Bicycle!

Sam Tracy

Description

Bicycle! is written by a working bicycle mechanic and covers everything cyclists need to know in order to care for their rides. This book cuts through the jargon and dreariness of sheer mechanics, delivering maintenance clarity with a touch of humour and radicalism. Readers will learn to make roadside and more extensive repairs, lock up properly and deter rust. Bicycle! is about encouraging society to learn for themselves how to make their bikes work-not because they have to, but because they want to.

Sujets

• Cycling

Informations

• Publié par: PM Press
• Date de parution: 01 février 2013
• Nombre de lectures: 0
• EAN13: 9781604866551
• Langue: English
• Poids de l'ouvrage: 1 Mo

Extrait

Bicycle! A Repair & Maintenance Manifesto, 2nd Edition by Sam Tracy © 2013 Sam Tracy
This edition copyright © 2013 PM Press All Rights Reserved
ISBN: 978-1-60486-640-7 LCCN: 2012913627
Cover by Peter Davidson Layout by Jonathan Rowland
PM Press PO Box 23912 Oakland, CA 94623 www.pmpress.org
10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
Printed on recycled paper by the Employee Owners of ThomsonShore in Dexter, Michigan. www.thomsonshore.com
CONTENTS
Introduction
I. Tools
II. Frames
A. Frame Damage
B. Creaks
C. Forks
III. Headsets
A. Threaded
B. Threadless
C. Overhauls
IV. Stems
A. Quill
B. Threadless
C. Adjustable
V. Wheels
A. Tubes
B. Rim Strips
C. Tube Sealants
D. Tires
E. Truing Wheels
VI. Seats and Posts
VII. Handlebars
A. Mountain
B. Road
VIII. Control Cables
IX. Brakes
A. Sidepulls
B. Centerpulls
C. Cantilevers
D. Linear Pull
E. Disc
F. Leverage
G. Hydraulic
X. Drivetrains
A. Friction
B. Indexing
1. Rear Derailleurs
2. Front Derailleurs
3. Cable Adjustments
C. Shift Levers
D. Planetary Gearing
E. Chains
F. Pedals
G. Cranks
H. Bottom Brackets
1. One-Piece
2. Sealed-Cartridge
3. Three-Piece
XI. Hubs
A. Freewheel
B. Cassette
C. Overhauls
XII. Boxing Bikes
XIII. Winter Riding
XIV. On-the-Road Repairs
XV. Scavenging, Rust, and Security
XVI. Building Your Own Wheels
XVII. Singlespeeds
XVIII. Recumbents
XIX. Fixed Gears
Resources
Index
Acknowledgments
I would first like to thank Seng Chen, Peter Davidson, Sara Lindstrom, Dan Osterud, Joey Paxman, Kerri Spindler-Ranta, and Nancy Tracy for providing the graphic balance this book relies upon. I would also like to thank the good folks at the Hub in Minneapolis for the chance to catch up on things, and everyone at PM Press for the opportunity to put it to words. Finally, the success of this book owes much to Mohamed O. Hmeida, Mohamed O. Amar, Ramatas, Hawa Diaz, Dahane, Ahmed O. Jiyid, and of course my lovely wife Kerri.
Introduction
G o: get on your bike, slip out into the yawning morning traffic, find your groove, and get there. It’s the start of a new day for so many of us, all around the world in forward-thinking cities like Amsterdam, bicycles already account for 35 percent of all trips taken. In Groningen, a Swedish city of 180,000, it’s 60 percent. The vitality that comes with riding intoxicates as the Dutch NGO Interface for Cycling Expertise puts it, "Cycling in reality may be less difficult, less dangerous, faster and more practical than many people suspect." Even in China, nascent star-child for the automotive industry, cyclists still outnumber drivers by more than fifty to one.
Even the most casual glance confirms that distinct bikes are lately available to suit just about any useful ambition, at points all up and down the quality spectrum, but in the end we ride what we have, and that fairly describes the scope of this book. Whatever you paid for your bike, however cool it happens to look, it will eventually need some work. The trials of our passage can cost more than we might like to think, in terms of wear and tear, and one day the bill will surely come due. That day need not overwhelm! Bike repair begins with at least two advantages: an injured bicycle is a hell of a lot cheaper to fix than certain other forms of transportation, and the mechanical principles in play are also much more accessible no gas, no explosions. Given some insight and a few tools, the odds are good you can do it yourself.
The original Manifesto came together in 2005, when I worked as a mechanic at a high-end bike shop in San Francisco. This new edition began in the Islamic Republic of Mauritania, where my wife Kerri and I served as Peace Corps Volunteers. As might be imagined, the distance between the two places left an impression. There was no carbon fiber to be seen over there, let alone titanium; just plenty of chromed steel rims and old cottered cranks. Those dusty old garage relics, donated to groups like ReCycle or Bikes Not Bombs? From all we saw, people end up making very good use of them.
Our spotty internet made it possible to follow technical developments in the cycling world as a longtime mechanic, it might be more correct to say that these were difficult to ignore. Yet, from such a vantage, the latest and greatest also became less relevant. Bikes in the RIM (Republique Islamique de Mauritanie) are taken for their last possible miles, literally ridden to ground, drawing the focus back to the opposite end of the spectrum. This edition will duly consider the new math, in all its ultra-light glory, but my heart remains with the older and more proven technology, much of which is still in use all around the world. Ultimately I am most interested in making the most of what is available, whatever that happens to be, with the goal of providing the fundamentals for as many cyclists as possible.
