Heading Toward the End of the Season

Over the years, I've developed a late-season routine of sorts for dealing with old bikes. 

Priority, as usual goes to riding bikes as frequently as weather and my time allow. But late in the season, that priority placed on riding is even more emphasized than other times of year. Given the now-limited number of days to ride, I try to get out as much as I can.

Below is a shot of my 1949 Raleigh Clubman, which is in a very comfortable, touring configuration. Those Nicelite/Reflectalite LED bulbs are great.

 

 

Second to riding come the minor projects and maintenance that keep a bike on the road. These are your one-evening type projects, such as fixing burned out light bulbs, repairing flat tires, and truing wheels. This keeps bikes on the road through the end of the season and keeps them safe to ride.

The lowest priority are large projects such as rebuilds. My assumption here is that even if I prioritized these projects, the bikes in question probably would not be on the road in time to make the end of riding season here. These projects can wait until winter in that case, and there's no real loss to me. The other nice thing about keeping these projects near the bottom of the ladder is that it takes all the pressure off to rebuild bikes. Trying to rush through a project is a recipe for stress and mistakes. 

Late season is also a good time to start thinking about what you might need by way of parts over the winter. Vintage parts that come in need to be cleaned and prepared for use. New parts usually are OK, but some parts, like MKS pedals, benefit from some additional grease and fine-tuning. Below is a set of MKS 3000-S 1/2 inch pedals straight from Japan for use on a vintage Schwinn 3-speed bike. The box is from a general "Japan goods" type retailer, who apparently also sells items related to Japanese cartoons. I'm not sure he has any idea how nice those MKS 3000S 1/2 pedals are on an old Schwinn... but it's great to have good pedals either way.