August 12th, 2018
-----------------
The bike co-op is not *really* open on Sundays for tinkering, on that
day it functions as a second hand bike store, with usually only one
staff member there, who is too busy handling that to answer questions,
supervise people with tools, etc. But I've turned on Sundays a few
days to do simple things to my bike where I don't need any help and am
confident I won't break anything, and nobody seems to mind.
So, I turned up today to give my seatpost the same treatment I gave my
stem last Thursday, i.e. brush all the primer off it. No point in
wasting valuable actual working time this coming Thursday on that when
I can get it done in advance. I was surprised to notice that the post
is steel, not aluminium. I had a quick rummage for aluminium ones of
the right size, but quickly gave up. It's not really super important,
and seatposts are one of those frustratingly under-standardised bike
parts which come in many different diameters, when I am sure there is
no compelling technical argument for more than one or two, and I
didn't want to waste ages digging and measuring.
Speaking of measuring, I put some digital calipers on my stem to see
if it is a standard 22.2mm or a French 22.0mm. I shit you not, the
reading came out 22.1mm. The steerer threading is also slightly
different between the two systems, 25.4mm vs 25mm (people like to make
fun of French bikes for their weird non-standard way of doing things,
but really, the French sizes are always an integer number of
millimetres, which is frankly superior), but I don't really know how
to measure thread size (is it the innermost or outermost part of the
threading?) and couldn't get a conclusive ID that way. Then I made my
life easy, and measured the really quit long headtube, and quickly
confirmed that none of the lugged, chromed forks I would have
considered swapping out had steerers anywhere near long enough to swap
in. So, I'll just live with the fork that's in there.
My lovely Suzu Crane brass bell arrived in the post last week, so I
mounted that on the stem, like all the cool kids seem to do. It looks
and sounds fabulous, so I'm very happy with that.
I didn't actually mean to play with the brakes on this trip at all,
but I couldn't help myself, so I tightened up the brake cable that I
did a poor job of installing last week and now the brakes actually
work. The last of Sheldon Brown's cable routing commandments[1] is
"Cable housings should be as short as they can be without violating
the above rules", and I think mine could be substantially shorter, so
I will try to tidy them up on Thursday, and also install the rear
brake. The brakes still have the ancient and badly worn original pads
in them, which I will change out when my new Kool Stops arrive, but even
as they are, they work very well, as I'll describe shortly.
I went for my first "proper" test ride today, i.e. not worrying about
speed because I had working brakes. It was still short, because it
was raining lightly, but all I can say is "wow". Everything about
riding this bike feels amazingly better than the used bike I bought
when I first moved to Finland, not really knowing anything about
bikes. It sounds crazy, but somehow the gearing simultaneously feels
tighter and higher than the 2nd gear on my other bike, but also much
easier to pedal. This could be a lot of things (three-piece cranks
compared to one-piece, recently cleaned and lubed bearings compared to
probably not touched in years bearings, a bigger, betting fitting
frame putting me in a better position), but I really like it. And the
braking, despite the crappy pads, is chalk and cheese. These Mafac
Racers work *really* nicely. They are much smoother, quieter and
firmer than the brakes on my other bike (again, many possible causes,
aluminium vs steel rims, centrepull vs sidepull), they are just an
effortless joy to use. With new pads in and careful adjustment, I can
only imagine they will be better. Everything just felt so much
*nicer* that I worry that I will find my other bike unbearable to ride
for errands after doing some nice long weekend rides on the
Franken-Peugeot!
I also took the chance to rummage around the miscellaneous accessories
that I usually don't find the time to play with on Thursdays. They
had a few bottle cages, but none that really caught my eye, and these
are cheap enough to buy new that I will probably just do that. I put
on a kickstand, because you're God damn right I want a kickstand on my
bike. There is a ridiculous prejudice against kickstands amonst
"serious cyclists", and they will spout all kinds of plain non-truths
in defence of this ("kickstands don't really work, anyway" or "you can
always find something nearby to lie your bike against", for example),
but I know from personally experience that they are super practical
and 100% worth the tiny extra weight and wind resistance that I think
must be scaring off the racer nuts. Sadly, the one I picked out
doesn't quite fold up far enough against the chainstay, and the edge
of my left crank occasionally comes into contact with it. I'll have
to either move it back a little, if I can, or replace it with another.
I wasn't able to find either a front or rear rack that I could easily
mount, due to my total lack of fork/dropout eyelets or any kind of
mounting plate above the rear brake bridge. I'm starting to think
that either a saddlebag or a basket with supports that mount directly
to the front axle are going to be my only options for carrying loads.
I had originally planned to put fenders on this bike, but again the
lack of eyelets will make this a hassle, although not impossible. I'm
starting to wonder if I need them - this is a pleasure bike for
joyrides, and I'm probably going to ride it in fair weather 95% of the
time, simply because that's a whole lot more pleasant. If I ever
*really* feel the need to get wet and dirty on it, I can temporarily
attach some of those ugly plastic fenders that just clip on. So
perhaps I'll just leave them off to help keep the finish line really
close. I need to sort out some reflectors, too, but that should be
easy enough.
[1]
https://sheldonbrown.com/cables.html#routing
