Ride to Work Week

In Indiana, May 12-16 is ride your bike to work week. So far I'm two for two. I ride quite a bit, including the cold Indiana winters. Not a big fan of getting wet, however. So as a welder and a cyclist is seems only natural to build your own cycle.

Before I started teaching, I worked part-time at a bicycle shop. I did a little wrenching on the line of mini bikes and small motorcycles the shop sold in addition to the Motobecane bicycles. A customer brought a 1938 Elgin into the shop and traded it in on a bicycle for his grandson. I bought it for the $7.50 credit the shop owner gave the customer. I used to ride it back and forth to work and around town for errands. When my youngest brother was in the Army in Germany, he bought a Peugeot mountain bike. He gave it to me when he got out of the service and I still ride that one when the weather is bad or I'm going to be out after dark. Like a Timex, it takes a lickin' and keeps on tickin'. When I started working here about 15 years ago I found that one of the guys in my dept was a pretty serious cyclist so I got involved with cycling again. So in a very round-about fashion, thats how we get to the bike in the pictures.

I built this two years ago from a big box of parts I bought on E-Bay. It's all steel lugged construction - very traditional method of putting a bike together. I built a quick fixture for holding things in alignment, bought some silver solder and went to work. Things went together fairly well. A couple of the solder joints were a little sloppy but I got better by the time I was done. It's a seven speed - bought the crankset and derailleur on E-Bay as well. Made the rack from stainless hydraulic tubing. The seat and handlebars were scabbed off a cheap dept. store bike. I've since added fenders to make the commute a little more pleasant.

There's lots of info to be had on building bicycles. Anyone with any basic handtool handiness can build a bike. Hacksaw, drill and a couple of files and you can be a bike builder. Learning how to solder takes a little doing but many vocational schools and community colleges have that info. There are a couple of schools that teach framebuilding and bike mechanics. Most high school counselors won't be very likely to steer a student in that direction, however. To get a look at a couple of the best builders check out www.richardsachs.com and www.vanillabicycles.com.
I've been to Vanilla Bicycles and the craftsmanship is second to none. Five year waiting list for a frame. Might want to get your order in.

Rivendell bicycles also has a lot of info on steel frame bikes and the Rivendell Reader that's worth a look.

So ride your bike to work this week - at least on Friday - if nothing else. It's time to take back the streets.