Regular Maintenance?

[summerdays]

The one that gets me the most is the BMX bikes with a shoe for a brake whether it is against the ground or on the back wheel....Why ..? What is wrong with having a functioning brake on your bike... (and a saddle that is high enough that you can sit on without hitting your chin with your knees)

 

[som3blok3]

The one that gets me the most is the BMX bikes with a shoe for a brake whether it is against the ground or on the back wheel....Why ..? What is wrong with having a functioning brake on your bike... (and a saddle that is high enough that you can sit on without hitting your chin with your knees)

Come on, everybody knows that a BMX with a brake just isn't cool, that's why they make their shoes so big and chunky. At least, that's the word on the street.......

 

[BentMikey]

It's an easy answer - handlebar spinning tricks. I know there is a gadget for that, but apparently they break a lot and/or cost, so not going to happen for many kids.

 

[potsy]

Guy at work last night was saying how his back wheel had a bit of play in it, Had a quick feel (of the wheel) and blimey it was wobbling about 1/2 an inch from side to side

Didn't stop him coming past me downhill at about 35mph though

Our work bike racks have some real clunkers in them, despite working in engineering some folk either haven'y a clue or just don't care.

 

[mgarl10024]

I think that it's an education thing.

A year ago, when I thought about cycling to work, I brought in my £150 Halfords bike and the work chaps who cycle regularly had a look. I didn't know a lot about it, but they kindly explained the wrongs about having the saddle at the lowest level, pedalling with the pedal in the middle of your foot, and smacking WD40 on the chain. I'm very glad they did.

So, when I see someone with a rusty chain or other bike issues, I tend to think that it's more that they just don't the right way of doing things, rather than just being lazy/neglectful.

 

[Amanda P]

The trouble is, sometimes these are folk who get up in the morning thinking "it's a nice day, I'll take the bike today".

So they fish it out from under all the junk in the garage and off they go.

By the end of the trip, they've concluded that

• cycling is far too much hard work. (Well it would be - the tyres are flat, the chain's nearly solid and the bike was a gas-pipe clunker in the first place).

• they never could get the hang of the gears. (See earlier comment about chain; BSOs' gears never work properly anyway. And if they do, they're all far too high).
• your back gets all sweaty from carrying a bag, or it's a nuisance having to keep pulling your handbag back up your arm. (Ever noticed how cheapie bikes don't come with anything with which to carry stuff?)
• ...you know what? I'll just leave it at work/on the street/in the skip and come home on the bus.
• Sod cycling for a lark. Not for me!

And that's a shame. A ride on a light, properly maintained, equipped and set-up bike would have been easy and fun.

 

[Amanda P]

I came upon a guy one day cyling an old 1980s all-steel racer lookalike. Some of the cables clearly weren't connected to anything, the chain made a constant loud squealing, the steel rims were visibly wobbling, and, best of all, the left crank connected with the chainstay every third or fourth rotation, clearly loose on the bottom bracket axle. Whenever he didn't remember to push it away from the chainstay with his foot: crash!

The thing is, he was doing a cracking pace. In the gutter, but maintaining a good 20 mph plus. We chatted for a while, leaving me out of breath. I left him thinking, if he was on a decent bike, or even one with a bit less friction going on, he'd really shift.

 

[Amanda P]

Then there's the fact that some bikes are such poor quality that even regular maintenance won't help much.

I had a student a couple of years ago who relied on his bike to come to work. It was an impressively heavy Halford's mountain bike. The frame had over-size tubes as if it were alloy, but it was in fact mild steel.

I don't think there was a single week I didn't do something to it. The wheels were constantly going out of true, the seat post gradually sank into the seat tube no matter how tightly we clamped it or shimmed it, the wheel bearings wouldn't stay adjusted (no key washers or anything between the cone and locknut) and were pretty rough to start with, the brakes didn't do much at the best of times, and the gear changers were so crude that you could never get the gears trimmed. And it was heavy!

Once we'd put on decent tyres and changed a couple of cables, it became functional - if only with depressingly frequent maintenance. But I didn't envy him having to use it every day.