The Face of Jesus in Matt’s Saddle Bag

Look!  I think I see the face of Jesus.  Like the shroud of Turin, inside his saddle bag, the spare tube and Allen wrenches were wrapped in a tie-dye-esque aged rust stained cloth.  I unraveled the wrenches and held out the cloth.  Behold!  That might fetch a few bucks on eBay.  They’ve been in the seat bag a long time, not quite B.C. old, but maybe before Bieber.  25 miles from home, I was helping Matt from Smitty’s Cyclery in Cincinnati replace a broken shift cable.  Yes.  He carries a spare.

Wrapping your tube and tools are just one of the lessons I learned from Big Matt’s saddle bag.  A former racer on the track and on the road, I’m sure Matt’s no stranger to weight weenie tendencies.  Matt proved you can pack a lot and still pack light.  The bag was packed with the expertise of an Everest climber, the necessities of survival in a few cubic inches.  I’ve had a day to think about it, and there’s not a mechanical incident that would’ve had Matt calling for a ride home.  Inside Matt’s saddle bag: tube, mini-tool with chain breaker, select 4-5-6 Allen wrenches, patch kit, brake and shifter cable, a five spot, a zip tie, and a chain pin.  I wouldn’t doubt there were a spare cleat and/or bottle cage bolt in there somewhere.  He kept the mini pump in his jersey pocket.

The black thing is the free hub body.

Matt explained the zip tie was in case your free hub body dies.  The free hub body is the thing your cassette rides on.  Its ratcheting pawls allow you to coast and engage the gears.  When it dies, and they do occasionally, you’re left…coasting home.  To fix on the fly, you can zip-tie the cassette to the spokes and get yourself home in a fixed-gear sort of way.  A zip tie can also fix a broken bottle cage, keep a busted derailleur out of your spokes or can be traded to the locals for corn and beads.

Wrapping your spare tube and tools in cloth accomplishes two, three, maybe four things.  For one, it prevents you from being the annoying Mr. Jangly Bag on group rides.  Two, it keeps sharp edge tools from serrating your spare tube.  Three, I would hedge a bet that it keeps spare tubes from drying out and/or prevents the valve-tube junction from becoming oxidized.  Lastly, it never hurts to have a rag for sweaty hands or keeping gooey chain greased hands from messing up white bar tape.

The black thing is a zip tie.

While Matt worked to get the broken cable end out of his shifter, I reached over his bike and undid the fixing bolt on his Dura Ace rear derailleur.  Matt’s got many miles in his legs, no stranger to being 2 hours from home with a mechanical.  He’s a mechanic at Smitty’s Cyclery in Cincinnati.  Yet even he packs a spare derailleur cable and a spare brake cable in his seat bag.  I scratched my head.  His Land Shark bike was impeccably clean and well maintained.  Having worked at a shop myself, I take pride wrenching on my own bikes and used to have a relative comfort in thinking that my cables are new and all bolts are properly fixed.  I don’t need to bring a multi-tool or anything beyond a tube, cartridge, mini-pump and five-dollar bill.  There on a flat road, 2 hours from home, Matt snapped a cable, fixed it with a spare in the span of 5 minutes and left me questioning my minimalist logic.

U Pull & Save on Used Campy Record 10

At Joe Biker's "You Pull And Save" you can snap up Campy Record 10 Components for cheep cheep! We don't put on the chicken suit for nothing! Best of all we pulled all the parts off the bike for you, so all you have to do is buy 'em for cheep cheep. Get it! It's Campagnolo Record 10, made by an army of meticulous organic Lasagna-fed Italians and christened in 100 percent pure Grappa. Snap it up now for cheep cheep from a reliable mechanic slash bike dork in a chicken outfit slash gosh darn good guy before it goes up on eBay where I will milk it for every penny it's worth and charge astronomical amounts for shipping. Kidding. Here are the pure bike porn goodies:

Campagnolo Record 10 Carbon Fiber Ultra Shift Levers

Ergopower design. Right hand shifter rebuilt in Summer 2010. Clean, smooth working condition, slight cosmetic wear on top of hoods, lightweight. Shifters allow multiple up/down shifts with one throw of lever. Don’t worry about cross gearing, left shifter has multiple trim stops for quiet shifting and multiple gear options. Campy box included.

