antique bicycle collection

On the Personalities of Old Bikes

2015-07-30T14:13:00.000-07:00

Having worked on a few now, it has become pretty obvious that old bikes all have unique personalities. Sure, I know a mass of metal and rubber isn't really sentient, but there's something in each old bike that perhaps brings out different aspects of my own personality. For instance, my Columbia, the bike that started this blog, is like an old friend. I know him inside and out, and whenever a

Police Attack NYC Critical Mass Rider

2015-07-28T13:29:00.000-07:00

Regardless of how you feel about Critical Mass, this is a pretty disturbing video. I'm actually fairly ambivalent about CM, and I don't endorse anyone intentionally breaking traffic laws while riding, but I do believe that cyclists have as much right to the road as anyone else. That the fellow was arrested and charged on top of getting randomly creamed by a cop, is just the height of

The Wheels of Justice...

2015-07-28T10:25:00.000-07:00

Edit: I've been re-subpeonaed for early September. ...need their bearings cleaned and repacked. I've been promising a few folks that I would blog about the car v. bicyclist road rage incident I witnessed last year, but the case (in which I was scheduled to testify this morning) has been continued, which means it will come up again, and I'll be subpoena'd again. I don't want

The Runwell: Day 3

2015-07-27T20:03:00.000-07:00

Today's big task was the front wheel: getting the rims, spokes, and hub cleaned and inspected. Everything seems true and tight and sturdy, and it certainly looks better now than it did. I used a combination of light oil and steel wool, and Brasso polish. I also had a go at removing the pedals, but was only able to get one off. The other is stuck fast and is going to need some serious help. The

Shifty Shifter

2015-07-27T10:14:00.000-07:00

Yesterday, I disconnected the shifter and took it off. The bike is now cable-free, like the fixed gears you see all over the place these days. I actually like the clean look, but I'm not willing to give up gears and brakes to get it.The picture on top is the shifter that was on there. Note the rust, broken plastic, and the cable casing that has peeled away. The cable itself is also in pretty

The Runwell: Day 2

2015-07-26T15:04:00.000-07:00

First, I took a few swipes at the chainring with fine steel wool and some light oil to see what I was in for, and it looks like it's going to need a more extensive treatment. I removed the decaying plastic (or very old, thin rubber?) grips, and found a mess of cardboard, or paper, or cork, or something underneath, which is proving difficult to chip off.Here's a photo of the small spot I started

"Before" Paint Detail

2015-07-25T15:58:00.000-07:00

Here are some "before" pictures of the rough shape the paint is in.Nothing too exciting today. I removed the rear brake assembly and discovered that it was even dirtier than the front brake assembly (see yesterday's post). So that was fun. It is very satisfying to clean all the parts, though. See if I still feel this way next week.

The Runwell: Day 1

2015-07-25T13:41:00.000-07:00

The first order of business was to run a cloth over the whole thing so my hands didn't come away black every time I touched the thing. I squirted Pedro's Bio Cleaner on a damp rag and just wiped the whole thing down. I came away with three buckets of brown/black water. At first, I thought I must be taking off the paint, but no, it was just dirt. I also took a broom to the underside of the

CNN Gives Old Bike Refurbisher "Hero" Status

2015-07-25T09:10:00.000-07:00

And well-deserved, too:"The thought that I can reach out and permanently improve someone's life for the better is addictive," says Dave Schweidenback. Several times a year, the 55-year-old can be found prepping large shipments of used bicycles bound for a developing country. For Schweidenback, gathering and breaking down these bikes is a labor of love -- one that is helping to keep the bikes out

See, I told you...

2015-07-24T16:21:00.000-07:00

...that old bikes are just as good as new ones. This caught my eye in a story at the San Diego News Network about two environmental advocates who bicycled from Vancouver to Tijuana to raise awareness of the plastic pollution in the North Pacific Gyre:“Our bikes are both reused bikes,” Eriksen said of the bike he just rode for 2,000 miles. “The point is that it doesn’t take a huge investment to

Another Year Older

2015-07-24T13:46:00.000-07:00

The OBB is TWO years old as of yesterday! I celebrated the event by taking the Columbia, my first restoration, on a grocery run and then I made another one today. Huzzah for transportational bicycling! Thanks to all my loyal readers (81 Followers as of today, plus all the other feed-readers and lurkers), you folks rock!

