Yesterday was a hard day. Got cheered up a bit today by getting a free bike off one of those Buy Nothing groups on Facebook.
When last I visited my family I rode a pushbike for the first time in over twenty years and I'd forgotten how much fun they were, how light, how without the context of being on top of an engine you look behind yourself and go "Wow, I went FAR!" and I said "Haha yeah I'm gonna get a bike when I get back to America." My brother said, as many people in my life have always said, "Dan, never buy a pushbike, people throw or give them away them all the time" and everyone's right of course, they do.
This thing's got two problems, slow leaks in the tyres and not changing gears properly. I've never fiddled with a derailleur before but eh, it's not rocket science, it just goes in and out on a cable; got the derailleur all cleaned off and adjusted up and still no dice so I took apart the shifter mech that lives on the yoke. Symptom was it wouldn't shift down more than a couple of clicks, this is the style where you've got two levers, one has a positive snap and one feels like a ratchet, the ratchetty one weren't ratchetting so I figured its ratchet must be stuck open and aye, its ratchet were stuck open.
Now if only I'd known this thing came apart on a left-hand thread, I might not have stripped that one bolt and be waiting on parts, but in the meantime I worked it a bit and gave it a drop of oil and now the ratchet bit works if you press up as well as in lol, just kinda hold it together with a squeeze whenever you change gears, it's fine
Tyres can wait til the weekend, I'll just pump it up now and then
Also this thing is so high. It's SO. HIGH. I'm 185cm and when I went to see to the bloke giving it away I craned my neck right back to say hello, dude could've been 2m tall. The seat's already down as far as it'll go and I'm 41 so I don't think I'm likely to grow into it. Getting real Penny Farthing feeling tryna ride the thing. Good fun though, and littleun actually managed to Properly Ride her bike today for a few metres, pedalling and everything, so tomorrow's gonna be a dad-and-daughter-and-bike day
@ifixcoinops That seat looks like one of the super soft and squishy ones. tl;dr, those hurt worse because it puts pressure where you want none. Getting a firmer seat that's wide enough but not too wide makes your derriere hurt a bit for a week, but at least that goes away without taking away your... other abilities.
Seat height is important, too. Make sure your legs are almost straight at the bottom of the stroke but not locked out. About tailbone height when standing.
Other bike-related news, couple park trips ago there was a bloke trying to learn how to ride a unicycle and we chatted a bit
Back in my early 30's I wan convinced unicycles were the way to go, 'cause you don't have to chain them up outside the shop, just pick 'em up in the crook of your arm and carry them in. I mentioned this online and next time I visited family lo and behold, there was a unicycle.
Apparently someone'd found it in some bushes on the common. It'd obviously been thrown pretty hard.
@ifixcoinops cool, I have a EUC now but went through a spate of wanting a unicycle.
Its easy to fall off and damage your wrists and skull even on the EUC, and while I feel a prat wearing skateboard helmet and wrist protectors, I can still work even after some heavy tumbles on concrete. I always put out my hands by instinct and this leaves me subject to tendon and metacarpal injuries otherwise.
I also remember a friend with a normal unicycle having to go to emergency ward with hand and broken bone after misjudging a hop onto a kerb while popping out to buy something from the local shop, so its applicable to normal uni's too.
You'll probably find quite quickly why it got thrown hard :)
BIKE THREAD: New rear shifter on, front derailer adjusted up too, disc brake in the back adjusted up so it ain't binding no more, thing's flying now! Got plenty of other improvements and realignments and relubrication and cleaning to do.
Working on pushbikes is satisfying. They're wide open and easy enough to work on that you can get really obvious-feeling-and-sounding improvements in very little time.
@ifixcoinops I'm planning on picking up some tools to do more work on my own bike come spring. I love making small tweaks to the brake lines and derailleurs to make them respond how I want.
And the ride down the trail I get when I've scrubbed the chain well and gotten all the dirt back out is so smooth.
Alright so, in the shower, showering my stuff, and noticing wow
Wew
Whoooo OK
So I've got the wee cycle computer thing working (standard leaky-battery repair, see many of my other posts) and it tells me I've gone like 3km on this thing, gonna guess probably about another 3 before it was working, so in just 6km of fairly unchallenging just-for-the-fun-of-going-fast cycling my arse has firmed up impressively and... elongated? Like, territory that I once thought of as "Lower back adjacent" are now Very Definitely Unmistakably Arse Meat?
And also like, my thighs and butt and lower back feel way more powerful? To where I'm wondering if this has increased my moving-heavy-stuff capacity?
Bikes are great because you pedal them super hard and the wind goes through your ears and you zoom around laughing "HAHAHA I'M GOING SOO FAST!!!" and you look down at your speedo and it says 16
Anyway yeah get a bike, they're fun and free and they make you strong and give you a nice bum and they go really fast (they don't go really fast, but they FEEL like they go really fast)
🦝🚲 "Look at me, zoom zoom zoom, so so fast"
Speedo reading 11mph 🕐 "Sure are, champ! Good job lil' buddy!"
