New bikes

After taking the Schwinn back home I got a mongoose bmx bike off of Craigslist. It's a great beginner bmx bike and is nearly indestructible. On Tuesday, though, I bought a Haro from a friend. It's gorgeous. When looking for a bike, try to find it used. It's a lot cheaper and you can usually find some good deals. My Haro, for example, was $350 new and was only ridden 4 times but I got it for $100. Ask your friend if they know anyone selling a bike or check Craigslist. However, don't be suckered into buying a broken bike in the hopes of fixing it up. Make sure it's worth the price.

RIP Schwinn.

It's not quite dead, yet, but I'm taking it back home and putting it in the garage for awhile. I've been working on it everyday to get the brakes fixed so I took it for a ride with my friend last night and on the way home the rear tire jammed against the fender because the nuts weren't tight enough, even though you couldn't move them with a wrench anymore. The entire rear drivetrain is locked up now and I don't have the time to completely fix it so I'm taking it home and I'll work on it over the summer. Moral of the story, though, is check your bike before rides. If I had properly checked it I would've seen that and been able to fix it before the ride. Also, never go on a ride without emergency tools. I thought we'd just be riding around campus so I didn't bring mine but if I had I would've been able to at least take the wheel off so I could bring it back to campus in my friend's car. Both were beginner mistakes that are so easy to not do. Oh well, mistakes are a learning experience.

Sorry for the absence.

Winter quarter hit me pretty hard with loads of school work and I got more hours at work so I had to sacrifice things I enjoy, such as this blog. In my absence, though, I did more work on my own bike, including replacing the chain and new brake cables and adding a combined cargo rack and side baskets and restored a bike my mom got in the '50s. This brings me to the point of this post: restoration. Bike companies are now selling remakes of old bikes because vintage-style bikes are coming back in style. As nice as these newer bikes are, they also come with a large price tag. Craigslist is full of cheap vintage bikes that just need some TLC and they'll be road worthy in no time. The first thing most of them will need is new tubes and tires which you can pick up almost anywhere. It's also a good idea to take it to a mechanic or look it over yourself to make sure it doesn't need any major repairs before you try riding it. After a good cleaning and look-over, it should be ready for the road. In your look-over, check the brakes and chain to make sure both are still good and safe to ride with. Even after replacing a bunch of parts, it'll probably still be cheaper than a new remake, and you get the satisfying feeling of having the real thing.

Winter Care

When the weather starts to get cold, your bike needs a lot of maintenance to keep it in top shape. Clean the chain and the gears, make sure everything's lubed, and make sure the brakes are good. Salt and snow will majorly mess up your drivetrain so keep it clean and lubed up to keep your bike going.

Laws

Bikes follow the same laws as cars and any other vehicle on the road. This works great to defend and protect bicyclists against cars but the flipside is that we must still obey all traffic laws. Because many drivers already dislike us, they will be looking for any reason to dislike us more so all we do by tailgating (when possible), running red lights, and generally driving unsafely is shoot ourselves and our cause in the foot by giving the other side reasons to shoot us down. If we follow the letter of the law and we get injured by a car, it will most likely be there fault so although you'll likely be very hurt, you won't then have legal trouble on top of that. In some jurisdictions, bikes have special laws so before you ride on the street (which you're legally supposed to do instead of  riding on the sidewalk) check your state and city's bike laws.