The Tune-up

10-22-14

About six months ago, I bought a Park Tools bike stand.  This is my favorite tool right now.  Without it, washing or tuning a bike is more about juggling the bike, than fix it.  It's like changing a light bulb with a ball-peen hammer and a chisel; it can be done, but not gracefully.  So the bike stand lets you focus on the thing instead of the not thing you're doing.  The bike stand is zen.

I'd done the once over.  The Moto was clearly a win.  I had it's golden body in the stand, held firmly by the clamp on the seat tube. Gloves on; check.  

I'd bought a set of tires after work to install, and I was looking forward to getting a reliable set.  Tires are pretty darn important, after all.  I got a set of Schwalbe Marathons.  These are nice because they have the reflective sidewall.  But they were definitely a modern looking tire.  Plus, the set I bought were a 1-1/2 inch tire, whereas the original tires were a 1-1/8 inch.  Different ride for sure.

I was ambivalent about this choice. So after the shifting tune-up, I held off on the tire installation, leaving the funky original and the nice gumwall Specialized that came as a freebee on for a time.  

Instead of changing the tires, I used my time polishing the chrome and doing a bit better detail work on the components and frame.

I'd spent too much time on the internet researching how to restore chrome.  I had a bottle of chrome polish, but knew from experience that the polish didn't get at rust.  As it turns out, chrome can be restored to a decent condition using vinegar and tin-foil.  You can soak small parts in vinegar for a while and polish with foil.  Or you can dip the foil in the vinegar and polish.  From a distance, chrome restored this way looks pretty good.  Up close, you can see the pitting...but short of stripping and reapplying the chrome.....

I hit all the chrome on the bike with the quick method first.  I figured I could soak the small parts later when I was working specific components.  The Moto cleaned up very well and I could have probably stopped there...but I couldn't.

I had resolved by the end of this cleaning and tune-up to go with a full restoration.  I was going to strip the bike down to its frame and rebuild it from the bearings up.  Necessary - maybe for me...not probably for the bike.  But I was thinking back to those hours of pretending to be captaining a ship with my bmx in the back yard of the Orchard house in Gardena with the rear wheel as the boat's motor and the front as the boat's wheel. 

I'd get distracted then by the nuts holding the wheels on.  Then I'd gather up what wrenches and screw drivers I could from my step-dad's tool box in the back shed and start taking my jalopy apart.  Trong, my best friend from a few houses down, and I were always dis- and re-assembling various bmx components into new bikes.  And it was about as much a pass time to work on our bikes as it was to ride them.

I was going to pursue this deep seated impulse with a bit more finesse.  I resolved to restore the bike with modest upgrades, taking it all the way down.  Tomorrow, I would rebuild the front hub.