Saturday (6/19) (yes, a while ago) the Green Mirage was returned to the bicycle underworld. I’ll remember it as a basically good frame. The ride and steering weren’t t bad. I found it rideable on gravel, and it was really good for hands-free riding. It taught me a few things
- be careful not to lose crank cotters because they are not necessarily interchangeable
- stem shifters are sensitive to handlebar stem height
- French bikes and components are, let’s say, unconventional.
It was far from perfect, in particular the shifting was frustratingly unpredictable*. It was heavy (30 pounds), and a sluggish climber, but not bad on descents.
I rode it a total of 9 times to get beyond 100 Km. The first 4 rides were shakedowns, and I documented them in earlier posts. I was remiss in posting over the final 5 rides. Throughout the challenge, the Mirage always made a one-per-pedal-rev noise. I tried to oil the pedals, tighten the cotters, ride standing, and tighten the seat post to quiet it, to no avail. Anyways, so here are some pictures from the last 5 rides.
Before ride #5 I discovered a flat rear tire. Went to re-inflate, and found the entire valve (schraeder) missing. I decided it was a bad idea to run on the as-found tubes, so had to replace front and rear. I used used tubes from my stuff in bins, I added ½ half the cost of new tubes to my budget.
On rides 5 & 6 I’ve found that this road bike can also serve as a hybrid/cross/gravel bike (never understood the difference among those labels). I had some fun traversing gravel roads, some trails, and across apple orchards (apple blossoms have come and gone). Ride 7 was the rail trail to a flower shop.
Two breakdowns on ride #8, a longish ride over diverse surfaces including gravel roads, orchards, and grass. Lost the chain from the small chainwheel at some random point on the ride, not sure why, can’t remember if I was downshifting. Might have been bounced off on a bump? Towards the end of the ride, heard a strange noise and then the bike became hard to pedal. I had to stop and I found a brake pad on the rear had loosened and was rubbing hard on the sidewall of the tire. Maybe the rough unpaved roads again. Repositioned and tightened and finished ride.
Rides 7 & 8 had some steep descents, which were not frightening. The climbs were arduous though.
Ride #9 I passed 100Km. I’d thought I needed 10Km, but my spreadsheet had an error, and I actually only needed about 1.5Km. So I completed the challenge with 112Km total.
Throughout the challenge, the Mirage always made a one-per-pedal-rev noise. I'd tried to oil the pedals, tighten the cotters, ride standing, and tighten the seat post to quiet it, to no avail. On my last ride it squeaked so loudly that I truly was just relieved to finish before something broke. Turns out the drive side crank had the wrong cotter installed (probably one from an old Raleigh Super Course).
*post-mortem: I subsequently mounted the Green Mirage wheels on my newly found Gran Sport, whose tires were not safe enough to ride. Lo, with the Gran Sport on the bike stand, the rear wheel would unpredictably shift off of 2nd gear, just like it did on the Mirage. The original Gran Sport wheels shifted great. Of course these are non-indexed friction shifters, so I wouldn’t suspect cable mis-adjustment. I don’t know how, but I now think the freewheel is the culprit. I’ll have to investigate further. Maybe next year.