Brake for a brakeless fixed gear

I think this is an awesome idea for a fixed gear---you can't stop pedaling anyways, so why not? Beautiful bike too...

240 Parts on eBay

Well, I was cruising eBay to see what parts I should pull off my Volvo and sell, looking out for any expensive parts that I can do without, and whaddya know -- you can buy whole engines (or transmissions) pulled from wrecked 240's for just a couple hundred bucks. Wow!

Check it out.

Side mirrors up to ... $60
Grills up to ... $100
Instrument clusters for $80
Pair of Wagon tail-lights ... $80
Seats ... $75
Used Sun Visors ... $85
Third row seat (Wagon) ... $79+45 shipping



Wow!

This might display a degree of poor taste on my part, but I thought this was pretty funny and ironically appropriate. After all, if the LA Times is to be taken as truthful (!), 80% of Americans are against government involvement with Detroit.

(Courtesy of CarDomain.com)

I didn't want to spend $63 for a high-quality 200-lumen Knog headlight on Amazon, even though that's a screaming deal on a light that typically retails for $179....

I found this instead.  I could install the handlebar mount where the rear brake hood used to be. Now it's off to Lowe's to acquire the necessary hardware...

(an hour passes. Tinkering with a Mini-Maglite and twist-ties, ensues)

Ok, never mind. Sorry guys, I'm spending the $63.  One Knog 105 coming up...the last one in stock at that price....*fingers crossed*  (If you have a cheap life, buy a cheap headlight)

But check out the link.  I think the idea has merit for people who ride in town with streetlights.

***

The derailleur cable and housing has been replaced, front to back.  It doesn't shift any better.  My suspicions of the fundamental inadequacy of the budget AllVit derailleur are confirmed.  It will suffice, however, albeit in 8-speed rather than 10-speed form.

New brake pads! Joy! No longer will I need to broadcast my presence to surrounding neighborhoods by the echoing, tortured squeal of hard 30-year-old rubber against the rims.

One of these days I'm really going to have to have some photos of my bicycle in its proper habitat: the outdoors, but today is not the day for that.  I'm strategically pre-empting an imminent flu by not working today. Unable to stay in bed past noon, I was blearily rummaging about the kitchen for soup and tea, and my eye fell upon the pile of parts in my apartment corner with the bicycle suspended over them, like a half finished model airplane. I remembered that there was an Upgrade Not Gotten To last week and perhaps my forced inaction would provide me with an opportunity to remedy this.

So out came the 14mm wrench, and I was soon loosening mangled bolts from their mangled nuts to remove the borrowed Specialized seat and install a new Bontrager one.

Someone should write a book about this creating a roadable, century-capable road bike for $90, which includes its purchase price of $40.  The author ought to be a lazy person who can't be 

bothered to get good deals on parts by rummaging through used bike websites.  Can't even be bothered buying new stuff at a discount on Amazon since he hates paying for shipping.  He would buy everything brand new at MSRP at his local dealership (or dealership SALE prices *smirk*)

I'm not saying that's what I've spent on it, I'm not saying that's even NEAR what I've spent on this project altogether, for I assume the author of such a book would not include kit such as miniature (6") Trek tire pump ($30), a frame pack ($20) tire spoons and associated patches ($6) and various allen wrenches and spanners that I refuse to leave home without.  

And then there was all the spandex, which added up to, well, a lot.

So I'm not saying that serious road riding for the lazy person is cheap, but I am saying that the actual bicycle is but a small fraction of the overall cost.

Anyway, the new seat.  No it's not fancy or anything but it retails for $59.99 and I got it for $18 at the local Trek store:

I found this calculator (from Portland, OR of course!) very interesting, though I still love cars and won't be giving mine up if I can help it:

The Cost of Car Ownership

Oh no

This is not 'shopped...volvo fans I am sorry... I couldn't resist...

The Silver Bullet: Exhaust Manifold Gasket

I haven't been lazy in working on the cars and bikes, just lazy in posting about them.

On the Silver Bullet I installed a new battery terminal on the positive post with a stud and wing-nut combo, and redid the main electrical connectors in 4 GA brass ring ends... (I also had to put a new battery in, but the other one did last me since 2002).


But the main project this time around was the exhaust manifold gaskets. I forgot to document the process with the camera, but I should find those old gaskets and post a photo of them -- they are pretty gnarly looking. And yes, they were responsible for the horrendous engine noise and lackluster performance, the rough idle, and so much more.

In the middle of that job, I took a break and rewired the rear door harnesses. After I had hacked them all to bits, I found that the kits are less than $20 from IPD. Oh well. I saved most of the connectors, so maybe I could rewire them in later... The way they are now I have to implement an alternative cable channel anyway... This little bit of wiring fixed the license plate lights, the rear door power lock, and presumably the rear wiper/sprayer.



I hadn't really done much exhaust work before this manifold gasket job, but it's pretty easy. The only difficult part was leveraging the manifold on and off. While I was trying to detach the header from the header pipe connection, I badly stripped a bolt that's in a place where it is impossible to get leverage, so I ended up manhandling the exhaust manifold off whilst leaving the header pipe in place. I don't recommend this, but my friend was 3-foot section of pipe that I once found by the side of the road. It was my wrench-extender, and lever-bar -- my best friend for this job (I should post a picture). When I found it on the side of the road, stopped, picked it up, and put it in the car, I swear I thought my Wife was going to get out of the car and leave, but she didn't. And now it really came in handy.


At some point I'll have to get in there and bust that bolt out, and redo the header gasket while I'm at it.









Since I don't have job-specific photos this time, I'll leave you with a couple shots of the infamous switches cluster.