Asking $200 ($10 Shipping in Continental US Only, Accept Pay Pal or Cash, click here to email for inquiry or more information) 

Campagnolo Record Carbon 10 Speed Clamp-on Front Derailleur 34.9mm 

Carbon/Ti. Can be shimmed down to 32mm with Ti shims available at your local bike shop to fit and spread clamping force on 32mm carbon seat tube. Campy box included.

Asking: $60 ($10 Shipping in Continental US Only, Accept Pay Pal or Cash, click here to email for inquiry or more information) 

Campagnolo Record Carbon/Ti 10 Spd Short Cage Rear Derailleur 

The body is titanium, and the parallelogram and cage are carbon fiber. 189g. Short cage is standard for most road bikes, 57mm axle to axle. Campy box included.

Asking: $135 ($10 Shipping in Continental US Only, Accept Pay Pal or Cash, click here to email for inquiry or more information)

Campagnolo Record Titanium 10 Speed Road Brakeset 

Great feeling modulation. Front brake rebuilt with new pads, spring and hardware in Fall of 2010. Clean. Campy box included.

Asking: $90 ($10 Shipping in Continental US Only, Accept Pay Pal or Cash, click here to email for inquiry or more information)

Campagnolo Record Titanium 12-25t 10speed cassette/cogs & Chain 

Practically brand new. New in Summer of 2010. Largest four cogs are Ti. Campagnolo steel lockring. 215g. 12-13-14-15-16-17-19-21-23-25T. Includes: Campagnolo Record 10 Chain purchased same time as cassette (pictured at bottom). Campy drilled for super lightness. Cut to fit 50/34-12/25 Compact Gearing. Campy boxes included.

Asking $125 ($10 Shipping in Continental US Only, Accept Pay Pal or Cash, click here to email for inquiry or more information)

FSA Pro Road Chainring 50t Big Ring for Compact Gearing 

New in summer 2010. 10, 9 or 8 speed compatible. Fits FSA, Shimano, Truvativ and other non Campagnolo cranksets. Ramped and pinned for super smooth shifting. CNC black anodized 7075-T6 Aluminum. FSA packaging included.

Asking $30 ($10 Shipping in Continental US Only, Accept Pay Pal or Cash, click here to email for inquiry or more information)

FSA Pro Road Chainring 34t Inner Ring for Compact Gearing 

New in summer 2010. 10, 9 or 8 speed compatible. Fits FSA, Shimano, Truvativ and other non Campagnolo cranksets. CNC black anodized 7075-T6 Aluminum. 34g. FSA packaging included. 

Asking: $25 ($10 Shipping in Continental US Only, Accept Pay Pal or Cash, click here to email for inquiry or more information)

Campagnolo Record 10 Chain 

Purchased same time as cassette (pictured and included with sale of cassette above). Campy drilled for super lightness. Cut to fit 50/34-12/25 Compact Gearing. Box included. 

What’s This Schwinn Stingray Worth?

“So....what's this re-built bike worth?”

Well that’s nearly an offensive question. What’s a still-in-the-box 1975 Deluxe Curl Barbie or a perfect condition KISS Alive album worth? That’s not a bike. That’s not even a Schwinn Stingray. That’s a childhood gem.

To a 2nd grader who could draw all the KISS faces with extreme precision, my lime green sparkly banana saddled Stingray was my best friend as Barbie was to the girl next door. It had a ball-busting stick shifter on the top tube. I can vividly remember riding through the cracked concrete alley behind our house down to the dry cleaning store solely because they always had free popcorn on the counter. Good times.

As you are where you work, I’m the office bike geek. We also have horse riding geeks and Ford Crown Victoria Police car geeks. Everyone has a passion for something. So of course, when a coworker was offered this bike as a raffle item for her charity auction, she posed the question to me. With a few clicks on EBay and a Schwinn Restoration forum, I did my best to answer her.