There is nothing sacrosanct about fixing bikes. More so than anywhere else I’ve lived, life in the RIM confirms that "mechanical aptitude" is merely a distinct pursuit, not unlike any other. Circumstance might lead any of us to have more or less exposure to mechanical concepts and applications, and with this the opportunity to develop fluency, but really that’s about it. Success with bike repair follows from experience more than anything else, which to a significant extent grounds it squarely in the public domain.
The soundtrack to the second edition includes Seun Kuti, Faith & the Muse, Off!, Yo Majesty, Awesome Snakes, Black Angels, Cheater Slicks, Brunt of It, Best Friends Forever, Career Suicide, Frontside Five, Agent Orange, Cut Chemist, Fleet Foxes, Rudimentary Peni, Sisters of Mercy, Joy Division, New Order, Flux of Pink Indians, Bats in the Belfry and Radio Ninja on WMBR, MKEPunk.com , KUSF In Exile, Dark Dark Dark, and the muezzin.
I. Tools
L ike other trades, bicycle repair is in most respects a specialty. Some of the skills and tools acquired elsewhere in life may become useful, as we’ll see, and others will not. The use of force necessarily becomes much more judicious, to take one example a fairly obvious point, given the scale of many of the parts involved. Our accelerating tendency to rush is best left at the day job, as well: it is possible to wreck just about anything, done fast enough.
In the ideal, it’s best to have one place in particular to fix those bikes in your care somewhere dry, well-lit, and reasonably calm, if you’re especially lucky. A truly exceptional workshop will feature a sturdy bench or table as well, mounted with a vise. There will of course come times when we don’t have any of these things a topic further explored in Roadside Bicycle Repair: A Pocket Manifesto but given the luxury of planning, it is well worth the time to set things up right in the first place.
The BICYCLE REPAIR STAND is very useful to the craft, though it is not strictly necessary. The improved vantage stands provide makes it much easier to see and interact with a bike’s nether regions; over the course of a tune-up this makes for a lot less squatting, bending over, and peering beneath. The stands also accomplish the useful trick of removing the wheels from the ground, which greatly simplifies our work on the brakes and the drivetrain.
A number of companies produce bike repair stands. Those made by Park Tool of St. Paul, MN, as used in most North American bike shops, are perhaps the most visible examples. I have plenty of experience with Park’s heavy-duty shop stands, but I rely upon one of their lighter consumer models at home, and things work out fine there as well. The central distinction across their range of stands is in the clamp basic models employ simple spring-mounted jaws; better ones incorporate adjustable clamps. This detail becomes important with lightweight aluminum and carbon fiber frames, the tubes of which may respond poorly to excesses of compression. In truth, we’re really not supposed to be clamping anything around any of that at all much as cats instinctively carry their young by the scruff of the neck, bike repair stands should strive to clamp the bikes by their seatposts. (Carbon fiber seatposts, available in only a few common sizes, can be temporarily replaced with dummy posts of the same dimensions.)
You may need to raise the post a bit more out of its frame, in order to successfully clamp it. Before doing so, mark its original position with a ring of electrical tape. And if there really is no alternative as with some of the recumbents, which trade our bar stools for lounge chairs slip a rag beneath the clamp’s jaws, before biting down. Note that stickers and frame decals fare poorly under such pressure. so clamp elsewhere if possible.
This is all a little simpler if you’re not working on anything too fancy a sturdy old steel frame, perhaps, without much paint left to worry about. If the situation does appear negotiable, go ahead and clamp down on the frame’s seat tube, just beneath its top tube. Clamping in such a position makes it easier to move the bike around as needed.

EZ Grip ratcheting clamp.
Park repair stands, among others, feature detachable clamps for distinct purposes. Park’s 100-4X Extreme Range Clamp is wide enough to grasp many of the fat-tubed recumbent frames, but some short wheelbase ‘bents such as the Bacchetta will respond better to one of the traditional Park clamp jaws, wrapped tightly around the neutral side chainstay. Moreover, this very same feature allows us to clamp on to the bike first, before lifting the whole package up into the stand a very useful option to have with some of the tandems and trikes.
Got any old toe straps kicking around? Wrap one of the straps around the stand’s base. We’ll occasionally need to keep a bike’s fork from dropping out of its frame, as when replacing threadless stems, and the toe straps are ideal for such purposes.
Absent the stand, you might want to set up a BIKE SLING: t