In my Friday post, before the barn fell in, I mentioned the utility of a bike trailer. The pictures here are of mine. One is a shot at home and the other is on the road. I built the trailer and another one just like it for my cycling associate. It was patterned after a BOB trailer. My buddy and I were contemplating a self supported ride across Missouri on the Katy Trail and I told him if he could get me a sample, then I could build us a couple of trailers. Not only did he get the sample but in talking to the other cyclist, he also got some 3/4" Inconel tubing. So I made the trailers and we rode across Missouri 5 years ago.
The photo of the bike leaning up against the railing is the bike I took on the Katy Trail. I bought it on E-Bay for $75 bucks including shipping. The seller gave an honest appraisal of the bikes condition and I rode it for a couple of years. I just loaned it out to a guy I work with who was looking for a cheap road bike. So it's still going.
The other photo was taken at Crown Point, Oregon along the Columbia River. My bike is the one in the foreground with the yellow plastic bag. This is a different bike. This one I bought at the church rummage sale for $4.00. Yes, that's four dollars. It's a Raleigh 10 speed from the 70's, I'm guessing. I went through it and greased everything up, put on new tires and brake pads and was basically tickled pink with it. We were planning a big trip out west and I new I was going to need more gearing, so I decided I needed a triple on the front. (For those of you who don't speak bicycle, that means another small chainring on the crankset to give you a better gear selection for climbing hills.) Here's where the story gets interesting.
I bought another crankset and took the bike to a local shop to have it installed. The threads on the bike were a little rough so I figured they could chase the threads and put the thing together. They said no go - can't be done. I took it to another bike shop after sticking my original parts back in plus taking the other parts along and they said you can't put a triple on that bike. I wouldn't have even gone to the second shop except my mom had just passed away and I just wanted to get the thing squared away because of the big trip we had coming up. After being told it couldn't be done for the second time, I figured I was the only guy who could make it happen. I went home, machined a spacer, took the small ring off the other crankset and I was in business. It took about two - three hours and worked like a charm. We rode from Portland, Oregon to Missoula, Montana over three mountain ranges and I never had a bit of trouble with it.
The moral of the story here is: if you have some skills, tools and time you can do just about anything. The four dollar bike and the homemade trailer have been on two bike tours of over 500 miles each. The trailer carries everything needed to live on the road while touring plus I can use it to carry things back and forth to work. So turn off the TV and go make something.
No comments:
Post a Comment