Monday 30 April 2012
Sunday 8 April 2012
Tinker #1
So, there was always a risk this would happen. being a natural tinkerer tomboy, easily attached to even the most rubbish bikes, preparing myself for the theft of the next, going out with a bike geek, wanting to physically make more things, but being anything but a "crafter". it started when, trying to make Pug the bike roadworthy, the gear lever fell off. so she had designated herself singlespeed. so she may as well be converted properly. and smartened up in the process. and now... there are days like today. where my hands are covered in plasters and i don't think the oil under my nails will ever come out. and i spend more time looking at handlebars on the interweb than i thought was even possible. and someone says "you should write about what you've been learning to do" and i believe them.
So, i'll try to be as concise as i can. I have made a few purchases. not splashing the cash, everything i have is bargain basement. but i have embarked upon a new hobby, one that i am really enjoying and want to pursue as far as i can, at the moment. first, ther were the conversions to Pug. she started as a 5 speed tourer like this,
got converted to a single speed stripped back speedy little so & so like this:
She is brilliant. i will go through in more detail how this transformation happened later on, but i am a singlespeed convert. it's so simple and "connected". hills are difficult with just one (biggish) gear and drop bars, because you can't haul yourself up as easily as you can with wide flat bars- it's a bit too twitchy, but where i live is pretty flat! I don't think i could go fixed, not on the roads anyway. i like freewheeling and brakes, but i'd like to try it out one day.
I stumbled across this which became my 30th birthday present from my parents (60 quid.. i'm not that cheeky)-
it just popped up on a saved search on ebay. it's a 1970's peugeot "nouveau style" shopper. i fancied having a relaxed style bike for those idyllic summer days (which are in your memory, but don't really happen), picnics and slow potters. i'm rarely drawn to overtly girly bikes, even though i do insist on having WSD frames (i'm very short but like the saddle as high as i can get away with.. i could go into the maths & angles but basically, because of this i often have to hop off at traffic lights etc & would come a cropper if i didn't have a dropped top tube) but this one crept in to my brain and said "take me home" in a way i rarely experience. i'm going to say it's the art nouveau style curves. it's really quite a remarkable bike. the chain guard which i've cleverly disguised at the back of the photo is pure stylized chrome joy. the wheels are a very cantankerous 22". I have found one UK supplier in the entire internet that supplies this size tyres and tubes for anything but a BMX. lucky i found that, because those tyres disintegrated after i'd done about ten miles on them. she now has some lovely white walled ones. everything adjustable is a very sturdy quick release and still very much in working condition. remarkable given the age really! makes it very easy to get on a train, and, i guess, to switch between different riders.the bottom bracket is really low meaning i can ride it with the saddle low enough for my feet to touch the floor easily! basically, it's a shrimp's bike. and i am a shrimp. i've really tinkered very little with her though, because she is a lovely version of what she is. i do need to straighten out the mudguards though. for certain moods, when i want to watch the world go by, she is a lovely little soft, relaxed bike.
at a similar time, my boyfriend acquired "yaroslav", a 1970's Minsk (MMVZ) stork (Aist). these were built for use by the USSR army in Belarus, and modelled on the Raleigh town bikes of the time, visually at least. i think it's fair to say the engineering is a bit more rough and ready. I am hugely jealous that he has a bike with a badge in cyrillic script. I studied (amongst other things) Russian at school, and have always been drawn to soviet political and commercial art and design. Yaroslav will feature in my following posts, which will detail the tinkerings we have done so far.
walter went the way of so many ahem.. inexpensive modern bikes, in that his bottom bracket is already getting wobbly (characterised by lateral movement in the pedals, a bit too much play & wobbliness). so he's been packed off to the bid's house for a lighter workload. at the same time, a friend of my sister's was moving and had found two MTB's in her garage. she didn't want them, neither did the landlord, so i had one. i have called it serge because it shares so many characteristics with my old van of the same name (sturdiness over speed, to be polite). here she is:
she now has walter's wheels. yes, i am that sentimental.
then, the bug had well and truly bitten me. pug, whist brilliant, is slightly too big for me, and i was getting it into my head that i wanted a bigger project (again, details to follow), and a mixte frame road bike to well & truly customise and make my own. i wanted to try building a bike up from a freshly refurbished frame, and so veronique (v. jejeune-velo) was purchased, for the princely sum of £26. frame, forks & bottom bracket & that's all. knackered, dirty paintwork, brilliant but ripped up decals.i have to get everything else and really get to grips with how a bike fits together. this is how she looked when i first got her:
she looks very, very different now. but, this is a story for another day. strap in kids, my next posts on the subject will be about as detailed and technical as an utter buffoon like me can be.