Everything is Dirty

2015-07-24T13:37:00.000-07:00

As in filthy. Grimy. Gross. Accumulated road guck.I took a little break from work at noon today (I work at home) while my lunch was warming up, and removed the front brake assembly. I'm doing everything incrementally, one step at a time, because I'm not at all confident in my ability to remember where everything goes. I'm taking pictures of everything as I do it for later reference when I

My New Project: The Runwell

2015-07-24T08:26:00.000-07:00

Ever since I featured Margaret's Hercules project, I've been extremely jealous that she gets to work on such a truly awesome old project. There aren't a lot of pre-WWII English bikes in San Diego, after all. And yet, while poking about on Craigslist, I did indeed find one. Meet the Runwell.Year unknown, model unknown, but I'm guessing 1920s-1930s, based on what the previous owner told me, and

Bicycle Chic(?) San Diego

2015-07-23T13:39:00.000-07:00

I've been away on vacation, so haven't been posting for a while. Now I'm back, so I'll try to get a post up every once in a while. Summer is a hard blogging season, 'cause I'm out actually doing stuff and have less time to write about it. Thought I'd share this photo of my wife and I taken on this month's Mid-City Bike Blast ride, which toured community and private food gardens in the City

Happy Birthday, Old Bike Blog!

2015-07-23T07:59:00.000-07:00

Today is one year since I started this blog to record the process of refurbishing my 1971 Columbia Sports III. Several design changes, lots of new content, three new (old) bikes, and many new friends later, here we are. Huzzah! I may or may not have bought myself a little OBB birthday present yesterday, but I'll save that for tomorrow. I'll give you a hint: it's English.About the image: while

How's That? Forbes Says San Diego #3 Most Bike-Friendly?

2015-07-21T09:39:00.000-07:00

Just a week after Kathy Keehan's (San Diego County Bicycle Coalition) critical observation at the Voice of San Diego that "it takes more than a bike path" to make a city bicycle-friendly, Forbes Traveler ranks San Diego as the third most bicycle-friendly city in North America, behind only Portland, Oregon and Boulder, Colorado and ahead of bike mecca Davis, California. This in itself is bad

1930s "Lifetime Elgin" Poster

2015-07-20T10:21:00.000-07:00

I picked up this old advert (not a poster, really, but a leaf from a magazine) yesterday at one of our local shops, Paper Antiquities. The store is amazing, and the owner is very friendly. If you're ever in San Diego, check them out. I love the visual style of the ad, and I even borrowed a bit for the new banner head for the blog, which I think turned out wonderfully. But it was the text that

How to Adjust a Sturmey-Archer Three-Speed Hub

2015-07-18T12:16:00.000-07:00

Sometimes I actually post useful information. Sometimes.So, I've kept kind of quiet about it, but ever since I put my Columbia Sports III back together last, uh, November, I've been having trouble getting the hub adjustment right. This is mostly the result of the fact that I experience problems while on a ride, stop to quickly make some stop-gap adjustments, then realizing later that it's still

Adults Learning to Ride

2015-07-18T10:13:00.000-07:00

I can't decide if this is depressing or inspiring. What do you think?

Reader Project: Giuseppe's 1973 Schwinn De Luxe Twinn

2015-07-15T21:44:00.000-07:00

Giuseppe wanted to share his new tandem project with me, and I wanted to pass it along to you all. This is the first tandem we've featured here, and it's a real beauty. Giuseppe has big plans to transport the entire family, so wish them luck on their inaugural ride this week. Check out more photos of the rehab process at Giuseppe's blog.

Reader Project: John's 1955 Huffy/Raleigh Sportsman

2015-07-08T15:32:00.000-07:00

I'm a bit slow in getting this posted, but John and I have been exchanging emails as he has been busy resurrecting this lovely 1955 Huffy/Raleigh Sportsman he found on Craigslist-- just like mine, only red. Notice the Raleigh-style fork that has been added to replace the original. John finished his work very quickly, especially considering this was his first old bike project. He has lots more

Happy New Year, Happy Old Bikes!

2015-07-01T21:50:00.000-07:00

How to Care for Leather Saddles

2015-07-01T12:01:00.000-07:00

A couple of goes with saddle soap did so much to improve the look of my new old Brooks B-72 that I wanted to post an after picture and also solicit comments from readers about what they use to clean and maintain their leather saddles, especially the old ones.For the Runwell's saddle, which I originally thought beyond redemption, I used a combination of several cleanings with saddle soap and then

Priming Update

2015-07-01T09:25:00.000-07:00

Update Update: This morning/afternoon, I put the two extra coats of primer on the fenders, chain guard, and fork and also primed the frame. I went ahead and put 5 coats of primer on the frame, well-spaced at about 15 minutes between coats. I didn't get a real smooth coverage on the whole frame, not sure what the problem was. I'm hoping that buffing with the steel wool will smooth it out. I'm

There, I Fixed It

2015-07-01T09:06:00.000-07:00

Just came across the blog There, I Fixed It, which seems to be some sort of cousin to FAIL Blog. In any case, I thought my readers might appreciate some of the "fixes" that people come up with. I like this one. Fire bicycle. Very clever.I recently wrote a post at The World Awheel that's sort of relevant to the idea of creative solutions to problems, which readers here might also find interesting.