Getting Cooking in the Shed

8/16/12

The Bike Shed is up and running. The concept is simple: repair and restore traditional and vintage bicycles to be ridden on the road, while also discussing cycling in general. Although many people collect and display old bikes, the idea behind the Bike Shed is to make them the sort of thing you would want to ride on the road or trail. Everything I own I ride.

The shed has a nails and hooks for hanging parts (you can see some wheels and tires just below the top of the garage door on the back wall and in the back window), shelving for supplies, tools, and small parts (against the back wall), and wooden crates for floor storage of larger parts that will not hang but need to be kept dry still. There is also a floodlight on the front of the building just below the roof.

The line up in front of the shed is the current group of complete bikes Casey and I have in VA- a modern Forge Coco, a 1974 Raleigh Sports 3 Speed, and a 1950 Columbia DeLuxe balloon tire. I still have the 1978 Raleigh DL-1 3 speed and the 1936 Schwinn Henderson in CT. Casey has an early 1960s Schwinn 2 speed in MD as well. Against the back wall out of view is a 1930 Elgin/Westfield project bike I will be working on after finishing up the Columbia.

 

Tonight I took the Columbia out because it was nice and to diagnose a couple of problems. I've in particular been having problems with roughness and skipping in the coaster brake, though the braking power is still normal. I suspect I will need to take it apart to really fix the problem. I am, however, lucky enough to have a box of unused brake parts from the 1940s/50s around, which hopefully will address it. Repair and some cosmetic restoration of the Columbia will be the first project I detail here at the Shed. I also think that as the nice weather becomes more common in the fall, it would be timely to discuss bike trails and cycling in general. That's all for now.