It’s been busy. Not busy with foot traffic, but busy with various repairs, restos, and projects, so here’s a little catch up post.
I had both a very nice old Bontrager Road Lite bike and Petaluma Salsa La Raza in for some work. Both bikes are owned by women which is not really a big deal, but with one exception, all the nuts for vintage bikes I know are guys. Each of these women ride these bikes like just like they were meant. They don’t go all ga-ga over the vintage aspect of their bikes. After all, they are simply their bikes.
Check out the gussets.
I worked on a friend’s Santana tandem recently. They ride the heck out of this bike. On and off-road. Loaded touring. It’s an S&S coupled tandem so it’s been to a lot of places. It came in one day with this:
They were climbing off-road and said they felt something “give” in the drivetrain. Yeah, no kidding!
A few days later it came back with some odd noise coming from the drivetrain. I can’t believe that the hub actually worked with as much corrosion as it had inside the cassette pawl system. A little grunge removal, a nice coating of Phil Wood Tenacious Oil and it was like new again. As ugly as the inside of the hub looked, the bearings were surprisingly very smooth. Guess that’s why the Hadley hub has such a great reputation with regards to its durability.
(What’s playing: Marshall Tucker Can’t You See)
I need to talk some sense into that girl with the Bontrager. 😉