Fixing pals bikes. A story of a bike crime

That looks a.lot of work to get it moving!

I hope you get something for your time.

mechs and shifters have freed off ( they were completely seized).  wheels are Okish and BB is fine.  Cables totally seized.  cantis all seized as well but they have been stripped and cleaned and are ok

Is that a set of Project2 forks? A half decent Kona?

What no putoline?

Chinese guy at work left suddenly to take a job in the Middle East and just left some bikes parked outside. I think he just kept buying a new bike every year and riding them until the tyres went flat or something, then leaving them in a heap. I resurrected the frame that these forks came off as a commuter bike. Apart from the stem, bars, seatpost and frame, the only useable parts were the low-end Shimano hydro brakes. The bike looked like it had been pulled out of a river, the headset bearings were gone and the hubs were shot, the brake rotors were pitted with rust, but the brakes still work fine. I have them on a spare bike, they didn't even need bleeding or pads, just needed new rotors.

My youngest son is riding a set of cheap 2005 shimano hydro brakes from an old bike of mine. Been bled once. They’re still brilliant. He’s asked if I can transfer them to his next bike because he likes them so much.

Is that a set of Project2 forks? A half decent Kona?

Unfortunately not.  An old Claude Butler worth half of nothing

Here be the way of students.

Buy shiny new bike , get excited about cycling  adventures, discover Union bar and attractive students, lock bike to railing and forget .

They then return for intended cycling adventures and discover that there's a rusty outdoor sculpture where their bike once was.

It will always be so until the end of days.

Buy shiny new bike , get excited about cycling  adventures, discover Union bar and attractive students, lock bike to railing and forget .

Ain't that the truth. The night I first met MrsJ I left my bike locked to a railing outside a pub (The Canny Man, for those who know Embra). Next day it was gone. She still owes me a bike 🙁

I teach kids cycle skills and every week is a mix of this kind of oxidised pig iron, through to brand new dandy horses. At least the old and abused ones always have the forks on the right way around.

@DrJ have you looked to the ceiling of the canny man? It might be part of the "decor".

Mind it's been decades since I was last in it may no longer look like a badly put together junk shop.

Chain was so rusty a chain tool would not split it and i had to break into 3 pieces to get it off

Classic Plutoline 😉

every week is a mix of this kind of oxidised pig iron, through to brand new dandy horses.

Christ, I'll never forget the look on the face of the bike shop's owner when a new guy turned up for our group ride and needed some emergency repairs, only for rusty water to piss out of his forks all over his shoe and workshop floor when he flipped the bike over in the workstand.

At least there were still bearings in it, worst I've had was headset with mangled cage and three bearings not exactly managing to do their job.

Tell it can be made like a new bike for about £300.  Then send him to Halfords for a new bike. 😁

Bought a bike shaped object for transport as an exchange student in Freiburg. Cotter pin on the nds pedal went in March so it was clunking for the rest of my stay. Abandoned it it the halls bike shed when I left.

It was still there, very rusty, when I went back on a cycle tour 3 years later.

I'm sure TJ could get it running again.

DrJ, have you looked to the ceiling of the canny man? It might be part of the “decor”.

Ah the Canny Man's, sighs and goes all misty eyed remembering it before it hit peak hipster. 😆

Reminds of a bloke I worked with " You know a bit about bikes ? I've just bought a brand new one from a catalogue could you " just put it together for me I'll make it worth your while " 🙄

I resisted for ages eventually gave in as he only lived 5 minutes away . Went round with my Allen keys sure enough no Allen bolts . It came with I spanner he declared , yep one of those pressed steel jobbers of various sizes which folded in half when I tried to nip the wheel nuts up 🙄 After about an hour and a half of turd polishing I said that's as good as I can make and went to leave . Hold up he said I told you I'd make it worth your while and presented me with a can of Strongbow!!! 😡Not even real Cider FFS ! 🙄🙄🙄

And another colleague who'd bought a half decent 2nd hand bike or not a catalogue special BSO wanted to know what needed replacing, so usual brake blocks , tyres etc then I said plus my time to which he replied laughing " I thought you like messing around with bikes ?" 🙄🙄🙄

A mate of mine has just rocked up to ours to see if I had a shock pump. He was on a high spec Cube 29er that he’s not ridden over the winter. He’d set off and realised he had zero pressure in his back shock. It bottomed out as soon as he sat on it

He’s also an engineer

I teach kids cycle skills and every week is a mix of this kind of oxidised pig iron, through to brand new dandy horses. At least the old and abused ones always have the forks on the right way around.

