Fixing Up Dad's Bike, Part 1

     My father passed unexpectedly on August 2, 2012 in a car accident.  One of the possessions he left behind was his mountain bike, so I naturally claimed it as a memento.  He built it up sometime in the mid 2000's, a from-scratch update of his by-then ancient racing mountain bike.  An avid mountain biker for most of his adult life, my father had an amateur racing career of twenty years.  He wasn't the best but he wasn't the worst either.  He usually placed somewhere in the middle to upper-middle of the roster, occasionally earning one of the top positions, and outright winning from time to time.  I spent a lot of time at bike races in my younger years, watching both or one of my parents compete in the thriving mountain bike community of western North Carolina.  For three years my parents owned and operated a small bike shop, centered around mountain bikes, in Brevard, North Carolina during the early 1990's.  To say my childhood was bike-centric would be an understatement.

My dad sometime in the '90's.  Date unknown

     Now behind me, leaning against my two road bikes and my girlfriend Keri's single-speed, is the bike that became my father's last.  After his passing, I asked my friend and former manager in Indiana to box it up for me, and my family shipped it out to me in Tucson.  While reassembling it, I realized both how dirty and neglected the bike had become.  It was clear to me that in the last few years of my dad's life, his attention had shifted away from what had been one of his many passions.  I don't doubt this is a powerful indication of the internal and external struggles my dad was dealing with from day to day.  Making ends meet and staying happy hold precedence over maintaining a bicycle.

My dad and his last bike, posing on the Blue Ridge Parkway.  Date unknown

     So I decided to take it upon myself to both clean and fix up my dad's mountain bike.  I'm also going to slightly alter the bike to fit me, both in size and preference.  It meant a lot to him, and I know he would love nothing more than to have me clean his bike.  He always had a thing about cleaning up vehicles.  I remember his words from one of the times he made me clean my motorcycle:  "Always take pride in your things, clean them up and make them look nice."

     I'm going to start by stripping everything off of the frame, even the bottom bracket and headset, so that I can hand clean and polish the frame.  I'll then begin reassembling the rest of the bike.  One of the issues I noticed while reassembling the bike was that my dad let his chain stretch much more than, well, he should have let it.  It easily went to the 1.0 mark on the chain gauge at work, not exactly a good thing.  I recall, a few years ago by now, mentioning chain stretch to my dad.  He knew about it, but his response was that he was just going to go until the chain broke, and then get a whole new drive-train.  It didn't really make sense to me, and now I'll be the one buying the new drive-train.

     For those unfamiliar with chain stretch, it is one of those things that simply goes along with riding a bike, much like the inevitable flat tire.  Because bicycle chains are comprised of several tiny, interlocked metal plates and pins, over time the chain will begin to stretch and weaken.  This in and of itself wouldn't be a huge deal, but as a stretched chain runs over the cogs of the freewheel or cassette on the rear wheel it will slowly deform the teeth of that cog.  If a rider lets it go for too long, that cog will be married to that chain, in that when a new chain is put to that deformed cog, the chain will not "fit", slipping forward and rendering the bike unreliable and essentially unfit to ride.  To prevent that, we bike mechanics and prudent riders check chain stretch with a chain gauge.  A reading of anything less than 0.75 means the cogs are safe from being deformed.  Anything over 0.75 means the cogs are in danger of being deformed if they haven't already been.  Nine and ten-speed drive-trains are especially vulnerable to chain stretch, as the thinner chains to accommodate so many gears in the rear cluster naturally stretch faster.

     My dad's nine-speed drive-train is going to more than likely need to be replaced.  I'm going to try and replace the parts the best I can, although I will probably have to settle for parts of lesser quality due to money.  The bike as it stands now is already out of my typical price range by a long shot.

The bike after the 9th Annual "Swank 65" race in North Carolina, one of the dad's more pride-inspiring achievements.  Fall 2007

     The two parts I absolutely will change at this point are the seatpost and pedals.  I'm going to swap out the SPD-style clipless pedals for a nice pair of aluminum bodied platform pedals.  Besides having no experience with clipless systems, I also have no interest in pursuing them.  My old mountain bike had aluminum platform pedals and I loved them.

     The seatpost, despite being a Thomson Elite post, is the only absolutely necessary part to replace.  It seems that the seatpost, which was probably officially spec'ed at 26.8mm, is actually somewhere around 26.9mm.  The seat tube of the frame needs a 26.8mm seatpost, and so my dad's apparent solution was to turn down a portion of the seatpost on one of his lathes so that it would fit.  The problem is that he only turned enough of the post down to fit his height of 6'5".  I measure in at somewhere around 6'2", and although I can manage to ride the bike for short periods of time, it simply won't do for any prolonged riding.  So, I will have to purchase an appropriately sized seat post.  Again, I'm going to try and match the quality as best I can.  I intend to keep my dad's giant seat post, simply as a reminder of just how tall he was.  It really gives you a good idea when you try to ride the bike.

The ridiculously high saddle--a lifelong characteristic of my dad's bikes.  Taken in my apartment

See, way more seat post than you almost ever see on a bicycle.  Even in the early '90's.  According to my mom, this was taken right after a race at Camp Carolina in Brevard.  The day was so rainy you could barely see, and my dad was filthy by the end of it.  He rode the bike home, refusing to get the car's seats dirty.  Luckily, we didn't live that far away from Camp Carolina.  Probably 1993

     At this point, there is actually one thing I've done to the bike... the other glaringly obvious sign of negligence were my dad's brake pads.  The shoes were worn down to wafer-thin strips of rubber, and I felt it appropriate to replace the shoes with new ones for my night time ride home on the bike after reassembling it.  I can't help but wonder why my dad neglected to replace his brake pads, the rear pair in particular were especially worn.

The worn brake shoes.  Taken in my apartment

A hair over 1mm of rubber left before it would have been destroyed.  Taken in my apartment

     For the time being, that is all I will replace.  My goal is to keep the bike as close as I can to how my dad had it, while making it rideable and enjoyable for me.  I know he'd be proud of me turning something of his into a project.

     Finally, for those interested, the current spec sheet of whats on the bike, by my best reckoning:

• Frame:  Quintana Roo "Panamint"
• Fork:  Rock Shox "Indy SL"
• Headset:  Race Face "Real Seal"
• Headset spacer:  Homemade aluminum spacer
• Stem:  Easton "EA70"
• Handlebars:  Easton "Monkey Lite XC"
• Shifters:  Shimano "XTR"
• Brake levers:  Shimano "Deore XT"
• Brakes:  Shimano "Deore XT"
• Rims:  Ritchey "Girder OCR"
• Hubs:  Ritchey
• Tires:  Kenda "Kinetics"
• Crankset:  Shimano "Deore XT"
• Front derailleur:  Shimano "XTR"
• Rear derailleur:  Shimano "XTR"
• Seatpost:  Thomson Elite
• Saddle:  Bontrager "Race-Lite"
• Seatpost clamp:  Salsa
• Bell:  Incredi-bell, given by me for his 47th birthday so he could ring people out of his way on the bike trail

The Incredi-bell adorning his otherwise badass mountain bike.  Love you dad.