the stolen bike market

stolen bikes are everywhere. bike shops that sell used bikes must necessarily take the utmost precautions to avoid liability when purchasing used bikes off of people who walk into their shop. some collect driver's license numbers, other ID, etc. however, if you reach a certain dollar amount, you legally need a pawn license to do so.

my old shop, which sold only used bikes, had purchased bikes on 3 different occasions which turned out to be stolen. the police got involved, as did the owners in some cases, and it was not pretty. of course, none of these were bought directly from the thieves- stolen bikes typically get bought and sold a few times before ending up at a swap meet or flea market, where salvage-types buy things and resell them for a profit. this was the case for all of the aforementioned instances, and in all cases, the bikes were returned to their owner, free of charge. but the shop took a hit on the purchase price.

my current shop is a non profit. we gladly accept donations, but cannot buy bikes off people. its just a shop policy. people try to sell used bikes to us all the time- many seem legit, but some are clearly stolen.

this conversation happened today.

guy: "hey, do you guys buy used bikes?"

me : "no. many shops in the city choose not to get involved, since there are a LOT of stolen bikes floating around san francisco."

guy: "yeah, but my bike isn't stolen. . . "

me: "huh. do you think that people who try to sell stolen bikes typically mention, 'by the way, THIS BIKE IS STOLEN?'"

idiot.

heavenly, lake tahoe- feb09

we rented a cabin for a few days of snowboarding. with john roark, steve, shaun, other steve, angie, and this dude named greg. the code we got for the lockbox that keeps the key to the cabin was wrong, so after trying unsuccessfully to break in, we ended up getting a cheap sketchy hotel the first night. had this not happened, we wouldn't have learned about chevy's $3 happy hour specials, which we indulged in 2 nights in a row. the trip was super fun, as always.

chain installation

i've been installing bike chains for a long time. its not hard to do, especially if you've got the right tools for the job.

about 5 months ago, a guy came in with a broken chain on a brand new cannondale road bike he bought from a big bay area chain (name omitted) bike store. since the bike was only a week old, i advised him to bring it back to the store he got it from, since they could at least comp him labor for installing a new chain, and probably even give him a discount on the parts, since it should still be covered under a warranty. chains shouldn't just break for no reason, especially when they are brand new.

however, he decided to just have me replace his chain, since he wanted the work done ASAP and didn't want to deal with the hassle of bringing the bike all the way to the other store, booking an appointment, and having to wait for days.

so i installed a new chain on his new cannondale, and adjusted the rear derailleur.

anyways, i didn't realize it was the same guy, but this cannondale guy ended up becoming a pretty regular customer of our shop. we built him up a track bike with a handbuilt wheelset that he's spent a lot of money upgrading lately. not unusual, people get really into that stuff.

today he came in to pick up his track bike with $550+ worth of upgrades we did to the drivetrain. as i rang him up, he mentioned the time where i replaced his chain (it was long time ago, but i did remember him). he told me that when he went back to the other shop, they looked at the chain i installed and told him that we did it wrong.

"WRONG?! what shop told you that?" i begged to differ.

he said (not maliciously) that the guys at the other shop told him that the chain pin should have been installed the other direction.

when a chain is new, it comes with one open ended outer plate, and one closed ended inner plate. sometimes the outer plate has a pin sticking out of it, which is what you use to fasten them together. the correct and easiest way to thread a new chain onto a bike, is to thread the closed ended inner plate over the cassette and through the rear derailleur. that way, the open end (with or without pin sticking out) can easily be slipped through the front derailleur and over the chainrings. then you attach the two ends together at the bottom. (if you have ever done this, you know what i'm talking about)

this is the way i've always done it. i'm pretty sure this is the way everyone does it. i didn't even question it, since its harder to do it the other way.

i told the guy that, like many other techniques related to bikes and other things, there are always differing opinions about how things should be done. some people who subscribe to a certain method assume that all the other methods are wrong.

if the guys at the other shop, in an effort to dilute their own botched chain install/derailleur adjustment, were trying to take a stab at the mechanical diligence of my shop (which is just plain bad business technique, in my opinion), i was offended. i asked him, "did the chain that i installed break, or the chain that you got from them?" and, "in the last 5 months or so, have you had any problems with the chain that i installed?"

i think he understood my point.

after he left, i even checked the shimano directions just to make sure i'd been doing it right all this time. yes i was.

super bowl sunday

i did a headlands loop with ben and alex today.

the number of speeds on a bicycle

campagnolo has released 11 speed grouppos for 2009. that means the max number of cogs you can now have on a rear road cassette is up from 10 to 11. so you can have anywhere from 5 to 11 cogs on a rear hub. or 3 internal gears. or a single gear.

on the front chainring, you may have 1, 2, or 3 chainrings.

a friend of mine recently built a bike with 2 front rings and 1 rear cog. it was a 2x1. totally ridiculous. on the same bicycle, he also built a wheel with 2 different lacing patterns on the same side of each hub. so 2 sets of 4 spokes did one thing, and 2 sets of 4 spokes did something else. ON THE SAME SIDE OF THE HUB. weird.

that being said, these are the possible number of speeds or gear combos you can have on a bicycle:
1, 2, 3, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 14, 15, 16, 18, 20, 21, 22, 24, 27, 30, 33.

with that in mind, over the last few days, i've been asked some pretty unpossible questions.

yesterday:

guy #1: "what if i just want to make it a 4 speed in the back? what is best way to do that?"

me: "there has never been a 4-speed freewheel or cassette made for a bicycle. ever."


and today:

guy #2: "yeah, so i know a little about bikes from working on them myself. . ."

me: "well, how many gears are there?"

guy: "its a 17 speed."

me: "oh yeah, 17 speed. . .cool!"

twin peaks

i've been organizing thurs night rides for the last 4 weeks now, and its been fun as hell. here's some pics (thanks dom!) from the top of the city.

handlebar FAIL

guy on phone: "hi, the handlebars on my bike broke."

me: "what kind of bike is it?"

guy: "its an old trek touring bike."

me: "did you crash the bike?"

guy: "nope. i was just riding along (mechanics commonly refer to this phenomena as JRA- the most-cited cause of catastrophic failure amongst bicycle laymen) and they broke! i'm really lucky i didn't get hurt, actually."

me: "did you buy the bike used? do you know if the bike has ever been crashed?"

guy: "i've had it forever, its from the 70's. i've probably had it for 20 years!"

me: "metal can fatigue or get stressed over time. especially if its been damaged. we probably have something that will work for a replacement."

guy: "do you have any really cheap used bars? like $5?",

me: "so the risk of buying used parts is that you never know where they came from, or if they've been crashed, or how reliable they might be over time. sure, a used handlebar that isn't obviously bent is probably fine to use, but you always run the risk of there being catastrophic failure, like what happened to you. are you sure you wanna shop around for used $5 handlebars?"

guy: "hmmm good point."

me: "just bring it in and we'll see what we can do."

guy: "ok thanks, bye."