Maintenance at last

It is amazing how the years start coming and they don't stop coming.

It is official now that I am retired from the bike industry. I keep a modest shop in the basement so there is still some tinkering going on. I recently traded for a 1951 Raleigh Club Racer with most of it's bits still attached - Chater Lea Crank, GB hubs, pedals and brakes, Fiamme rims, Bluemel fenders. Gonna take a bit to get it on the road as it has 27" tubular rims, and there ain't no way I am riding it unless it gets clinchers. It will be a challenge to find a quality 27" 630mm 40 hol rim to match the back hub, but hey, I am retired now, so just gonna take my time and see what I can find.

All that aside, the whole point of this blog is to document maintenance on my beater bike. The SC1800 was supplanted by an MEC Skyway in 2013. So it has come time for a serious interval on the Skyway - new Schwalbe Marathon tires ($70cdn each), new Gates belt and stainless cog ($300cdn), and a new bike lock of the Kryptonite New York Diamond variety ($400cdn). The old Gates belt finally broke teeth after 13 years of riding. I do leave it in the sun when it is parked, so perhaps UV light degraded the blue cloth that wraps the teeth on the inside of the belt. Mileage on that belt could be about 10000km based on a little under 1000km/year for 13 years. The rear cog was certainly showing wear as the gap between the teeth was embiggened compared to a new one. 

The view from the shop:

I used to use Maxxis Refuse tires for a couple of years, and they were okay, but certainly not immune to flats. The last couple of years have been running a Continental Gatorskin on the front and Schwalbe Marathon on the back and seemed to have less flats (but also putting less miles on). The new tires look good - made in Vietnam and claim to make less pollution in the manufacturing process. Still limited to 700x25 as the largest tire that will fit under the fenders. The Mavic Open Pro SUP rims are holding up well on the brake surface.

The old bike lock I have been using was a nice Kryptonite from the mid 90s, and it still works fine. Considering that most of the bad guys in the city now use angle grinders to commit crimes, it seemed prudent to upgrade to the newest generation of locks. Was looking at Litelok, Abus, OnGuard, SkunkLok and Hiplok but went with the Kryptonite based on reviewed product testing and affinity for the easy key replacement that Kryptonite has been providing me for the last 30 years. In addition, the hub axles are now protected by Pinhead locking nuts (M9 front, M10 rear) that I added a couple of years ago. The handlebar, stem and seat collar have Wrigley brand bubble gum in the allen head fittings to discourage punks with allen wrenches.

The Gates belt and cog were a little tricky to come by. I searched and searched the nooks and crannies of the internet and there were a few places that had belts but a poor selection of cogs. Eventually I found Vapour Propulsion Labs at vpl.bike and bingo! In stock and shipped to my door within a week from Colorado. It's a bit of a drag for me there is no Canadian distributor, but hey VPL made the transaction pretty easy. It's also nice to know that Gates still supports the app that helps to measure the Hertz (sound frequency) of a plucked belt to make sure it's just right. I still have my old Krikit tension gauge to double check it to 40lbs of deflection.

Here is the "new" beater in the daylight:

I still have the SC1800, but it is reserved mostly for guest use. It has also been at the back of the back yard for years now and is surprisingly not completely rusty. The V brakes are a bit sticky to their posts and will require a bit of servicing when I get a minute. The KMC X chain is seemingly quite corrosion resistant. I purged a couple of bikes from the basement, so I have room to store the old beast out of the rain and snow now. Here is the thing that started this whole blog more than 20 years ago:

I suppose that is all there is to report for the moment. I don't even know who will read this, but at least I have a reference for Vapour Labs so when I need another new belt and cog in ten years from now, I will remember who to call.

SC1800 still rolling in 2023!

 I think it's been 19 year since I started this 'experiment'. 

See above for a recent picture of the original test subject. It still rolls, and I try to keep up maintenance on it. Truth be told mileage is way down, because I primarily ride that MEC Skyway for most short hops around town. They are both good beater bikes, but the Skyway is on the front porch and good to go and the SC1800 lives in the back yard. At this point it is really more of a study in corrosion and neglect than how it rides. It's amazing all I really have to do is oil the chain and pump up the tyres and it is still quite ride-able. I do occasionally (maybe twice/year) squirt TriFlow onto the derailleurs and brake mounting studs.

