| In
2020, due to my mum running a thrift
shop and there being a demand for bikes, I got involved in fixing
some up. I'm not sure why that didn't reoccur in 2021, but in 2022
it has, and five more bikes required attention.
The bike at the front,
an Apollo Outrage was already in great condition, and just needed
the rear brake's outer cable replacing as it had got rusty inside
and the cable was jammed.
 The
small pink one, a Molly bike, with miss-matched saddle, and Action
Man stabilizers, needed the tyres pumping up and a test ride (the spokies demanded it - I remember having them on my own bike, up
until I was 10)... The test ride revealed that even when the
saddle was as tight as I could get it, it would still tilt under
the weight of a 40 year old guy, but would probably be fine for a
small girl... I noted that due to the lack of factory-fitted rear
bake, it wasn't technically road legal; to improve things I fitted
a (pink) bell.
The white bike at the
back, another Apollo-branded one, needed the rear gear cable
replacing as it had been cut short and there was insufficient
length remaining to adjust the gears correctly. The bike also
needed a clean but I didn't get round to doing that...
The following
peach/orange/sun-bleached-red-coloured bike just needed some air
in the tyres:
Next up, this vintage
'R.E.W. Reynolds' caught my eye:
| Mechanically it
was sound and just required a new innertube for the rear wheel
and the handlebars straightening a little. The previous owner
must have only recently replaced the chain and tyres (although
they were clearly cheap ones); the brakes and gears were
perfect with just some fine-tuning required.
There was surface rust on the
frame but I elected to leave that as it was since it needed
time and dedication to do it justice rather than a quick
'tart-up' from a can of gloss black. The wheel rims were also
heavily patina'd and while I had the rear one off to replace
the innertube I attempted to tackle it with 'WD-40' and
600-grit wet and dry. Sadly this did next to nothing for the
patch between the spokes I tried it on (I have used this
method on rusty suspension forks), but it improved the braking
surface of the rims.
Now with the rear tyre with air
in I gave the bike the obligator test ride, and I have to say
I quite liked riding it! I attached a rear reflector to the
seat post... and then realised there was one on the rear
mud-guard... oh well, now it has two! |
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