[Sportsandrec] My 20 year old bike

[Lori M. Miller]

Keith,

I have a similar age bike here that needs some TLC and maybe I'll embark on 
that journey next.

Sound like you have your pedals out of synch. It is true that some cyclists 
do this to try and eliminate the dead zone in the pedal stroke.  I rarely 
ride this way, but that is because I prefer to be in cynch on cornering and 
read a lot through the pedals. One time out in the middle of nowhere we 
dropped our timing chain and we were on a deadline so my pilot didn't 
realize that we were out of phase. When we reached that first corner, I 
immediately caught on and it gave me a good laugh. I think when riders ride 
out of phase it is just a little, not a lot. Now some of the newer bikes 
offer independent pedaling.

I can't for the life of me figure out why they put the straight or bull horn 
on the back of a tandem. The drops offer so many different hand positions. 
The only time I've had trouble with bars that are not the straight bar is 
having my pilots hips fit between the hoods on my bars.
Happy miles,
Lori

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Keith Christian" <keithchristian at roadrunner.com>
To: <sportsandrec at nfbnet.org>
Sent: Sunday, July 19, 2009 8:12 PM
Subject: [Sportsandrec] My 20 year old bike


> Hi,
>
> I wanted to say thanks for the encouragement and advice on fixing up my
> old bike.  I appreciate all of them.  The bike is actually in excellent
> shape.  I have been riding it around with my kids on the front and me in
> the back.  It does need a bit of a tune up which I am working on doing.
> I can do brakes no problem, but I am not sure how to work on the gears
> and all that.  I just apply oil on the chain and the moving parts on the
> derailers and all seems to be working pretty well.
>
> When I was a kid, I use to repack my bearings in the crank case and the
> wheels.  It is probably time to do that.  Hopefully things are not any
> different from when I was a kid.  It was pretty easy back then.  The
> most problems I had as a kid was the rear brakes on a bike where the
> brakes were applied with backward pressure on the peddles.  That is not
> the case with this bike.
>
>
> Something that has  me curious is the positioning of the cranks.  I have
> always put them at  opposite angles.  It seemed better to be on your
> power stroke when the other rider is not.  When I purchased my bike
> originally, the peddles were in tandem and I hated it.  I hope that
> makes sense.  Our peddles were in the up or down position at the same
> time.
>
> My handle bars are pretty much straight bars.  I am interested in
> learning about other styles of bars. The style of pars that have been
> discussed here lately seem to resemble 10-speed bars.  Is that right?  I
> actually never liked the straight bars that were on it.  I felt like I
> was hunched over a bit the entire time.  Something else to look into.
>
> Thanks,
>
> Keith
>
>
>
>
>
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