I see this too. It's pretty scary what parents will give their kids to ride because they think they're just little kids. I feel really sorry for th kids whose bikes are just lethal until we've given them a bit of a fettle.

We have a bag of handlebar end plugs that nearly always gets used!

Then there's the 7 year old with the Commencal FS with 12 speed AXS and a dropper. The derailleur almost touching the rim and just waiting to get snapped off!

*Sigh*. Canti brakes, the hours spent fiddling with the damned things trying to get them to bite properly without squealing or juddering, digging bits of alloy out of them to stop them scouring the rims…

Not in any way nostalgic for those days, the joy I felt having my first bike with decent hydraulic discs that just worked. Hope discs fitted to a Cannondale Beast Of The East with one of those adapter arm thingies attached to the rear canti boss, and a pair of original orange Bombers up front, with just one disc fitted. 😁

Deep joy!

It’s pretty scary what parents will give their kids to ride because they think they’re just little kids.

My parents never allowed me a bike as a kid because in my mum's words "I was dangerous enough on foot."

Upshot, I rode my mate's deathtrap cast-offs.  Usual ride was a Raleigh Boxter with no brakes, I had to slow / stop by hooking my foot onto the back tyre.  The other one I got lumbered with (because said mate was a control freak) was a girl's bike called something like Isuzu (anyone?).  It had one pedal, I had to propel it like a scooter.

I have several scars.

Then there’s the 7 year old with the Commencal FS with 12 speed AXS and a dropper. The derailleur almost touching the rim and just waiting to get snapped off!

I had (okay, I didn't have to but you know what I mean) to replace the long cage mech on my daughters 20" bike for exactly the same reason. Why they don't just stick a cheap mid-cage road mech on is anyones guess but it was worryingly close to the rim.

Mate, if my kid’s bike had an AXS mech it would swiftly be getting swapped to erm… whatever my bike had.

To be fair, headsets are often un-sealed at the low end and they can get like that pretty quickly through just riding the bike.  My first MTB, (a Kona!) had such a headset, it had smaller bearings than the one pictured and due to my riding around actual muddy trails all the time it looked worse.

The chain is unforgivable of course!

I feel really sorry for th kids whose bikes are just lethal

Almost literally in the case of the 4 years old who went into the side of a passing car because her brakes didn't work. I saw the bike after the accident. Supermarket special where the brake blocks completely missed the front rim and the back wasn't much better. Minor bruising as she was knocked sideways. A few seconds earlier she would hsve been in front of the car.

I lent a friend across from Canada a rigid MTB for a two week tour. Being Scotland there was a few wet days. I joined him for the last few days of the tour at which time he had been riding a noisy dry chain for days. Two weeks may be a record for going through a drivetrain. Luckily it was cheap Shimano 8 speed and the bottle of malt he gave me for lending him the bike covered a new cassette and chain.

Done!  Credit to shimano 'cos even tho everything was totally seized even the shifters it all freed off after a good soak in gt85.  new balls in the headset, new cables and chain and it all works - well sort of :-).  Everything is a bit rumbly but its good enough to see if he uses it and if he does it can get a bit more time and money spent on it.

its good enough to see if he uses it

I'll bet you fifty English pence that it's back in the sea shed never to be ridden again inside of a fortnight.

Almost literally in the case of the 4 years old who went into the side of a passing car because her brakes didn’t work. I saw the bike after the accident. Supermarket special where the brake blocks completely missed the front rim and the back wasn’t much better. Minor bruising as she was knocked sideways. A few seconds earlier she would hsve been in front of the car.

That would haunt you forever.

In fact (well fiction I suppose) there's a recent TV series where the main character played by Nicole Kidman was haunted forever by the memory of her little girl being killed in a similar way.

Oddly enough I also had a friend wanted me to fix up his bike. Said he would help but 20 mins later i go to find him to find he's sitting watching TV with a beer.

If they normally ride with you then yes, but otherwise a flat refusal and a point towards the LBS is probably better.

Canti brakes, the hours spent fiddling with the damned things trying to get them to bite properly without squealing or juddering, digging bits of alloy out of them to stop them scouring the rims…

Are they actually brakes? Put some LX V-brakes on the HoD to replace cantis and the sensation of actually being able to stop in a timely manner was revolutionary.

*Sigh*. Canti brakes, the hours spent fiddling with the damned things trying to get them to bite properly without squealing or juddering

Horrible things to set up but the ones on MY old Claude Butler work well and the rest of the bike is nicely maintained (if a touch muddy at present) and doing great work as a winter workhorse.