🦝🚲 sets the speedo to km/h so I go even faster
Me, 8 years old: 🐀 "Cor, wouldn't it be ace if pushbikes had their own roads. Their own little roads that could take shortcuts where the big roads can't go. You wouldn't get shouted at for riding on the pavement, or shouted at for riding on the road, you'd have a Bike Road and it'd just be for bikes and the car drivers wouldn't get cross with you for going too slow and the walkers wouldn't get cross with you for going too fast. Bike roads. Wee little bike roads just for bikes. Cracking idea."
Me, in my forties: 🦝 whimsical chuckle "Ah, the follies of youth."
Me, still in my forties but now fully qualified to talk on infrastructure decisions having owned a bike for like two weeks: 🦝 "ACTUALLY YEAH SOD THIS THE LITTLE RAT WAS RIGHT ALL ALONG"
Kiddo is spoiled now and has two bikes, because I saw one for $20 that had suspension and a seven-speed gearbox. She's just figured out downshifting, took her a while to develop either the thumb strength or the technique.
Turned up at the park with 39km on the clock, kiddo went "Let's get to 50!" so that's what we did this afternoon, just zoomed around the park for 11km while she cycled up and down the gears
(oh, except the $20 bit? this was at one of those thrift stores where everything has a price sticker in a different colour, and on a given day of the week a given colour till be 75% off. So it was a FIVER)
Also we went to the local bike co-op and got spouse a bike, here it is
I don't think I've ever ridden a step-through-frame bike before but I was chosen to take this for a test ride as spouse can't ride yet and wow, this thing is just... So. Chill.
My bike:
🚲 come sit on me
🦝 ok
🦝 wow you're not comfy at all
🚲 face down ass up, that's the way
🦝 is that for like
🦝 aerodynamics or something
🚲 uh yeah aerodynamics aye sure
Spouse's bike:
🚲 take a seat
🦝 wow it's like sitting in a chair
🚲 ??? how else would you sit???
🦝 face down ass up
🚲 you've been riding that aerodynamics guy haven't you
You literally sit normally? Like you're sitting at the computer? And pedal? And your feet when you're pedalling are pretty close to the ground, no worries about tipping over. Dude at the shop said it was a good beginner bike, I think it's just a good bike in general, it's a very easy relaxing ride, I could ride this around all day
@ifixcoinops bloke in the bike shop said comfy saddle seats are bad for men and thats why we get these hard plastic things that are agonising. Maybe he was just a masochist. I don't have much fat padding on my botty so the comfy ones are a dream to ride on when I get a rare chance
Back in the day, back when I were a wee lad, this would've been called a girl's bike.
The difference between a girl's bike and a boy's bike is a boy's bike has the crossbar positioned such that an inexperienced rider can stop too suddenly, slide forward off the seat and slam their full body weight into wrapping their testicles around a steel bar at high speed
@ifixcoinops one of the most painful experiences of my life was the time i missed a pedal and fell full-force onto the top tube not with my nads but rather with my inner thigh a few inches from there. ho-leee fuck was that ever a memorable sensory experience. i've never been stabbed, but when i think about what it'd probably be like to get stabbed, that's my reference sensation.
@ifixcoinops mind you, i remain conscious that there are a lot of real structural advantages to triangles, but i'm willing to entertain arguments for design variation here.
1980's
🐁 holding ice against crotch Dad, how come girl's bikes don't have the bollock-mashing bar
🐺 no need for it lad, they've got nae bollocks
🐁
🐺 not much point putting a bollock masher if there's nae bollocks to mash is there
🐺 be a bloody waste of money
2020's
🐀 holding ice against crotch Dad, why
🐁 You know, I asked my dad this when I was your age, and his answer doesn't really fit in this decade. You probably know a couple of girls with bollocks. Maybe a boy with no bollocks. Either way, girls with bollocks get to ride the bikes without the bollock-mashing bar, and boys with no bollocks can ride the bollock masher, in a lot of ways it's a more enlightened time
🐀 Dad what
🐁 I mean these days girls can ride the bollock mashing bikes too
🐁 So can non-binary folk, bollocks or no
🐀 dad
🐁 Anyway times change is what I'm saying
🐁 The important thing is squashing the bollocks
🐀
🐁 Flat
At the Bike Factory
🦊 Johnson, the womenfolk are wearing pants now, we must adapt, deal with it
🐛 yes sir mister Putridson sir right away sir
🦊 good god man what are you doing what are you DOING
🐛 i was removing the testiclular flattening device from the gentlemens' cycles sir
🦊 YOU PUT THAT BACK ON RIGHT NOW YOU SON OF A BITCH
🐛 but sir since all the cycles can be more homogenous now i thought -
🦊 Johnson, we are the SUPPLY side of the equation. If the market demands gender equality, we, as the supplier, will respond with "supply-side" equality.
🐛 sir i'm not sure i
🦊 Put the bollock masher on the girl's bikes too Johnson
🐛 sir
🦊🚬
🦊 Do as you're told, Johnson
🦊 We have an increasing number of non-binary customers Johnson, deal with it
🐛 sir yes sir
🐛
🐛 sir
🦊 Out with it man
🐛 sir, the... with regards to the testicular flattening device...
