Social Media Fatigue - Bicycles

I haven't been posting much lately. Busy, batty and confused. On the other hand I have been doing some of the things that was lying on the todo shelf, things that was bogging me down as they were things that was expected of me. Especially my youngest daughter have not wasted any chance to remind me that I should renovate the bike in the cellar that was left there many years ago when my eldest daughter had a normal adult bike for her birthday. The little one has grown and is not really that little anymore and the blue bike she has used until now was beginning to look like a clowns tiny circus bike.

Bikes are the way we move around in this family so there has always been room in the budget for repairs at the bicycle repairman, Not having a car saves you a lot of money in this country. But I have also always made any repairs I knew how to... just to be thrifty - considering my lacking talent for making money it has been the best way for me to stay free and independent of a real job.

My wife's Finnish Jopo bike with a new saddle, bicycle chain and induction rear light.

I have been putting this off for a long time, but the hole in the wooden box of the Christiania bike and my daughters relentless pestering me to fix her a new bike, finally made me give in.

A hole in the wooden box of the Christiania bike. I will return with a report on that home builder project when I get the time to actually do it.

After more than ten years sturdy service the plywood of the Christiania bike is rooting away. I have decided to cut, paint and lacquer the new plywood. It would probably be easier to simply invest the 300$ in new prefabricated modules, but... I guess I got carried away when planning this.

I tend to prefer to buy in local shops, but this time I choose a webshop as I had to order so many different things. I have more than 20 bikeshops within a kilometer of my home, so I guess they have businesses that can survive without me. The place I bought from was a super efficient little shop in the Danish countryside, and they sent me all my orders so they were available next morning even though I ordered at 4 pm.

A set of break cables from the webshop in Jylland.

Repairing a bike is actually rather easy. All the components are standardised, and you can choose what you like and it almost always fit. There will maybe be a couple of different solutions but never a vendor lock-in. It is really just like a large Meccano set.

My daughters new bike. I replaced the tubes on both wheels.

The most expensive part of the project was battery free bike lights. But as bicycle lights are mandatory by law and these works for years (mine has worked for more than 5 years without maintenance) I consider them a good investment.

The brake cable on the front V-brakes had rusted into one brown clog, so I replaced the cable entirely.

Last but not least... pink handles. I didn't choose the colour.