I think I put a new tyre on the front wheel a couple of years ago. The replacement Kenda Klaw has been gnawed on by a squirrel and made a hole that couldn't be booted. Darn squirrels. The new tyre came from Uncle Jacob and is a Maxxis that works okay. It was super hard to get bike parts in the summer of 2020 and supply chains got messed up, but Jacob always came through - I think he was getting inner tubes and stuff straight from China or something.

I am likely the only person on earth that still cares (do I ?) about this blog but since the machine is still rolling, I will try to update it once/year out of habit.

Cheers :)

Almost lost track of this blog

Well here we are 5 years later and the Skyway is still running. . . broke a Gates belt when a stick went in it, but it's still rolling. New Mavic Open Pro rims replace the soft aluminium Alex brand rims it came with. ..

Still have the SC1800, but don't ride it very often because there are now 16 nice bikes in the herd.

Both odometers have gone by the wayside, mostly because I glued them on and then when the battery died I just gave up.

Here is a nice bike:

I think it's a CCM Targa, definitely 1977. Got it without any wheels, but built up 27" Sun CR18's on Campy high flange hubs.Repacked Ashtabula/cottered bottom bracket. Nightmare. Worst of both worlds. The Lyotard pedals look identical to Phillips pedals of old, except the bearings knock around much more easily. It's almost like a plain bearing/bushing in those Lyotards. Crap. I can only ride it on wide open roads because the Weinmann brakes are so weak. The front derailleur setup was a nightmare. There is a cable guide that has the cable rubbing on the tire one way and the chainring teeth the other way and only .5 mm of sweet spot to it works. Maybe I'm using the wrong cable guide which is weird because it's the correct Huret one that came with the bike. Still it's a good waay to remember the 70's - no helmets, no seat belts, no sealed Tylenol bottle. Somehow we survived.

SC1800 24233km

SC1800 is running well through severe duty. Regularly exposed to salty water, temperature around zero Fahrenheit and damaged roads, the machine is still riding well. The only maintenance since the last post was to lubricate the Shimano BRM432 brakes because a bushing was corroding, making the brake pad constantly drag on the wheel.

Lubricant of choice at the moment is Boeshield T9.

The light of choice right now is a Cygolight Metro 420. Works awesome so far. On the back is the Planet Bike Superflash, they been working quite well for awhile now.

SKYWAY km 2073.6

OK so..so...

In November of 2012, this writer received a new machine to test ride.

It is a 2012 1/2 MEC Skyway - high lights are Gates Center track belt drive, Reynolds Chromium Molybdenum steel frame, etc . . .

The half year model denotes a running change where some models under the same stock keeping unit will fit fenders and others will absolutely not.


Upgrades within a month of point of purchase are: Wheels Manufacturing solid steel bolt on axles, swapping the drop handlebar for a regular MTB zero rise handlebar, 48/58mm reach brakes, Oury grips, Cygolite Metro 420 light, Planet bike fenders, luggage rack,etc.

At km 800 the belt failed when a stick went in it, derailed it, and then forced back on to the chainring.

Running pretty good right now, though there is quite a bit of wear and tear on the rim brake surface despite running soft salmon Kool Stop brake pads.

Stay posted for more observations . . .

km 23442.76

Back on like James Bond! Service interval of October 26, 2012 * Cateye odometer failed at 23233 after 923km. Failure due to open circuit in wyring harness. Replaced wih original Filzer Dz2L with a fresh LR43 battery. (apparently the LR44 also works adequately, but went with the original spec instead) Note: add 23233 to future odometer readings * Replaced broken back axle with cro-mo one...aligned dropouts more precisely this time. * Repaired back fender with Planet bike 'eyebolt'. * Replaced one broken spoke that failed at head * Replaced worn front brake pads. * Repaired failed weld in luggage carrier with tightly wrapped mechanics' annealing wyre. Service interval of November 28, 2012 * Repaired worn back tyre. Cords in outer casing had split, causing tyre liner to show through and ride wobbly. Back tyre is pre owned generic Kenda semi slick kindly donated by generous patron. * Removed badly damaged back mudflap from Planet Bike's 'Freddy Fender' * Noted wear on chain and oiled with Prolink * Noted missing paint and finish wearing off crankset * remarked how original front derailleur still works perfectly with no play between pivots, original grips in pristine condition, sticker still attached to stem.

Odometer stalled...

...around June of 2012 due to a fender failure (threw a rod holding on the back one). Since then, the 1974 CCM Galaxie 500 has proved an adequate replacement with it's Sturmey Archer AW 3 speed transmission and solid all steel construction. Looking forward to getting the SC1800 back in action ASAP and apologies for the delay in the observations in this experiment. dc