🦊 With regards to the bollock masher, Johnson, our non-binary customers deserve the same bollock-mashing opportunities as everyone else.
🦊 In fact, now's the perfect time to talk to you about our new motto, Sarah can you come over here a moment
🐩 sir
🦊 Tell him what your department's come up with.
🐩 ahemhm
🐩 "Whatever you're packing, we'll give it a whacking."
🦊🚬 Genius.
🦊 Johnson, while I have you, how's that prototype coming along?
🐛 the one you requested sir, with the upward-aiming boxing glove mechanically linked to the crankshaft?
🦊 The Bike of the Future, yes
🐛 we're having a few problems finding test riders sir
🦊 Hahahaha I'm sure you are Johnson hahaha
(note, the filter may be on the right or on the left depending on how your machine renders the 🚬 emoji. On my phone the filter is on the right, so canonically 🦊 smokes his cigarettes from the lit end)
Somehow I forgot that in my country bikes with step-through frames were called "Sit up and beg" style bikes when I were a lad, which just makes this whole situation even kinkier
🦊 It's a whole new world of opportunities in the bike business now Johnson
🐛 sir
🦊 These days anyone can ride face-down-ass-up like a good boy, or sit-up-and-beg like a good girl
🐩 What about the bad girls
🦊 For goodness' sake Sarah we don't sell to bad girls
🐩 Sir at our last general meeting you specified that our target markets were
🐩👓 "Good girls, good boys and good-to-medium non-binary individuals"
🦊 Ah yes, what slogan have you come up with for the medium enbies
🐛 Sir we still haven't designed a bike for the medium enbies
🦊 you WHAT
@ifixcoinops Way to fit the gender talk in there 😂.
What I've never figured out is the bollocks-smashing bar is supposed to make the frame stronger... but at the same time I've never heard of a step-through bike frame breaking because it was a step-through.
It was surprisingly easy. There's this bike mechanic with a YouTube channel (JohnnyNerdout) that sells parts and kits.
He seems genuine, has some good videos that help you understand what you are getting into, and seems to give fairly honest advice. He's not an engineer but he seems to know what he's talking about.
I bought the kit from him, picked up a couple specialized bike tools (like for removing the bottom bracket), and muddled my way through it.
@virtuous_sloth it's awesome that this is possible but I think I'll leave that as a For Other People thing until the secondhand market fills up, given that I paid $50 for the bike :P
@ifixcoinops I don't want to be a wise-ass but if you are feeling the wind in your ears and the speedometer says 16... maybe check that it has the proper diameter for your tyre? I don't seem to feel the wind unless I'm doing around twenty-something Km/h.
@ifixcoinops More seriously, all bike saddles will be at least a little painful if you haven’t been biking in a while, takes a week or three for that to even out. But if it hurts a lot, or if the pain never goes away, there’s probably a problem with how the saddle is set up, or maybe it’s just an uncomfortable saddle. It can take some trial and error.
Brooks saddles can be expensive but IME they’re worth the money.
@ifixcoinops Oh, and maybe this was a joke but if it’s really putting pressure on your perineum then either it’s not adjusted right or it’s not a good saddle for your body. Almost all of your weight should be on your sit bones—if it’s on soft tissue like perineum, it’ll always hurt. Some saddles have cutouts in the middle to relieve that pressure.
Also why it’s often good to avoid super padded saddles—they spread the load but put pressure on soft tissue.
@ifixcoinops Yeah definitely give it a try! Small adjustments can make a big difference.
Adjustments to other parts of the bike can also make a difference in how the saddle feels too. Handlebars with more rise or that sweep back, or swapping/adjusting the stem (the bit that clamps the handlebars).
Oh btw if you haven’t found it yet: sheldonbrown.com is one of the few good websites left in the world and has all the bike info you’ll probably ever need.
@ifixcoinops@jepyang FWIW, I used to tilt the seat forward, when I rode 10-speeds as a teenager.
It's also worth knowing that I get a bit Type A as a cyclist, so "but isn't that uncomfortable when you're just pootling around?" isn't a relevant question for me. It probably would, if I ever did that, yes.
@ifixcoinops in my limited experience of riding bicycle to work (from -15°C to +35°C) no perineum calluses appear. If you use narrow, racing seat without adapting to it and riding 30+ km 3-4 times per week first - you will feel all the deep ligaments and muscles that hold together your pelvis. Then you'll adapt, and stop feeling them.
@ifixcoinops I've had to take the shifter apart in mine once. The symptom was like yours, the reason was the vaseline inside that had hardened. I put in the PTFE-vaseline I use in pinball and it'll probably last the lifetime of the shifter.
@ifixcoinops
Nice! https://freeridepgh.org/ may be up your alley. Community bike repair and shop. Nice if you want access to specialized bike tools without investing in them yourself, and I think you can get used parts there too
@ifixcoinops yay! Bikes are fun. If there's a reflector on the seatpost you might be able to remove that and lower the seat a bit further. And if there's a bike kitchen type place near you, you might be able to swap your seat for one without springs, which will be lower.
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