So I have broken one of the cardinal
rules for people living in northern
climates. I have become obsessed with
a summer activity in the depths of
winter. Bicycling.
It's clearly a product of being cooped
up for COVID. I really want to get
outside, feel the sunshine and the
wind, enjoy the motion, and be free.
The crazy thing is that I haven't
bicycled much for years, since I moved
to a neighbourhood in a town with San
Francisco-style hills. That reality no
longer matters to me. I have planned
out the best routes to the flat parts
of town and I'm going to be bicycling
in the spring.
Meanwhile, I've been reading through
every cycling post on the
circumlunar.space bulletin board,
perusing odd cycling websites, buying
some new parts to get my old bike
ready, and watching bicycle
maintenance videos.
I tend to like vintage everything (old
stuff gives me a good feeling), so I
was pleasantly surprised to find that
vintage cycling is a thing.
Even so, it can be incredibly
difficult to track down out of date
parts. I have a 1998 or 1999 Norco
Cherokee. It's a nothing-special
mountain bike, but I like it a lot.
It's in very nice shape, though it
does need some new parts: new tires,
tubes, and that rubber tape that
covers the spokes. All of the rubber
has deteriorated during the years it
has sat in the basement. So that's all
coming. I even found close-to-original
tires with the red stripe (omg I'm
such a nerd), that were decently
priced and shipped for free from
England. I can never figure out how
sellers can afford to do that.
The most difficult thing to find was a
new seat post. The current one has
always been extended to the limit and
I've always wanted a slightly longer
one, so that there's a little more
stem in the tube. But try to find a
25.6 mm seatpost, when it was an odd
size to begin with. After a lot of
searching, I did find one and it's on
its way from Poland. Sadly, it has the
integrated seat clamp, so it's not
quite period-specific. But beggars
can't be choosers.
I guess next Sunday I'll find a tube
of grease and start pulling apart the
hubs. I need something to do until
winter ends.
