Sharing the space?

Having to travel in and out of Coventry quite frequently has given me a varied experience of the new 'shared space' in the city centre. Even after having lots of practice I still feel like I'm taking my life in my hands each time I venture across...I think its knowing that i'm relying on the goodwill and awareness of others in order to make it to the other side safely.

The new junctions seem to work best if you are either a bus or you are travelling straight on, on several occasions recently I've had to get off the bike and move to the path in order to avoid a steady flow of buses coming up the hill from Gosford St who haven't yet heard about sharing the space.

Shared spaces aren't a new idea and are most associated with the dutch who seem to have successfully developed the idea over many years, but so far the way in which the concept has been implimented in Coventry has caused problems for many of those who had hoped to benefit from a new approach to road usage, particularly cyclists and pedestrians. Its early days yet though, lets hope with time and a bit of tweaking it all works out!

Finding my lost bicycle

Over a year and a half ago I lost my bicycle. For reasons that I still don't fully understand I managed to completely forget where I had left it, no matter how hard I tried to remember. Anyway, last week (and very much out of the blue) I suddenly remembered where I thought it might be,so onto a bike I jumped and away I went to see if it was still there....this is what i found

Amazingly still locked up to the bike rack where it had been left, a little worse for wear with flat tires, rusty wheels, leaves in the basket and cobwebs on the handlebars...but still there! It was such a relief to finally find it, it isn't an expensive bike or particularly pretty but it rides beautifully which is why I had used it every single day. The only slight problem I have now is that after 18 months I no longer seem to have to key to the D lock I secured it with...so although I've pumped up the tyres, cleaned and oiled it...at the moment its still locked to the same railing until I can either find the key or cut through the lock...any ideas much appreciated.

How much damage can a worn chain do?

Apart from feeding it some oil now and then (probably to stop the irritating squeek) I reckon the chain has to be one of the components given the least amount of thought. Unless it gets really really worn or you're particularly unfortunate it'll keep turning your wheels until you decide to get another bike...but if you're like me and have a bike that you love and would rather not spend pots of cash maintaining it then please read on!

The last few days have seen a couple of bikes arrive for repair with the same fault caused by the same easily remedied problem, they each had chains which were so very worn that they had started to wear away the rest of the drive chain ( the chainwheel and rear derailleur/ jockey wheels). Its easily preventable and if caught in time will only cost you the price of a new chain (£20) rather than the cost of a derailleur/ jockey wheels and chainrings (£50+....+ fitting)

Worn jockey wheels have pointed teeth (left) rather than nice square edged teeth like the one on the right.








A little further investigation will probably reveal a worn chainset, on this one you can see that the outer rings are far more worn than the inner probably as a result of far more use of those gears.




Eventually a combination of a worn chainset, a worn out chain and damaged jockey wheels will result in missing gears and a slipping chain...which can prove a little painful. The answer is very simple, periodically check the chain for wear- it doesn't require any special tools and only takes a minute or two. To check your chain all you are going to need is a chain and a 12" ruler...here's how...


Prop your bike so that it'll stand on its own, then rest your ruler along a length of chain. If your chain is in optimum condition it should measure 12" for 12 complete links- when measured from/ to the centre of the link. Unless new most chains when measured have stretched a little- if its anything more than 1/16th inch then you need to think about getting a new chain.







....Just in case you're not sure- this is one complete link, count twelve of those and then measure.







I'm not sure what the average life of a chain is, as with most things it depends on the quality of the chain, how well its been looked after and the punishment it's endured. I do check and oil mine but commute daily in all weathers- so tend to check it monthly and change it annually.

Autumnal foraging

Now that its a little colder outside its easy to look a few months forward to the fast approaching winter and forget entirely about the fruit filled hedgerows which are itching to be turned into jams, wines and preserves. Thanks to the wonders of freegle I was lucky enough to acquire a pile of brewing equipment which i'm hoping will produce a range of interesting (and cheap) christmas pressies this year to accompany the jam pots and knitted wares already on the way. With this in mind I popped out for a quick look around to see what i could find...



First to be found was a pile of crab apples, on the floor so ready to use, helped down from the tree by a freezing wind...not sure shorts were the right choice for today's forage! Crab apples alone or mixed with other fruits (elderberries, blackberries) are good for jellies






Next to be found was a tree filled with sloes, not quite ready yet- I think they need to be picked after the first proper frost. I saw lots of these, not too popular other than as an addition to gin because they are amazingly sour. Processed properly they can apparently be turned into amazing sloe cheese








Next up was a blackberry bush, I'm not sure its been a great year for blackberries this year but the few I found still tasted lovely.











