This One Has No Pictures

During the winter semester of my first year at the University of Michigan, I was fortunate enough to have Mr. Philip Christman as my English 124 professor.  I was honestly just taking the class because it was required but I got a whole lot more out of that class than I ever imagined I could.  Mr. Christman was very relatable and easy to talk to, which made the class's learning experience more engaging.  Through the semester, we focused on how the introduction of written language affected the course of human history and how literate and illiterate cultures differ.  Mr. Christman made a subject that I wouldn't have studied on my own into something very fascinating, something that I couldn't wait to hear more about during the next class.

Pull-back Hot Wheels Cars

This was one of the few projects that I finished without having thought about it for too long.  I usually have a backlog of fun things I want to do that never get done mainly because of money, lack of time, or being told not to by parents.  This was rather spontaneous and ended up working quite well.

Near the end of the last school year, I purchased a pack of three extremely cheap pull-back toy cars.  They had rubber wheels for traction but the cars themselves were nothing more than clear plastic shells.  Thinking I could do better, I thought maybe I could stick the pull-back motors into Hot wheels cars.  I was afraid the metal cars would be too heavy for the weak motors but I went forward with the project anyway once I returned home from school.

I didn't get a picture of the original cheap car but here's the Hot Wheels '70 Mustang under construction

Neutering Ballpoint Pens

Two winters ago, I got the bright idea to take my dead ballpoint pens and pull the balls out of them for the heck of it.

20 Mile Ride to ZZ Ward Concert

I'm assuming not everyone really knows who ZZ Ward is at this point because she's not that popular yet, but she's a singer from Oregon who started out singing the blues and fusing the style with hip hop.  That was very apparent in her first mixtape but her album Til the Casket Drops has a more pop-oriented feel.  I actually like that one more, but that's just my opinion.  If you haven't heard her stuff, I suggest that you check it out!

Anyway, my friend Nikolai and I decided to ride our bikes from our homes in Northville to downtown Ann Arbor yesterday to see ZZ's live outdoor performance hosted by Sonic Lunch and Ann Arbor's 107.1.  I lacked a long distance bike of any sort so I borrowed his family's 1990 Fuji Arcadia ten-speed.  When I first lifted it up, I was like "Man, this is light!" and Nik's father said "Uh, that's light?" Nik and I sort of laughed because it didn't occur to us that his father was unaware that I usually ride a heavy, old, English three-speed.

Dynohub and Rust Removal: Restoration Day 3

I got out bright and early yesterday morning (more like 10:00) to start working on the bike.  I started out by trimming the bottoms of the fenders by about a centimeter because they were rusted thin.  I planned to install mudflaps to help protect the ends from future damage, but the openings were a bit too small so I had to trim them.

Used  roughly one Dremel disc per fender.  They were tough

This is roughly how they're going to fit; I ended up trimming the outer part of the slot so the outer tip of the fender would be protected as well.  

Front Fork Work and Degreasing: Restoration Day 2

After doing some research the night before, I became more familiar with how the fork was actually attached to the bike.  Removing it would make it so much easier to work on the separate parts.

The bearings on top of the head tube were still greased, but the bottom bearings were dry and slightly rusty.  Strange.  

The ball bearings were in remarkably good shape.  This leads me to think that the noise the fork made was due to the top bearing race being partially unscrewed, which I discovered yesterday.  

1958 Raleigh Sports: Restoration Work Begins

After a week of putzing around on here and talking about random stuff, I can finally start writing about the main point of this blog.  Since the ground was still muddy from the last night's rain, I skipped yard work yesterday and started to work on the bike and as I was tearing it apart - carefully, of course - my buddy Nikolai stopped by to lend a hand.  I photographed the assemblies just to make sure I could get everything back together later on.

In this close-up, it's clear how badly this bike needs to be cleaned up and refreshed.