Hawaiian Rescue Bike

I really don't go around garage sales looking for bikes or bike stuff. However, once in a while something drops into my lap affordably enough that I have a hard time passing it by. Ocean Shores, being a tourist town, has GOBS of garage sales on holidays such as Memorial Day, Independence Day, and Labor Day. Oddly, it doesn't seem to have nearly so many on the town's biggest holiday; Flag Day.

This particular example showed up over the weekend. Apparently its owners traveled, with a bicycle registration from Fort Collins, Colorado. Relevant to this post's title, it also had a "Bicycle License" from Honolulu, Hawaii. According to the script on the "License," it expired on December 31, 1990. Apparently, Hawaii has changed its laws, since nowadays, the city imposes a $15 "permanent" fee, as noted here. This is also enshrined in STATE law, documented here. Apparently, the most recent change was effective starting this year. Apparently you can be tasered and jailed for not having a bike license in Hawaii, or more likely they'll just take away your bike and sell it as described here. I thought about trying to contact Honolulu to see what records they had on it, but nearly 30 years after the "license" expiration, I decided that some things are better just left alone. You can't see it in the photo, but Hawaiian bike licenses didn't use to be permanent since there's another one underneath. Like car license tabs in many states, each year they use a new color.

But I digress. The bike's asking price was $25, but the seller readily accepted $20. There were a few other bikes up for sale, but they were all junk bikes. The bike is a Univega. For those of you unfamiliar with the brand, Univega was pretty popular in the 1980's. Unlike many other Japanese brands, Univega didn't build their own bikes. Instead, they contracted with other companies, notably Miyata. These bikes were built to Univega's specifications. Technically, Univega wasn't a Japanese brand, as it was started by an Iraqi immigrant, Ben Lawee. Univega headquarters was in Signal Hill, California and it was Ben that designed the bikes built by Miyata.

Still, the bikes, after an early period in which they were imported from Italy as "Italvega," were pretty purely built entirely in Japan. In the late 1980's, manufacture moved to Taiwan and the company was bought by Raleigh in the mid 1990's. Raleigh discontinued the brand around 2000 or so.

This particular bike had a flat front tire upon purchase, along with surface rust that you can see in the various photos. It also looks like it had a peg-mounted pump at one time.

The bike is a mixte frame, and uses Suntour ARX derailleurs. It rides on 27" Araya rims and uses middling Dia Compe brakes. I think the pedals originally had toe clips since there are pedal reflectors only on one side of each pedal. You can see the Lawee imprent in the "Lawee design" decal on the chainstay.

Suntour ARX Derailleurs. Designed by "Lawee design"

Just a Touch of Drivetrain Rust! However, Everything Works

You can see there will be a bit of rust removal necessary on this bike's drivetrain, which has suffered over the years in the humid climates of Hawaii and Ocean Shores. Though it is an early 80's design, it does have a six-speed freewheel. That's particularly convenient since my daughter's bike has Shimano shifting indexed for six speeds. The Univega's Suntour has no indexing so I plan to swap the freewheels.

One oddity is the saddle on the Univega. I suspect it is something the bike acquired during the years. It's a fairly low end mattress saddle. Actually, it might work well in Ocean Shores, since the place isn't all that big anyway.

Vinyl Saddle by "Bike Extras Cycle Products Co"

Shifty Shiftless

Bike Swap Meets Can Get Spendy!

My original plan was to accompany the rest of the family to New Orleans this weekend for an Irish Dancing contest, but they dashed off, leaving me to my own devices this weekend. Conveniently enough, there was a swap meet in south Fort Worth and I was drawn - like a moth to a flame.

I understand better now why women's clothing stores always have a sale going on - it gives the ladies an excuse for their purchases. "Dear, it was 50% off!" Well, I'll tell my wife this stuff was a great deal as well, but I think she's on to that scam. Besides the brake stuff, I got a Topeak pump for a buck. Now, I'm regretting not buying the $10 rear rack. "It was a great deal!"

I went "shiftless" for one of our old bikes. I went "shifty" for the raggedy ol' road bike. Now I need to find a SRAM derailleur to go with the SRAM shifters. Buddy's got SRAM and it makes Shimano seem pretty lame - IMO.

Bike Shop Mini at the Swap Meet

Bar End Shifter Week

Shimano Bar End Shifter on Cannondale Road Bike

Earphones

I’ve been riding the road bike to work with bar end shifters for a bit over a week now, and I have to say they are a bit different than the STI shifters. On the plus side, it’s much easier to shift multiple gears either up or down. Trimming the chain with the front derailleur is also simpler, unless it’s dark and I have earphones on. Finally, the “fiddle factor” is less with the simpler bar end shifters, which need no odd springs or exotic lubricants and which are immune to things like earwax. On the minus side, I’ve knocked the shifter a couple of times when getting on or off the bike, or when leaning it against stuff. I also occasionally have to THINK about which way is up versus down shifting, and have to remember where the shifter is, but those will both get automatic with time. All in all, a very practical alternate to STI, Campy Ergo or SRAM lever shifters.

Going and Not

Fatally Damaged Derailleur on Road Bike. Missing Pulley Was the Least of the Problems.
Hmm, reading Big Oak's post about his axle breaking, perhaps things are going around. In my case, they aren't going around. At least I didn't bust a wheel.

I rode my road bike to work this morning. More accurately, I rode it 90% of the way to work this morning. At that point, a rear derailleur pulley bolt departed and flew to points unknown, as did the associated pulley. After some fruitless looking around, I found that I could still power the beast with one particular gear combination as long as I didn’t mind it skipping if I pedaled too hard, and if I held my breath a lot. That let me limp the last two miles in. At lunch, I concluded that I’d been lucky to go two miles, and no jury rigging would keep it together well enough to get home under power.  What's more, enough parts of the derailleur are bent, that I think I shall ride Buddy to work for a bit while I see if I can't get a replacement. While I do not recall “ABC Quick Check” instructing us to check the security of derailleur pulley bolts, I shall add this incident to my long and growing list of “ABC” things that go wrong. I can’t really say I’ve ever had a derailleur come apart this way before except when I was dismantling them on purpose. This particular derailleur was last dismantled about 250 miles ago. Maybe it’s bad karma from Big Oak’s axle.

Just as with Jaguars, on rare occasions, it’s best to give the vehicle a ride home…

Felix, the Jaguar