Operation "Wheel"

The next thing I have done with audrey is to take off her front wheel. In modern bikes, when you are taking a wheel off, you can loosen the brakes so the tyre can fit through. Not so with Audrey alas. The wheel came off the fork very easily, a nut on either side of the hub, but then it got stuck in the brakes.



The way rod brakes work is that they are pulled up to rub off the rim. So they are always narrower than the rim so that it can work. The only way to take the wheel off bikes like this is to take the brake blocks off completely. So I did, and now poor Audrey looks very unhappy altogether missing her mud guard, brake blocks and wheel.


This is what the outside of the tyre looks like. Most of the exterior has fallen off, and it has left a cool looking weaved twine pattern. Is this what modern tyres look like too?


It was impossible to pull off so what I did in the end was wedge a screwdriver underneath it and cut through it with a junior hacksaw. It smelled awful too. Gross. The tube inside was very brittle and i was able to tear it with just my hands. The tape between the rim and the tube was still in great condition. It says "Halford's for cycles and accessories". Apparently Halfords was set up in the late 1800s so this must have been among it's first products. I wonder did they make any other parts of the bike?



This is what the connection looks like from the top of the spoke into the rim. I hope these haven't changed much so I can get a tool to remove them.

Rust Treatment

I applied the rust treatment to the front mudguard. It has turned the thing black! But that's what it says to expect on the bottle, so I'm happy with it. Already it's looking more like flat metal instead of a collection of dirt. See the difference it's made in the colour and the smoothness after the many sandings? It's going to look brilliant when it's done!

Front Fender

I have started the mightly Audrey clean-up. First to get the once over is the front fender, or mudguard to us europeans. It was easy to take off - a nut on either side of the front wheel and a nut on the frame just above the top of the wheel were holding it in place. As you can see, it is brown with the rust. See in the second picture the rust is actually lumpy like barnacles? Madness. I took it off a few days ago and rubbed it with some pretty harsh sandpaper. So much rust came off! It was all over the floor. Then I washed it with a hose and let it dry. Then i sanded it again and washed it with Mr Muscle bathroom cleaner. Amazing! It's no longer brown but it is black in patches and slightly pock-marked. This evening I plan on painting it with a kind of rust-killing liquid. I'll get a photo of the pack to put up. It claims to kind of melt rust and harden it so it's strong like metal, but it turns the surface black. This is fine for most of the bike as it will then be painted over, but i'm going to have to come up with some better idea for the shiny metal parts. More to report later. Oh, loads of cobwebs and dead crap fell off the frame which had been wedged in by the mudguard. Gross. And i noticed a nice big spider hiding under the saddle too. Eek.

Audrey arrives!

So this is my new old bike. She answers to the name "Audrey Hepburn"and she is one demanding lady. She has some absolutely beautiful features though. Primarily amongst them some pretty well established rust and a desire to shed spokes like there's no tomorrow. This is the current view that a rider would behold if she were willing to be cycled:


Not so pretty with the rust, but totally enchanting if it's actually in front of you. This is what she looks like from the front.


The brakes are 2 long bars, shaped very like the handle bars, but a little bit lower. They are very comfortable to hold. The rear one is actually working! The handlebars themselves are very curved so you hold them like you would hold say the arms of a hedge clippers. They are remarkably comfortable and will be really handy for fitting on the inside of cars and busses.

My plan is to take her apart piece by piece and de-rust and clean everything thoroughly. I'll replace any parts that are beyond repair but fix up as much as i can. I'm really looking forward to tackling the rear hub - it's an internal 3 gear system which are reputedly foolish to take apart. Nice one! When everything is clean, possibly repainted and varnished etc i'll put her back together and hope for a miracle.

Old bike anyone?

This is a circa 1920s bike that I'm thinking of buying and fixing up. It's in fairly rag order, but the bits that are most important are still sound. The wheels (possibly including rims) and chain will definitely need replacing, but that is necessary in a lot newer bikes than this one! Look at the brake system, it's amazing! They are called rod brakes, and it's still possible to get brake blocks and everything for them. The bike is in Watford, which is around an hour out of London, but they claim that the wheels still turn, so i reckon I can get it back to the flat for some extensive surgery.

I'll keep ye posted! All that's needed now is a good name for it...

Margaret