bike time 137 - green grizzly

The kids have been taking swimming lessons at the local YMCA.
It's been fun to watch them progress from landlubbers to mer-kids.
But that isn't what this post is about!

1986-1988 bianchi grizzly MTB

While I was waiting for Macey to finish up in the locker room,
this ancient mountain bike was ripe for picture taking.
Good thing cause I had already memorized the swim class window literature.

bianchi grizzly

I immediately recognized the celeste green frame as a Bianchi.
The color camouflaging the Japanese production lugwork,
which screamed a late 80's build.

green tange steel

Even better the owner was still running the old U-brake,
that silver thing underneath the bottom racket area.
I remember having one of those in an old Scott Boulder MTB.
Definitely wasn't made for mud!

lugged

I admired the steel frame long enough
to wonder how different these japanese made lugged bikes really were.
Besides some changes in angles and tube lengths,
there seems to be a standard in which these rigid frames were made.
Tange or the rebadged Ritchey tubing was common,
and those lugs looked awfully familiar to Bridgestones.

Was there a specific area in Japan that specialized in frame manufacture?
Or maybe a handful of sister factories that all competed for the same thing.
Whatever it is what a great time to be a bike rebrander.
Drop in to the manufacturing district with a wad of cash or credit,
throw down some frame dimensions, color choices/graphics,
 and choose shimano vs suntour...
A couple months later you're line of perfect MTB's awaits!

bianchi grizzly

Not to knock this era in the slightest,
you know I dig these old hardtails.
There are small design changes among certain brands.
Check out that lugged front fork on this Bianchi.
Something to set it apart from the others.
How many of these deco shocks survived?
I swapped my rigid fork for a RockShox JUDY XC back then,
and loved every minute of it.
Who needs dual suspension!?

thumbies!

This owner had hot rodded his into the perfect commuter bike.
A road bike stem, single gear front crank, and Fat Frank tires,
together with a bulletproof Deore group,
made a simple and light go anywhere bomber.

deore 6-speed

I took enough pictures to be considered a stalker,

but the guy never showed up.

Macey likes to warm up in the hot shower,

so I had some time to sit on the bench out there.

Each guy that left,

I'd think maybe...nope... that's not the lucky owner.

vintage bianchi grizzly

The main idea here,

if you're in need for a solid city or cross-country mountain bike,

pass on charging up your credit card with a new fangled piece of trendy junk.

A local craigslist search will turn up all kinds of cool vintage rides,

and the parts needed to finish them up right - (or ebay).

You can still support your local bike shop,

by having them assemble and tune to your liking.

The best part is having a stand-out ride that will last another 20 years.

macey - 2013

TP

passing the torch

The time has quickly come to officially pass the torch.
Jaxon now fits in the same size T-shirt as I do,
and his shoe size is only one below mine.

Jaxon Perich - 2013

More importantly both boys are riding my quiver of mountain bikes.
They'll be one of the few Millennial Generation kids
that know what thumbies or friction shifters are,
on a hardtail with tired elastomer shocks.
Lucky them!
Nothing like bombing around 23 year old bicycles!

holey chit

The old Bridgestone may have had it's original tires.
The tread was still decent but the sidewalls had ruptured.
This old bike had been attached to the kid trailer for too long,
rarely going farther than the 9 or 10 blocks to Macey's school.
Reminded me of the old beat horse attached to the water pump,
round and round in circles.

Panaracer Dart - MTB tire

Back in the day,
these tires were some of the best.
Panaracer Dart in the front,
and a Smoke in the back.
They are so good they are still making them 20 years later.

Panaracer Smoke - MTB tire

The sticker price for decent rubber was a bit of a shocker.
You can bet we searched for the best deal,
and found a pair of new tires for $10 shipped on ebay.
Gotta love that place.

ebay score

These were some fat 2.3" tires,
and the seller warned they didn't fit his rims.
Our gamble paid off and they snapped in place.

Hutchinson Piranha - MTB tire

The only bummer was the tire was too fat for the frame!
Back in the early 90's a 2.1" tire was as chunky as they got.

too tight

Well this was a bummer.
The easiest fix was too put the other tire in the back.
We were lucky in that both tires,
A Hutchinson Piranha and a Michelin Mountain Dry 2,
could be used on the front or the back.

