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12-18-20, 07:22 AM

#20

Geepig

Senior Member

Join Date: Sep 2020

Location: Eastern Poland

Posts: 744

Bikes: Romet Jubilat x 4, Wigry x 1, Turing x 1

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Tigger mostly lives in a bicycle rack outside our block, unless there are frosts or snow, so that I can just run away from my desk, unlock it and ride into the distance. It spent some weeks locked to the fence, but the decision by the administration was taken to supply a second rack as the first was chocka with bikes that appeared in the Spring wave of fitness optimism that came with the pandemic, and what people were going to do with all that time previously used in commuting. So the first rack filled up with bikes, but the dreams died. Now there is a second rack, and Tigger is the only one that uses it.

The 'normal' bikes huddle at the other end of the bike rack, as far as possible from the dangerous Tigger hybrid.

There was a white bike, women's, that used to be locked to the fence before we had any rack, and the administration kept complaining about it until they realized a rack might make the problem go away. It did. The white bike was duly locked to the rack, and there it has stayed for the past 3-4 years, never turning a wheel, and the owner may not even live here any more. It is not of particular interest to me, but there are a few nice items on it like the chromed front headlamp...

While on the subject of things not of particular interest, a few months ago I came across an advert for bike parts that included a strange mechanism, with a brake cable attached. I thought for a while that it was not even bike related, but then I remember references to an early form of brake - the plunger brake. Instead of clamping the rim, hub or disc, it was like a piston that forced a metal of rubber pad straight down on the tire tread. This one was certainly rubber, and must have had a negative impact on tire tread life. A little effort later, and I ascertained that they had been fitted to many Romet child's bikes of the 1970s and 80s. I assumed that, like plastic pedals, it was just a cheap and practical solution for that end of the market, but this week I learned that they were also fitted to adult bikes by Romet when it was still known as ZZR, back in the 1950s and 60s.

I want one quite badly, just to try it out of course.

On other things, we sometimes need to put the car in the garage now, what with the frosts and snow. Since the bikes are no longer just squashed up against the rear wall and I plan to continue doing some work there throughout the winter, I have decided to put Blue in our basement storage. This is convenient as at some point I need to do something about its malfunctioning coaster brake, potentially even replacing the whole hub with some kind of 3-speed one, Sturmey Archer or Shimano perhaps. It would be nice to give Blue a service, as so far all I have done is fix things on the go while I focussed on Tigger.

The first stage will be to strip off the front and rear racks, along with their baskets, as that will make it significantly lighter and smaller, as well as giving better access to things like the brakes. The front wheel spokes also need resetting, as does the front hub bearing, and I can always pop a wheel off while it is folded in the basement and take it to the garage to work on it some fine weekend.

Other than that, I am planning to move Tigger’s front light up above the front mudguard. When the bike is folded, the current fork-mounted position means that it is easy to catch it on things, especially in the back of the car. I suppose I should fix the front mudguard at the same time.

I moved the work bench to the back of the garage to make room for the car, but the number of racks and mudguards stored alongside it is inconvenient. Luckily one of our neighbours decided to throw out a pair shelves, perfect for putting those awkwardly shaped and bulky objects up and out of the way, like Blue’s racks/baskets. The shelves are the floating type, but since I want something a bit stiffer in terms of brackets I headed off to the local DIY store / builder’s merchants. Much cruising later we discovered the brackets in the wood section, in a corner far, far away from the section containing all other brackets and fasteners. I selected six, popped them in my basket and we headed back to the other section to select some fasteners. The funny thing is that while I was busy selecting screws, people kept noticing the shelf brackets in our basket, then asking wifie where they were hidden in the store.

I cannot say that putting up shelves is my favorite task, but since my dad was a master builder I have picked up a few tricks along the way - such as hammering the screw in if it jams a few turns short of finishing. Now I just need a few more of those plastic fruit and veg boxes, and something to keep those mudguards under control. I now remember that I should have a wall hook lying around somewhere, which would be handy to keep tires and inner tubes out of the way while working on the wheels.

The shelves went up easier than I expected, although since they were essentially like a modern interior door I could not just screw them to the fasteners to keep them in place. Instead I attached an M4 bolt to the outer fixing, which was enough to keep the shelves from sliding around.

#romet #rower #bicycle #wigry #jubilat #shopper #poland #polska

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