A few weeks ago, I bought a bike...

I had always said that I was going to buy a bike once we moved out of London. The bike I purchased was a cheap one and is excellent for just getting about, but it has a few issues. Not least of all, the tyres. Although they looked alright when I bought it, once they were inflated to the recommended pressure, they showed visible signs of being perished. I also knew it had been standing for a while, outside, by the look of it, but for what I paid for it, I was happy.

So now came the quest to tidy it up and check it out. The first thing I noticed was the lack of traditional old nuts and bolts. Although this bike is by no means new, it is getting on for, if not already, twenty years old, it is totally devoid of familiar fixings. My old dog-bone shaped 'universal' cycle spanner is now far from universal, in fact, I don't think there is anything I can use it for. Mind you, the last time I used it was getting on for fifty years ago. Things have moved on a bit since then.

Deep breath, time to spend some money. I bought some new tools. Having committed myself to do a fair bit of peddling around, I needed something that I understood and could fix if it went wrong. A bit of an investment on new tools is not something I needed to think about for too long, after all, for me, part of the fun of owning an old bike is restoring and improving it. A bit of a clean up and adjustment resulted in a nice tidy, non-descript bike.

That'll do, at least for now...

While looking for some new tyres for my bike, I came across a listing, on a local social media selling site, for a couple of bikes that had been stripped, with the intention of combining parts from the two, to make a single hybrid bike. This plan had caused the owner more problems than he could solve and so, decided to sell the lot and move on. After some negotiation, I bought the whole lot for fifty quid. Now the fun begins...

What a lot of bits!

What have we here? The answer to that is akin to a jigsaw, or rather two jigsaws, mixed up in the same box with a few bits missing. The bike at the back is an aluminium-framed hybrid that was being stripped for parts to fit on the blue frame. The blue frame is entirely devoid of any marks or maker's name. One wheel had been fitted with a new road tyre, the other tyre had not been fitted. The other bits were supplied in bags. This was going to be a bit of a challenge.

As I said earlier, this is my first delve into this new world of bike fettling. Last time I worked on a bike, I was still at school. Measurements were in inches and bikes had nuts - not hex-head bolts, holding them together.

For some reason, both bikes had their front wheel attached. My first job was to refit the rear wheels, temporarily, so the bikes would be easier to move about. Simple task, or so I thought. It was at this point, the reality that my cycle engineering was fifty years out of date. Words like 'Skewer' were just not part of my vocabulary back then, at least not related to my bike. For those of you who don't know either, the 'skewer' is the name of the rod that passes through the hollow axle when a quick-release system is employed to hold the wheels in the frame.

The grey bike has the aforementioned quick-release wheel fixing. Once I had worked this out and discovered most of the bits were missing, I managed to buy a set of new skewers, complete with fittings, and refit the wheel, albeit without the chain and derailer. The blue bike wheel had no nuts, so another trip to the local bike shop produced a couple of second-hand nuts. Now I could refit the wheel, once I fitted the tyre.

Another new discovery is that these bike tyres are directional. They need to be fitted the correct way around. I now need to remove the rear tyre and refit it. I thought I had it the correct way around, I must have turned it while struggling to fit it. I am getting better at it and some of the old 'tricks' are coming back to me.

The blue bike is getting there - slowly

The strange folding mountain bike is coming on. The road tyres have been fitted, although I have yet to turn that rear one around. I have been trying to work out where the cables go and I think I am almost there I just need to get to grips with the brakes and derailers.

As for the grey hybrid bike, I need to use some percussive maintenance on the handlebar stem. It seems that it has corroded and jammed itself in the fork tube. I may have to cut/drill it out. This is no sacrifice as the front clamping plate is also missing. I might as well replace the whole thing as getting a clamping plate will probably be nigh-on impossible.

More on the bikes to come...

Ralph.