Ask MetaFilter questions tagged with bicycle and diy

He ain't heavy, he's my single speed.

monocultured — Mon, 06 Jul 2009 14:56:06 -0800

I've bought a frankenstein bicycle and want to fix it up. Need help with identification and suggestions. Long story short, I've been asking around here in Gothenburg about what kind of bike it might be and suggestions for repairs, but I haven't gotten much in way of answers. There are pictures of the bike and some details on the Swedish forum happymtb if you'd care to take a look.

I got new crank wedges the other day, and the repair guy loosed the bottom bracket while at it, since it was too tight and the cranks didn't rotate freely. Well, the bottom bracket was prolly wound that tight since it's old and busted up inside - one of the pedals now pulsate and skip ever so slightly on each revolution, and there's a creaking noise on the gear side of the bracket.

So, it looks like I have to disassemble and repair or replace the bottom bracket. In order to do that I'd have to know what kind of tools I require, what type of bracket it is, what kind of wear and tear to look for, etc.

Part of the problem is that I know too little about the mechanics to ask the right questions. Pointing at the bike and drawling "it's brokened" isn't winning me any friends in the bike community here.

Here is a picture of the bottom bracket. FWIW the pedals are French, (Stamped with "Moillard C×Ↄ France" – althought it's hard to make out) and might help with identification. (Some people have suggested that this is of French make, perhaps a Peugeot or some such, but most certainly it's a cheap 70's or 80's road bike that's been remade into a single speed.)

An image of me throwing good money after bad might come to mind, but I don't want to give up on this thing; I reccon that I'll have to score used parts for this project, but if I can learn something while at it it might be worth it. Or will this all end in tears?

Build a Bike

god particle — Wed, 05 Nov 2008 16:50:36 -0800

I want to build a custom bike, and I've got a few questions... First of all, are there any recommended online guides for doing this? Where online can I order the individual parts, preferably in custom colors? As an alternative to custom colored parts, what company makes the best spray paint that holds well on metal, in a wide variety of colors? I believe I used Krylon spray paint for my old bike, but I'd like more color options that I see on their site.
My current bike is a Trek mountain bike that's several years old. I really like the sturdiness of mountain bikes; I feel like they can handle any terrain and all sorts of bumps and potholes in the road - I think it has something to do with the frame and the wide wheels. Also, I feel like mountain bikes are more maneuverable, but that might just be because I've had much more experience on them than on road bikes.
I admire the speed and elegance of road bikes - is there anyway to incorporate the speed of a road bike and the stability/sturdiness/maneuverability(?) of a mountain bike? I'm not too well versed on the physical differences between road bikes and mountain bikes, other than that road bikes are usually lighter and have larger wheels (and have different handlebars).
Finally, I'm thinking that I will want this bike to have only a single gear, since I rarely switch gears anyways and it will probably be easier to build and maintain that way. When I was a kid, my first bike had only one gear (I think) and no handbrakes. The way you braked was by backpedalling. I found this to be really intuitive as I was learning and was really weirded out by handbrakes, although now I'm used to them...in general, how does the backpedalling breaking system compare to the handbrake system? The handbrake system seems like it would be more complicated to install (as mentioned here), with the cables running everywhere, but I'm not sure if they're safer than the backpedalling breaks.
I'm not necessarily looking for recommendations for each component, though that would certainly help.
I'm not looking to build the bike out of scratch (ie put the wheels together myself), but buy the individual parts myself and then assemble those.
And finally, this bike will be used for riding around the city, so I don't need state-of-the-art super-lightweight carbon parts or anything like that.

And one more question - are all the parts of a bicycle pretty much interchangeable, or are there only parts that will only work with other certain parts? (for example, are all the seatposts standardized? will I buy a nice seat and then find that its post doesnt fit into the frame?)

Thanks!

Hivemind provides tech support herein

Willie0248 — Mon, 30 Jun 2008 18:30:09 -0800

An old rusty bike: Opportunity for cheap travel, or just junk? So I'm cleaning out my parents' garage and I run across my old bike from high school. Of course, after years of storage the tires are rotted, and basically every part of it is rusty and nasty. Every part except the frame... I get to looking at the frame and it's pretty much perfect. No rust or anything. I guess the wheels and fork are in okay shape too.

So basically, I have a perfect frame and passable wheels and fork. I currently don't have a bicycle, so would this be a fun project to rebuild, or is this something that is a lot harder than it looks? It seems like I could just order some decent replacement parts and ratchet those suckers on for a relatively cheap riding experience. Of course, I know nothing on the subject, so it could be better to just go buy a new or used functional bike.

Here are my questions, given the circumstances:
Is it worth it to build this thing up with replacement parts, or is it going to be too expensive to justify the effort?
If it seems feasible, what's a good source of how-to guides and technical references so I can get to work?

need clasp for bike chain bracelet

annoyance — Fri, 30 Nov 2007 09:36:55 -0800

need to find weird folding bracelet clasp for bike chain bracelet ok, so i would like to make something like this from a couple of my own old bike chains but i cannot find that sort of clasp, anywhere, at all. perhaps it has a name and i don't know it.
any leads would rock.
or if you have another good clasping idea, that would work too, i just don't like lobster or very dainty clasps.

Slacker seeks to aesthetically improve bicycle

xanthippe — Thu, 23 Mar 2006 06:45:14 -0800

What's the best quick-and-dirty way to change the colour of my bicycle? I recently bought a second-hand mountain bike that looks almost new. Most of my frame is black, but there are some ugly pastels on the in-between sections, and a couple sticker decals under the top coat.

I bought some sandpaper, and am thinking of sanding the paint off these bits and covering it with a color I can stomach better (while also making it look less finished, and therefore less attractive to thieves). So far I've only found advice for repainting an entire frame. Given that I'm not going to take off all the fittings, spraypainting is out; what kind of paint should I use, then, and how should I apply it? What do i need to do to make it weather-/rust-proof afterwards?

(Also, there's already a tiny spot of rust in one place; can I sand this off and paint over it, too?)