expander wedge to drop down, but still stay connected to the stem bolt. Doing this frees the stem, and allows the handlebars to be moved up. I raised mine as far as I could until I found that the connection for the rod brakes became unstable. I'd really like the bars a little higher still, but any higher and I find that the rods wobble a bit.
I already had a Millbrook saddle bag from another bike, but I knew that it was going to get moved over to the DL-1, and I like how it looks, and I appreciate having a good amount of space for carrying things. This bike is a bit finicky, so I like to have an assortment of tools and repair items with me when I ride it. I've had to make quite a few adjustments while on a ride.

I had hoped that the tires that were on the bike would work out, but knowing the brand to be the very cheapest tires you can buy, I was not optimistic. My suspicions were borne out a few weeks ago when I had my first flat tire while on the trail. It was going to be a long walk no matter what I did, but I was hopeful that I could fix the tire on the spot. The flat was on my back wheel, and knowing the difficulty of removing the wheel, I had already decided to use a patch and try to maneuver the tube out of the tire without removing the wheel from the bike.
Surprisingly, that part of the process went quite well. And I was able to find the hole in the tube rather easily. But what I had not tested at home (and there's certainly a lesson to be learned here) was the authentic, vintage aluminum frame pump which I have on the bike. I had played with it enough to know that it could push air, but I had not actually tested it on a tire. It was a total failure for me.

I was lucky enough that my brother lived close by and came with his pickup and rescued me.

I decided then and there that I wanted to change the tires and tubes to something new. I had been noticing a lot of people with vintage bikes using the Schwalbe Delta Cruiser creme colored tires, and they seem to be well respected. So I made the switch, and I love the new look of the bike. It does make me think about how good a new fully-sprung, honey colored Brooks saddle would look (the one on the bike is the original B-72).

My 1974 Raleigh Tourist DL-1

I went through a busy time without posting any new stories. It's easy to do. You let a week go by, then another.

I was riding quite a bit, as much as you can in the St. Louis area during winter. I had a better January than February. And now, with snow on the ground and more coming, my rides have ground to a halt.

This year I've finally had some time to put into an old interest, vintage bikes. I decided I would just jump in and try to do a "build" on an old tank style bike from the 60s. And as that got going, I got interested again in old Raleigh bikes. I had posted a picture a year or so ago of a Raleigh Tourist DL-1 that I liked the looks of. As I began learning more about Raleigh three-speed bikes, I learned that there were various models over the years, and I learned more about their differences.

It was the DL-1 that totally won me over. So I watched Craigslist and eventually one came up for sale from a private collector in St. Charles. I jumped at the chance and bought the bike before I even really understood that much about it. I had been reading about them, but had never even seen another bike with rod-operated brakes.

So the past two months I've been learning first-hand about this bike. Mine doesn't have a name yet, but I'm searching for one. I want a man's first name that is both iconic and readily identifiable as British. I've learned how to adjust the rod brakes, how to change and replace the tires, raise the handlebars, adjust the Sturmey Archer internal gears and much more. Just learning to take off the back wheel was a big project the first time.

Doing many maintenance and upgrades will require removing the rear wheel. I found the gearing a bit too hard for my riding style, so I decided to swap the 18 tooth rear cog for a 22 tooth. To do so requires the following:

1. remove brake pads from rear brakes


2. remove gear indicator spindle


3. loosen and remove indicator nut and axle nuts


4. remove fender (mudguard) stays from axle


5. remove chain tensioners


6. remove chain from cog


7. remove rear wheel


8. remove washer from right side of axle


9. remove circlip


10. remove old cog and replace with new 22 tooth cog

Now, reverse the entire procedure. However, the larger cog means that the chain will no longer fit, so I needed to add two links to the chain. Centering the wheel takes some time, and adjusting the position of the wheel in the dropouts requires some care. Once in position, tighten the chain tensioners to hold it in position, then replace hardware and tighten the axle nuts.

Also, after putting the brake pads back in, it's necessary to adjust the position of the brake pads to the rim with care, loosening the adjustment bolts and moving things by hand, then retightening. Finally, having removed the internal gear hub indicator spindle, replace it and then adjust the tension of the cable by loosening the small knurled locknut, adjusting the cable tension, then tightening the locknut to keep the cable in its place.

I also discovered that Raleigh bikes of this era (and earlier) have different, and sometimes proprietary, bolt and nut sizes. I had a stripped backstay bolt -- it's a bolt that goes through my chain guard, then holds the rear triangle frame together. A small bolt goes through here and tightens into a threaded bushing. As it turns out, this was fairly difficult to replace. The bolt was a 1/4" diameter with a 26 TPI thread, which is an older British cycling standard. I found a bolt that would work through www.britishfasteners.com for a small price. They require a minimum $5.00 order, so I bought several sizes and multiples to get to that minimum. The bolt worked fine, though a bit longer than the original.