Monday, December 3, 2012

Restoring My Bike

What does everyone that has a bike & fulltimes do with their bikes?

Do you cover them? That's what I do.

Do you have a place to store it? I wish I did.

Do you have a real bike cover?  I use a tarp.

But when I travel, I have a bike carrier that hangs off my ladder. It can be a challenge to use as I have to lift the bike & carefully place it over the carrier. That requires upper body strength. I can still do it, but it becomes more difficult each time.

I use a cargo carrier, but it has other items on it, so placing the bike on it isn't really possible. I could take the risk of looking like the Beverly Hillbillies truck/car thing. Jalopy. Yes, jalopy fits.  I'm sure most people would really want to be away from traveling behind me then! They already don't want my big box blocking their views at it is....but then, it would give them something to look at, no?

Sooo because I live in a humid climate, my poor bike suffers the wrath of the rusties!

Bad rusties - BAD!

I'm one to restore things if possible. Plus a new bike isn't in the budget right now. What is a budget? Isn't that some small bird one keeps in a cage? I dunno, I don't have either right now ;-)

So I got this stuff to remove the rust-o-la-la-la-la

Click on images for larger images - I've made the label big enough to read if you care to click on it.



This is part of the rust. I don't know most bike parts, so bear with me. No, don't be a bear about it, just bare with me. Bear/bare? Oh have a beer, then it won't matter.

 This part, I treated twice, but this was with the first application & I shot it before I let it set. It is not cleaning up the chrome part well though. But I will also sand that down & repaint. I bought some silver spray paint for this job.

 This is some kind of chain guard thing. It was really rusted. The stuff helped & I will also spray paint it as well.


It did a great job on this metal bolt! I applied the stuff to all the screws & bolts. Most of them were rusting. They all look good now.

My bike chain & gears were covered in rust. I didn't think to take a before pic, but it really cleaned them up well too!

My poor weathered bike. I've put many, many miles on this bike. Before my injury, I used to ride it around 13-16 miles a day! I'd love to be able to do that again. I also bought new brake pads & a new tube. Because I changed out the old tube, but uh...should I be admitting this? Oh well, yes, I might as well. I forgot to inspect the tire for anything that would pierce the tube. So yep, the new tube deflated too! And it was one of those slime tubes that don't go flat! Ha! Don't believe them. It's as flat as an old vinyl record. Pancakes are not as flat...

I have therapy today, so won't be able to finish up on the bike. I'll take shots at it ...or um...of it once done. Wish me luck!

Then I might use this stuff on the RV too! I think maybe some of the lug nuts could use a little dose of this stuff.

~As always, be kind to your pets, clean up after them on your travels & respect your neighbor~

15 comments:

  1. It's a noble thing to look after your bike. I'm sure you miss it but it's looking good. Think you'll be back on it soon?

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    1. Hi Kim, I think I can do a little riding once I finish up on it. Part of my therapy is 10 mins on the exbike, which is about 2.4 miles.

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  2. Good job on the bike. The bike I had last year when I was on the beach rusted very fast, it wasn't really the right size for me and I needed to get a different one. Someone at an RV park was asking questions about it and I asked them if they wanted to buy it and they did, rust and all.

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  3. Nice job on the refurb. By the way you'll know you have reached the Beverly Hillbilly level when you hire a driver and go down the road in a rocking chair on the roof.

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  4. WOW! Great job - I'll have to try some of that stuff on my bike (I have a rusty chain too).

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    1. Hi Anne, I still have to oil that chain to prevent it from further rusting. I had hoped to finish the bike by now, but have been delayed. I might slather a little bit of vaseline over it as well.

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  5. That's my go to de-ruster too. It leaves a film if you put a lot on it and stuff still needs a protective coat of something afterwards. Generally a light film of oil helps keep things from rusting but it also attracts dirt. Chrome is susceptible to corrosion and there's not a lot you can do about it.

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    1. I still have to finsih it. I hope to get back to it this weekend. I bought silver spray paint to cover the rusted chrome parts after I sand that down. And yes, I'll oil the chain again.

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  6. My bike is brand new, I bought it.......15 years ago!! It's been in the garage ever since, might have 5 miles on it. :)

    I think I need to start riding it!

    Erik

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    1. Hmmm Erik, can you ride it at the gym? It's getting cold there isn't it?

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  7. That's some tuff stuff you have there. Cool bike.

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  8. We have bikes that we carry in our CRV. I take off the front wheels. We had a carrying bar off the back of the MH but the bikes would bang again it from time to time and scratch the MH. I carried them for a while off a bike rack on the back of the car but I didn't like how much they bounced around. I have a bike bag I used for about a year or so, but it didn't offer much protection against the rust. So I take them apart and put them in the car now.

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