The Rockadile Restoration Project Epilogue

So after a smidgen of testing out all the stuff I did to my beloved Rockadile, it turns out I did a pretty ok job! But I shortly realized I forgot a few crucial things for bike commuting in the city: lights. Yes, lights. According to my research, people apparently get hit by cars and stuff when communting in bike-unfriendly cities like L.A. Oh wait, I got hit by a car here once a few years ago, come to think of it…

This time around I’d like to give myself a fighting chance out there on the mean streets of L.A., so I decided to put a front and rear set of lights on my bike.

For the front light, I went with the Planet Bike 3044 Blaze 1 Watt LED Headlight. It’s bright as hell, and comes off super fast so I don’t have to worry about people stealing it or whatever schenanagins they may be planning. 

For the rear light, I went with the Planet Bike Blinky “3″ 3-LED Rear Light. I actually got this one not only for it’s blinking ability, but also because it’s actually one of the larger blinking rear lights, and I want something reflective back there so I don’t always need to have the light going.

Depending on how well it works out, I may decide to get a crazy rear light like the Planet Bike Blinky Super Flash 1/2 Watt Blaze LED Plus 2 eXtreme LED Rear Light. That one just feels like overkill to me, and plus the damn name is just way too freaking long. I’m afraid with a light like that I would be distracting the drivers more than just letting them know I’m there.

For now that’s about it for the Rockadile Restoration Project, because, well, I’ve pretty much restored the Rockadile. I may come back and tinker with a few more things, in which case I’ll post some more stuff. Or I may just have some sweet pics of me tearing shit up on my newly improved bike.

The Rockadile Restoration Project (2/2)

Finally got all the parts in for the Rockadile Restoration: new brake pads and brake levers, plus new cables.

Part 3

New brake shoes

I decided to try a new type of brake shoe, the Kool Stop MTB brake shoes. They’re made out of different stuff than my previous ones, which wore out kind of fast for the amount of riding I was doing. These are supposed to last longer and work in all conditions better, so we’ll see! If I’m not happy with these I’m going to install disc brakes, as I’ve seen some kits for pretty cheap on amazon. Either way, these ones looks pretty sweet.

Part 4

New twist shifters, brake levers (w/ cables), and grips.

This was the “fun” part of putting new stuff on the bike, and the part I was most worried about. Having never installed these on a bike before, I had to take extra care to observe how the old parts were before taking them off (even though some of the cabling was messed up…). 

The brake levers and cabling went without a hitch, though I haven’t been able to test them on in any “serious” braking situations (i.e. going down a big ass hill/mountain). So we’ll see!

The gears put up a little more resistance, unfortunately. I initially had difficulty getting the cable tension right for the rear gears, it kept not wanting to shift to the higher gears for some reason. After fiddling with it for awhile I got it working, then I moved on to getting the front gears right. That one was actually tougher, I still haven’t got it so I can move the gears from 3 to 1 (can go 1-3 no prob, but can’t get it to go back to 1…). So, that’s the finishing touch on the restoration project that will probably just take a little tweeking to get right. 

So that’s about it! Huzzah! Time to get some biking action in now.

The Rockadile Restoration Project (1/2)

So, my beloved mountain bike has seen better days. I took awesome care of this bike for about 5 years, then had to leave it with my family for about a year while I was moving a lot. Well in that year this damn thing got freaking destroyed The crank arm got busted (seriously, how in the hell does one even go about breaking a crank arm?), the gears got pretty bent up, the brakes got misaligned, and overall it got turned into a dust machine.

Well rather than buy a new bike or pay some dude to fix mine, I’ve decided to simply fix it myself. I’m not the smartest guy mechanically, but I do have a bit of intuitive aptitude when it comes to things like this, so I figured why not.

The glory days…

Part 1
Removing the shifters, brake levers, grips, and handlebar.

This part is pretty easy, just takes a few minutes and a few allen wrentches.

Part 2
Changing the tires and tubes.

Changing the tires is a little more of a pain than the handlebar stuff. It gave me chance to give the gears and wheel a good cleaning, as they were getting pretty gross. I put some sweet “hybrid” tires on the bike to replace the big tread mountain bike ones. These will be a little better for city cycling, but will still do alright on some light off-roading.

Stay tuned for more!