Michelin Mountain Dry 2 - mtb tire

The Michelin tire barely cleared the rear stays.
This frame was designed with a road bike mentality,
never would they have realized this was in it's evolution.

1990 bridgestone mb-3 mountain bike

Much better with the new shoes!
Those fat tires will compensate for the lack of suspension.

grinding tires

A quick ride and there was enough rub to be annoying.
The lightly off rear rim didn't help,
I'll need to get that trued.

quickee tire mod

Good excuse to break out the grinder.
Hey I couldn't just write a yawner about "how I changed a bicycle tire"!
A bit of the sidewall knobs were flattened down.
Nothing like the smell of burning rubber.

Jakob - test monkey

My test monkey Jakob gave it a thumbs up.
Barely able to reach the pedals,
but he loves riding that bike.
Now it's ready for another 15 years!

TP

sweatness

What just happened?
Next thing I know we have a kid
that is big enough to wear my shirts,
and also fit my mountain bike?

Jaxon Perich - 2013 - balboa park

At the last minute,
Jaxon and I decided to do the Critical Mass bike ride.
We've missed the passed couple months for various reasons.
Of course he had to borrow a bright shirt,
and also a more efficient bicycle then his stingray!

bike time

The other mountain bike had a worn out tire,
and it wasn't worth the risk of a blowout.
So we took the Breezer and the Rauler.
I really need to get a rear brake for that thing!

Balboa Fountain - critical mass

After a quick pit stop to visit Cho-ip and family,
we were left with a tight time schedule.
Surprisingly we made it to Balboa Park just before the start.
It's hard to see but there are people on top of that building.

San Diego Critical Mass July 2013

The summer rides have a bunch more people,

many on one-speed cruisers,

and are much more slow paced then in the winter.

perich son and dad

Even then it's a good workout and alot of fun.
Next time we'll get Jakob and the wife out...

TP

bike time 29 - 80's tweaker schwinn

It's been too long since a biketime post,
so let's do it.

schwinn klunker

To most of us this doesn't look like anything special,
but this old bike had a cameo on the first blog post.
perich brothers (and sister): got to start sometime...
So for that reason it is special.

perich brothers & sister 2010
jaxon, macey & jakob

The tweaker formula is simple,

take a stripped out 70's or 80's cruiser frame found in a canyon,

and add all the parts from a  couple clapped out mountain bikes.
Voila!
Worry not.
This bike isn't stolen goods,
because the tweaker formula
is very similar to the retired old man in a garage formula -
throwing together any parts lying about that fit,
than ride around with a road bike helmet that is too small.
Funny thing how it unintentionally resembles the old KLUNKER bikes.

vintage double crown - triple tree bike fork

A retired firefighter friend (Chris)
from Ventura donated this to the Perich cause long ago.
For some reason his own son wasn't interested in it,
either that or he ditched it as there were no brakes on it.

The old bike had some heavy use back then.
I unearthed some old 8mm silent footage from back in the day - 2007.
This bike is the "bunny hop special".

junk wheels

Fast forward to now,
and the bike had signs of disrepair.
The front hub had somehow shattered,
(not from bunny hopping!)
and the bike sat for a long time.
Luckily,
a couple months back we found this ditched front wheel
in the Ace Hardware parking lot.
A true rim - perfect!
Who doesn't love free chit.

worn axle

Well there was a reason the wheel was tossed.

Even though it spinned smooth,

the bearings in the hub had dislodged,

to the point that they wore a hole through the axle.

Of course I didn't see this til I had swapped the tire.

Fortunately the axle from the old cast hub interchanged.

seriously worn axle

After a short nights work the bike is back in business.
Here's even more of it's finer details.

comfy style

The hard bmx seat was replaced with a fat cruiser seat (for now),
and the seatpost was laid back a bit.
Gone also is the baby seat from that old 2010 picture.
Really hard to bunny hop with her in the back.

drillium

One of my earlier attempts at drillium here.
May try to find a working derailleur someday too.

schwinn cruiser

Gotta love the triple clamp mountain bike shock.
Hard to find these with a 1" steer tube,
even with the whopping 1.5" of travel.

