Bicycle Fit-The Great Debate

After pouring over websites and forums for years, one constant thread of debate hangs among them all.  How to fit a bicycle.  The geometry of a bicycle is far more complex than it appears.  Length and positioning of each tube affects the final outcome of the total bikes geometry.  A few millimeters in the position or angle of the head tube, or down tube and it can change the overall geometry and how it will fit.  Angles alone can make the lengths of the frames tubing become an inaccurate way to determine the fit.  A 22" seat tube on a ten speed may be a good height for you, but on a mountain or cruiser frame, may make it awkward or uncomfortable.  Fitting methods are simply a way to simplify the immense diversity in frame measurements to average body types.

My Crude Frame Diagram

Finally!

After searching for some time, and finding a ton of long term bicycle projects, or near ride-able bicycles for my girls, I have finally found my own.  While checking the local thrift shop for parts, I ran right into some new donated bikes.  Usually the only bicycles they get are really crappy kids bikes or the Frankenstein huffy hand me downs.  At times they have parts that are replaced or upgraded by someone, or the occasional garage clean out that nobody knew what the parts were for. This time, I found a red Schwinn Varsity.  A mens frame, almost a perfect fit.  Now the price was tricky.  The other bikes there were marked at $15 on a sticker placed on the seats, and were not even worth that much in parts.  The Schwinn had no such sticker.  After pulling the bike out, and checking it over, I found a price sticker stuck to the headlight.  $4.00!!!  I was in my car, loaded and driving away with 3 minutes.  My new Schwinn perched behind me in my minivan.

A few nicks, and decal wear, and after some minor polishing

The crank was the only flaw.  It was bent on the left side.  After a visit to the Ant cave, I removed one from the old brown varsity.  The spokes were all loose, and the rims warped and weird.  After re-truing the rims by hand (no stand yet, I am on a tight budget) I set them in and checked them with a dial indicator mounted to the chainstays. With lots of rust removal on the rims, new tubes and tires, handlebar tape (for some reason the original Schwinn handlebar tape even in horrid condition photographs well), a planet bike rear rack, and some grease in the bearings...  here it is.

It rides and shifts like a dream.  After years of indexed shifting, I love returning to friction shifting.  It is likened to the difference between the Millennium Falcon and the Starship Enterprise (next Gen).  It is better to nudge or tweak an adjustment on the go, rather than having to stop and make several technical adjustments.  So yeah the Enterprise is cool and sleek, but nothing beats hitting the dash to fix the problem.

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Fetching

Road trip!  My father, bless him, is now helping feed the family addiction.  A friend of his from work offered us a group of bikes that his kids and grandkids have abandoned in his yard.  Off we went in the little red thunder truck (no exhaust, lot-o-rust).  Keep in mind, most situations like this are usually nothing to get excited about.  Most large bicycle groups like this tend to be half ruined, cheap Wal-mart bikes.  Nothing against some of the Wal-mart bikes, but there are some high end that you rarely see in store, and then the really low end, that everybody buys.  Anyway, I expected the typical odds of 1 for every 10, that is one good find for every ten boat anchors.
Upon arriving, I was much more happy and surprised.  A Schwinn Breeze, another Sears Daimler, an 80's Murray 10 speed, a 10-speed Niitaka, a lugged Free Spirit 10 speed, and a non-lugged free spirit 10 speed (a cheaper later production).  There was a few more in the mix, a few cheapies, and some very stripped out frames, but not a bad haul.  Most were girls frames, with exception of the Murray, and the cheapies.  My girls once again win out.

The Blue Giant and the Greedy man

One afternoon, we were out on the back roads heading to town.  We passed by an old salvage yard, and out front he had some bikes leaning against a tire pile.  When we pulled in, the owner came out to greet us, and we began the ritual conversation.  He soon revealed he had more in piles around the yard, and off we went to dig.  Several old rusted, split frames from ice, half crushed, or other horror images were found.  In the whole lot we found one that the frame only had potential.  He wanted $200 for it.  It was a murray cruiser, that had no surviving paint.  Tires were gone, rims rusted through, and only parts of the fenders hung were they were bolted on.  One side of the handlebars was rusted completely off.  Despite the rust, the frame seemed solid.  My thought was to use it to convert another womans frame over, but with considerable work in cleaning it up, and out (the inside of the tubing).  There was no way it was worth 200.

A Friendly Donation

A friend from work overheard me during a discussion of old bikes, and told me that she had a few in her yard that I could have.  Her husband was planning a dump run, so it would save him from hauling them.  Of course me and the kids loaded up the next day to help as much as we could.
There was a few of them lined up against the wall of a shed.  Two old womens Austrian Sears 3 speeds, one with the rear spokes wrecked and the other cannibalized and missing most of it's parts were at the front.  We loaded them, and there sat a black Hercules 3 speed.  Mens frame!  There was also a small child's bike, a Westpoint with a tank.  A few miscellaneous bits and parts and we were of to the Ant cave.

Bicycle of the Gods.

 I have always admired the old Raleigh cruisers and lightweights.  English bikes in general arguably were the best bikes made in the first half of cycling history.  Raleigh's biggest competitor into the 40's (I believe, I'm no historian) was Hercules.  Of course time and economics mean change, and Raleigh was bought out by their tubing supplier, followed by Hercules.  There were other bike manufacturers and suppliers absorbed as well, but this is just to serve as a summary to explain in part why I love the Hercules bicycles.  

Finding old bikes is always exciting in the thrill of wondering what it is.  Usually obscured by dirt, high grass, rust, fading, repaint, or abuse, most old bikes are unknown other than the subtle clues given from design, and components.  My heart always beats faster when it spots the curve of a cruiser frame, lugged joints, fat fenders, the rivets on a brooks saddle.  No such luck yet in getting an intact brooks saddle yet, but seeing even the remains of one lends to something good that it sits on.

Junk Pile Junkie

Part of being a Bicycle junkie means inattentive driving.  Yup, a bike can lurk behind anything waiting to be discovered.  While driving around, I find an enhanced sense for rusting cromoly tubing.  Coming back from a work errand my eye caught a silhouette off in a field.  It was a bicycle.  After turning around, I found myself looking at an odd sight.  The edge off the side road was lined with old junk.  Vacuums, lamps, boat trailers, filing cabinets, and bikes.  Three of them.  I jumped out and began inspecting them.  A nearly useless rusted out huffy, a free spirit 10 speed in rather nasty shape, and a Rollfast three speed.

Thr Rollfast (rear wheel was shredded) after some polishing