A year ago or so, I came across a Schwinn Continental II that I’m still working on refurbishing. In the process, I learned about the Schwinn Restoration forum which has a ton of great links for determining the year your Schwinn was built based on its serial number, what it might be worth and what it could look like if fully restored or turned into a work of art.

I didn’t have the serial number, but judging from the red/brown color and based upon some old catalogs I’ve seen, I’d hedge a guess that this Schwinn Stingray is from the mid 70’s. Judging from photos of similar looking bikes, I’m also guessing that this bike is missing its chrome fenders. It also seems like there’s something special about ’62 and ’63 Schwinn Stingray’s. The lime green color and the one with the big “S” on the banana seat seem to sell for more too. Two similar bikes to the one pictured above caught my eye on EBay, both with bids between $150 and $200. Some chopper style Stingrays on EBay go for over $500. I’m sure there’s tricked out Stingrays that sell for much higher.

Judging from that brief research, I’d say this well restored fenderless plain Jane Schwinn Stingray is probably in the $150-$200 neighborhood. Ultimately, it’s what the market will bear. I’d certainly write a $175 check for it. $300? I don’t think so, not unless its lime green with a stick shift and comes with a bag of popcorn.

How To: Open A Car Door With A Bike Brake Cable

Like you, since I’ve been cycling, I keep miniscule old bike parts that are still in working condition.  In my toolbox you’ll find old cleats, a used buckle for Sidi shoes, and odd bar end plugs.  I have things in Glad snack bags that I literally have to hold up to a light upside down before I recall what it is.  “Oh yeah!  Those are the spare plastic stops for my wife’s bottle cages.”  As long as they are in decent shape, I keep old road and mountain shift and brake cables.  You never know when you’re going to break one, need to MacGruber one into a cyclocross cantilever hanger cable….or tie one in just the right way to jimmy your teammate’s car door open 15 minutes before a race because they accidently locked their door with their keys helmet and shoes inside. 

That happened Sunday.

No lie.  Well maybe we had a half hour before the official’s gun, but just as everyone is starting to get warmed up she came over to our truck out of breath and in a tizzy.  “Omigod!  Ilockedmykeysinmycar an an and my helmet’s in there.   WhatdoIdo?”  “I guess we could call a park ranger, the office is right over there,” I said.  My wife and another girl went over to stir up a ranger.  In the meantime, I sauntered over to her car.  The door was just barely locked.  I could just about get a finger through the corner.  I overheard someone say, “Does anyone have a coat hanger?”  As I eyed up the latch on the inside of the door, I realized it stuck out just enough that I could probably hook it with something…something like a brake cable!

I jogged back to our truck.  No lie, there’s 15 minutes to post time at this point.  I grabbed a brake cable out of the bottom drawer of my tool box.  I tied the non-stopper end in a 6-7 inch loop.  That way, I figured, I’d have the stopper end to hang on to.  I jogged back to her car.

I fished the looped end through the corner with the biggest gap between the door and the car and fed the slack inside so the loop fell below the height of the latch.  I then slowly worked the whole assembly so it was slightly forward of the latch.  I gave it a few twists and dips and within about a minute I had the loop around the latch.  This is the point where the sweat beads appeared on my forehead. 

Focus.  Steady.  Focus. 

I took up the slack, moving the assembly back toward the corner of the door with the big gap.  I had this doggie lassoed.  Yank!  Nothing.  Yank!  Nothing.  YANK!  Open!  Hugs and cheers all around.

Today I got this group email:  “…Oh, Joe forgot to tell everyone that he is a hero.  I locked my keys in the car right before the race...and he totally got it open with a cable!!!  …you guys rock!  I think Joe has a talent and maybe a second career...? :)”

Hero?  I don’t think so.  Talent for 2^nd career?  Maybe 3^rd or 4^th.  Really I just like to impress my wife with my mad man-skills.  

Got time for more?  Read this previous MacGuyver-esque post about fixing a flat by tying a tube in a knot.