So, i'll try to be as concise as i can. I have made a few purchases. not splashing the cash, everything i have is bargain basement. but i have embarked upon a new hobby, one that i am really enjoying and want to pursue as far as i can, at the moment. first, ther were the conversions to Pug. she started as a 5 speed tourer like this,
got converted to a single speed stripped back speedy little so & so like this:
She is brilliant. i will go through in more detail how this transformation happened later on, but i am a singlespeed convert. it's so simple and "connected". hills are difficult with just one (biggish) gear and drop bars, because you can't haul yourself up as easily as you can with wide flat bars- it's a bit too twitchy, but where i live is pretty flat! I don't think i could go fixed, not on the roads anyway. i like freewheeling and brakes, but i'd like to try it out one day.
I stumbled across this which became my 30th birthday present from my parents (60 quid.. i'm not that cheeky)-
it just popped up on a saved search on ebay. it's a 1970's peugeot "nouveau style" shopper. i fancied having a relaxed style bike for those idyllic summer days (which are in your memory, but don't really happen), picnics and slow potters. i'm rarely drawn to overtly girly bikes, even though i do insist on having WSD frames (i'm very short but like the saddle as high as i can get away with.. i could go into the maths & angles but basically, because of this i often have to hop off at traffic lights etc & would come a cropper if i didn't have a dropped top tube) but this one crept in to my brain and said "take me home" in a way i rarely experience. i'm going to say it's the art nouveau style curves. it's really quite a remarkable bike. the chain guard which i've cleverly disguised at the back of the photo is pure stylized chrome joy. the wheels are a very cantankerous 22". I have found one UK supplier in the entire internet that supplies this size tyres and tubes for anything but a BMX. lucky i found that, because those tyres disintegrated after i'd done about ten miles on them. she now has some lovely white walled ones. everything adjustable is a very sturdy quick release and still very much in working condition. remarkable given the age really! makes it very easy to get on a train, and, i guess, to switch between different riders.the bottom bracket is really low meaning i can ride it with the saddle low enough for my feet to touch the floor easily! basically, it's a shrimp's bike. and i am a shrimp. i've really tinkered very little with her though, because she is a lovely version of what she is. i do need to straighten out the mudguards though. for certain moods, when i want to watch the world go by, she is a lovely little soft, relaxed bike.
at a similar time, my boyfriend acquired "yaroslav", a 1970's Minsk (MMVZ) stork (Aist). these were built for use by the USSR army in Belarus, and modelled on the Raleigh town bikes of the time, visually at least. i think it's fair to say the engineering is a bit more rough and ready. I am hugely jealous that he has a bike with a badge in cyrillic script. I studied (amongst other things) Russian at school, and have always been drawn to soviet political and commercial art and design. Yaroslav will feature in my following posts, which will detail the tinkerings we have done so far.
walter went the way of so many ahem.. inexpensive modern bikes, in that his bottom bracket is already getting wobbly (characterised by lateral movement in the pedals, a bit too much play & wobbliness). so he's been packed off to the bid's house for a lighter workload. at the same time, a friend of my sister's was moving and had found two MTB's in her garage. she didn't want them, neither did the landlord, so i had one. i have called it serge because it shares so many characteristics with my old van of the same name (sturdiness over speed, to be polite). here she is:
she now has walter's wheels. yes, i am that sentimental.
then, the bug had well and truly bitten me. pug, whist brilliant, is slightly too big for me, and i was getting it into my head that i wanted a bigger project (again, details to follow), and a mixte frame road bike to well & truly customise and make my own. i wanted to try building a bike up from a freshly refurbished frame, and so veronique (v. jejeune-velo) was purchased, for the princely sum of £26. frame, forks & bottom bracket & that's all. knackered, dirty paintwork, brilliant but ripped up decals.i have to get everything else and really get to grips with how a bike fits together. this is how she looked when i first got her:
she looks very, very different now. but, this is a story for another day. strap in kids, my next posts on the subject will be about as detailed and technical as an utter buffoon like me can be.
Tuesday 3 April 2012
fast forward
I was prompted the other day to blog about some tinkering i have been doing, and realised that it has been a good old while. then looked here.. and it's like my life has been on fast forward. little pug the bike has been transformed, began to feel like a faithful friend, and is now being tinkered with again. it's been nearly a year since the ferret attacked boom, work has changed beyond all recognition, i've learned new things and been to more places and gained more hobbies and i really need to start writing them down if only because it's been such a lovely thing to read through my deserted posts and remember things as i saw them at the time. so will do. ramblings will expand to lasers, workshops, building, projects. i'll probably get quite nerdy & in-depth about some of the things i've been working on. i just need to figure out where to start.
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