My Junker Bike

I received this bike as a gift from a neighbor. His wife got a new fancy one, with all the bells and whistles, and this one had been sitting outside for a long time. He was going to just toss it in the trash, but I intervened and said I'd take it and do something with it. It was truly a well worn junker. Pushed it home on flat tires.

Everything was soooo filthy, and grease covered,

I really had no plans or desire at that time to restore, or repair said bike, so it sat in the back of my shop for a while. One rainy day, I was bored, so I went out and took it all apart for cleaning, right down to the bare frame, so I could see what I really had. I had a mess! Everything I took off and disassembled was worn OUT!
The crank is a good example. Notice the tears in the middle ring.... this was just the beginning.

So....I tried the shifters..... left one worked..... right one went to 7 and stayed there. Took the shifter all apart, and found it to be totally stripped out. Threw the bike back in the corner of the shop! It stayed there again for another few months. In the meantime, I got to reading about Balance Bikes, as I had never heard of them before. Turns out they weren't made very long, and were made by Balance Audio Technologies..... A stereo component manufacturer. What the heck does a stereo builder have to do with bikes? Well, it turns out that they made excellent bikes in their day. Highly sought after, and the frames still are. High tech aluminum alloy frame, stretches you out with it's geometry and it is extremely light for a mountain bike..... just 22 pounds with cheap components, I would bet that if I rebuilt it with top components, it might break 20 pounds. I really did not, however, need another high tech mountain bike, my Cannondale (25 pounds) is just fine for mountain biking, so I decided I might look into rebuilding it back as a seven speed and see what happens. So, I looked online at several locations, and found that seven speed parts are really cheap, less than $80 and I had all new replacement parts, shifters, cassette, and crank, as well as bottom bracket. The bottom bracket, it turned out, was the only thing the bike didn't need replaced, it was smooth and quiet. The front suspension forks were unlike anything I had ever seen before also. Light, but rather fragile looking. Elastomer front forks. Checked into rebuild parts....complete rebuild kit for $55 .... it can wait. You only get about one inch of travel anyway.  So, I went ahead and rebuilt it back into a 7 speed, no real improvements except new parts.
One of the first things I did was to replace the Schrader tubes with Presta, using this little bushing that fits in the rim. I did this because all of my other bikes and tubes and pumps are all for Presta valves



                                          

                                                               Schrader valve

                                                   Presta valve after conversion

Then, I noticed a slice on the sidewall of the front tire..... I had an old half worn small block-8 that I put on the front. If I keep the bike, the back will have one too. Love the small block-8's. Next on the list was crank replacement. Replaced the original Altus with an Alivio crank. Went from 46/36/26 to 48/36/26 .... I thought it'd be fine.

Then came the shifters, as I noted earlier, the right side shifter was history, but I could in no way find one that was the same, so I had to buy a pair. These were really cheap at $28 .... AND they came with a full set of brake and shifter cables and housings..... how could you beat that! Cheap little shifters, but still Shimano. 7 speed shifters aren't real common anymore, and there are no real quality ones.

Next up came the cassette..... the original one was worn to a frazzle, and the gearing was 13/26 .... I thought maybe a bit high, so I went with a 13/32 for the new one.

Running all the new cable and housing was a little time consuming, but if one is putting all this new stuff on, it would seem to be counter-productive to skip small items like that. Along with the new cables, I try to neaten things up a bit....... tie it with a wire tie, and snip it off.

As long as we're talking cables here, an indispensable tool for cable work is a cable cutting pliers. It doesn't crush the cable when you cut it, and it's easy to put it to service after cutting.

The right tools make all the jobs easier, and luckily, I have a well equipped bicycle shop.  At this point it was about time to replace the chain, which was so worn, I'm surprised it didn't break just sitting there.

First job is to determine the correct length of the new chain. Remember, I changed the gearing, so I couldn't just measure the old. The way I've always done this is what I feel is the simplest way. Wrap the new chain around the large chainring, and the large cog in the back.... don't put it through the derailleurs yet. Then, pull the two ends taut .... and don't forget to include the master link....

and pull it to the nearest inside-to-inside link match that you can reach. Then, drop down one full link, to the next inside link (remember, you can only connect two inside links if you are using a master link), and break the chain......

A word of caution here .... if you have the slightest doubt, and are doing this the first time, cut the chain a link too long, you can always take another out, but it's impossible to put one back in. One of those measure twice, cut once moments. Once you have the chain cut it's just a simple matter of putting the master link in and clipping it together.

Interesting note here about chains.... I use only KMC chains. They make chains for all the big name manufacturers. I've had excellent luck with them, and have gotten as good amount of mileage as any.

This is one of their cheapest chains at $8.00 The card of 6 master links was $9.00. It is still a quality chain. By comparison, the 10 speed chain for my road bike was $50.00 .... same company. I've got 5000 miles on that chain now, and still my chain wear checker says it still good. Ten speed chains are much more expensive than these seven and eight speed chains.
Now it's just a matter of putting the bike up on the stand, and doing a little adjusting and tuning so it shifts well. The saddle is the one that came as original equipment for my touring bike. It was a much better mountain bike saddle than a touring bike saddle, so, it's in it's proper element now. If the chain is the proper length, the rear derailleur should look like it does here when shifted to the middle of the cassette.

A little tweaking, and then I put the old pedals and grips back on for a test ride.

I might note here, that both the derailleurs were the ones I got with the bike, they were replacement items at one time and after checking them out thoroughly, I found they were really not candidates for replacement at this time. So..... jumping on the bike, and taking it out for a brief three mile test ride, I pronounce it .....well.......a pretty darn good bike. Especially for an $80.00 bike. I had to adjust the saddle a bit before I rode it. I shifted back and forth through all the gears several times, and everything worked smoothly, quietly, and it rode like a new bike. I was surprised a bit by the gearing......it felt too high geared. I thought maybe I should have gone to a 42/32/22 crank instead. Maybe it was just the 25mph wind blowing that made it feel that way.