A little further along was this fantastic plum tree, great for just eating although i've used the fallen plums from this tree to make the most beautiful jam for the last few years









Elderberries will grow just about anywhere that they are allowed to, usually seen on bits of scrubland, by the sides of roads and lining the canals- great in jams and good in wine. Its easy to spot when they are ready to pick because the weight of the fruit begins to pull the end of the branch back towards the ground






Rosehips are easy to spot and are good for turning into rosehip syrup- rosehips are rich in vitamin 'C', far richer than oranges apparently












Last up was a surprise find- wild hops, perfect for a little bit of home brewing!






There was more to be found but I had to head home, my bag filled with fruits. If you do decide to go out looking for useful fruits make sure you have a look in a good book first and/or take someone with you who knows what they are picking and definitely avoid anything low to the ground and near to the path, its bound to have been drenched by the local dogs

Recycled tyres- Make your own grips

Being a little keen on recycling and alot poor has sometimes lead to some great solutions, particularly when fixing the bikes. I've found one of the trickiest bits to reuse has been the old cycle tyres which are nowhere near as versatile as the inner tubes they protect. Not so long ago I decided to try and make some grips for a bike that I had been given which other than the grips was perfect- very much to my amazement they turned out to be fantastic- have a look...

If you'd like to make your own this is what you have to do...






Cut yourself a piece of tyre roughly about the size of the grip you want to make-











Its easier if you hold it to the handlebar to get an approximate size. When measuring make sure you measure the width properly- too wide and it won't grip the bar, not wide enough and it'll have an irritating gap.









Mark out and drill/ poke small holes at roughly a finger width apart along both sides of your grip sized bit of tyre- its much easier if you drill the holes, but make sure you put something behind it and keep fingers out of the way











You will now have a bit of old tyre with several holes in it- should look a bit like this...











Using a piece of scrap inner tube 'lace' the piece of tyre as you would a shoe- joining the two long edges together- I used an old punch to aid with the poking











It should begin to look like this...












Once finished, tie the ends of the inner tube off and fit to the bike. I've found that the tyre grip grips the handlebar better if you first wrap it with a small piece of inner tube. If you have any to hand- pop a old cork in each of the bar ends to finish it off.



As always I'm assuming a reasonable level of tool competance and dexterity, if you feel you may injure yourself in attempting to make the grips please don't as I accept no responsibility for any injuries resulting.

Dorset adventures

Everyone has a perfect place and for me thats the coast of Dorset, in particular a small village a little way past Lyme Regis called Charmouth. It sits on what must be one of the most beautiful stretches of cycle routes in the UK following the Jurassic path (cycle route 2), you can also walk the South Coast path which will take you all the way from Lyme to Weymouth. I'd planned to do a little more cycling on this trip down but in the end spent most of my time....







looking for fossils















cooking on the beach and eating ice cream!











Next year i'll be cycling a large chunk of the route (probably!) but with views like this its hard not to get distracted, to spend some time sitting down and then spend the whole day taking in the view...

Roll on 2012!

How to make a quick single speed (Part 3)

If you have all of your bits and pieces and plenty of time, putting a bike back together again should be the easy bit. If you've followed the single speed project ( Part 1, Part 2 ) you'll have a stripped down frame, a pair of wheels and a pile of bits leftover from when the bike was originally taken apart. At this stage its up to you to decide whether you're going to reuse some of these bits or whether your going to find some nicer, shinier bits for your new steed. I ended up using the same handlebars, but replaced the brake levers for some nice old school Leechi levers.





After stripping down the red frame I decided that the frame wasn't quite big enough for me, so I swapped it for this one which I had been using and had partially stripped down for repair.













The only difficulty using this frame presented was that the brake calipers I had didn't quite fit alongside the bosses for the V brakes that i'd removed- I therefore had to make a little adjustment by trimming the bosses down












For the next part you'll need for following tools which you'll have probably already used in the other parts. You'll need a chain splitter, a adjustable spanner, a socket ratchet and a 14mm socket.










You'll also need to source a single speed 3 piece crank and a 1/8" sized chain, which typically you'll find on an old 3 speed bike (you can pick both of these up used on ebay for a few pounds). Remember that if you intend to use the same axle that you'll need to get a cotterless crank.

Bmx's use a 1/8" chain, but although of a similar size for the purpose of making a bodged single speed the older chain seems to work better.



Now you'll need to loosely assemble your bike, I tend to put the wheels into the frame so that the bike is at standing height for me to work on- if you have a bike work stand you can stick the wheels on later. I also put on things like handlebars so that i can get the brake levers roughly in place and can begin to get a sense of what the bike is going to look like.





With this done you can stick the crank back on, make sure the nut is done up nice and tight.













Next, thread the chain onto the rear sprocket and over the new chainwheel and fix it back together again with your chaintool.










Finally, with your chain connected and your wheels loosely attached adjust the tension in the chain bike moving the wheel, when you are satisfied with the tension tighten the wheel nuts. Too tight and the chain will wear and snap, too loose and it'll just fall off.




All thats left to do now, is to fit the cables, properly attach and adjust the handlebars, brake levers, seat and post- you should now have a very basic but beautiful homemade single speed