Well that's about all I can wring out of this old bike.
Don't fret,
there's an exciting post coming up soon.
Just take me out of my misery if you I'm riding around
with the too small road bike helmet.

TP

how to the essential drillium

What better project to get the garage warmed up and covered with aluminum shavings.
I love this old pre-harbor freight mini drill press.

workshop

This old Campagnolo chain ring has been lying around for years,
and today was the perfect opportunity do some non-essential drillium.

marked and punched

The most important part is the layout.

holey chit

After the holes,
the next step is the chamfering or countersink bit.
It takes the sharp edge off,
and some think it will keep it from cracking under stress.

holey chit

This is what it would look like installed,
although this one is a different one.

campagnolo drillium

It makes the typical road bike look a little more race huh?
Not that you can see it 800 miles away.

schroder road bike 1973

There are some really cool intricate examples of drillium if you study it.

Velo-Retro: Peter Johnson

And I guess that is the difference if you do quick hour job,
or if your a racer/mechanic looking to shave every ounce and intimidate the competition.

2008

Anyway it was fun and I was able to cross something off the bottom of my list!

TP

bomber

Took the bridgestone down to TJ yesterday.

mb-3 in TJ

This was a quick run and I was late so I hauled butt down there.
Not too much time for pics.
It was actually a great ride through TJ traffic,
than down that hill.
The ride back was a little sketchy,
those big trucks don't really care about bikers.

150cc motorcycle

I've been wanting to get a picture of one of these motorcycles.
There are tons of them buzzing around,
very rarely parked.
This one is a random brand 150cc,
but Honda makes one that is really popular.
Hard to find in the States though.

$15

One of the perks of riding the bike is saving about $10-15 on taxis.
This is what $15 got me at the store!

TP

priorities (v.3)

Ahh a slow sunday.
There are so many things I need to do,
Might as well start at the bottom of the list.
Was this even on the list?

1990 bridgestone MB-3
badly modded 8-speed

I had found some cool Specialized S cranks at a bike swap,
and thinking it was an upgrade,
threw them on the old bike.

bad alignment

I also had found a clean sealed bearing bottom bracket,
a much needed upgrade to the worn ball bearing unit.
Fortunately this was the correct size cause it was so smooth.

swap meet bottom bracket

It's amazing the price difference retail vs bike swap meet.
I think this was $5.
Anyway,
as soon as it was installed,
it was obvious something wasn't right.
The chain alignment was all off,
and the front derailleur wouldn't reach the outer ring.

Instead of fixing it,
I figured why not make a hipster bike,
and only run the rear derailler.
Well it worked okay,
and I'd do a cheater finger-shift if I needed to shift the crank gears,
but the alignment on the big ring was always off.

crank removal tool

In the meantime,
I lost the crank removal tool,
so even when I wanted to fix it I was SOL.
*****************************************



Joe Strummer - Musket Waltz - (Walker soundtrack)

Wow,
I thought this was just a chill sunday morning song,
but the video I found matched the revolutionary theme the song originated from.
We got it easy up here that's for sure.

*****************************************

After that mexico trip last week,
it was about time to make it right.
Not that I took it on that trip,
but it may have if it worked right.
Time to buy the tool.

deore vs S

Side by side,
it is obvious why the Specialized cranks wouldn't work.
If you look at the original Deore cranks,
you can see that they spider down so the rings are closer to the centerline of the bike.
Glad I didn't toss the oldies.

One of the big selling points of Bridestone was the "Q-Factor".

Bridgestone Bicycle Catalogue 1991-13

Basically it's the distance between the pedals left to right.
The guys at Bridgestone were more road bike oriented,
so the tighter the distance the better.

I screwed up and didn't measure the distance when the S cranks were installed,
but it didn't feel right,
kinda like riding a bagger harley using those forward controls that shoot air up yer crack,
or riding one of those floating tricycle boats in the  bay.

1990 bridgestone mb-3
24-speed

I rode it in a small circle around the yard,
good as new.
Didn't even ride it around the block cause I didn't want to put shoes on.
Besides I should be pulling the engine back out of the 40.
Where's that list?

TP