Today went down to check up on my bike to see if I could use it to cycle on the East Coast Park with my parent and sisters. I was amazed by the condition my bike was in because the chain was all rusted up and would not move and my tyres were completely flat with almost no air in them. My mum came down to check on her if it was usable. Her bicycle was worse than mine, the tyres were even more flat, the chain, the handle bars and the pole to keep the saddle up were all rusted up. My mother said that we would need some supplies, so I sprinted up and got the W-40, a spanner, a hammer, the pump and another tool, once I got all these supplies I raced down to my mother so we could get to work.
Now the fun had just begun. We setup all the tools and got to work. We started with the tyres, I pumped and while my mother made sure that the air got in. My mum’s bikes front wheel was really flat so I had to pump a lot until the tyres were rock hard. The wheels were now done and we moved onto the rusty chain. We sprayed the whole chain with W-40 and then started getting the all the parts of the chain moving to full flexibility so the bicycle would work. It took us a long time before we got the whole chain to work properly and the bicycle would move. Last we sandpapered all the rusty parts of the bicycle. When finished the bicycle look good as new. My mother tried the bicycle around the car park and she found the bike was working really well. Now we wanted to fix my bicycle but we had just run out of W-40, so I cycled on my sister’s bike to the Esso station to get the W-40.
Upon my return we started with the chain because my mother’s hands were already dirty and we didn’t want to make other things dirty with oil. We sprayed the chain with the lube and we found out that it was a kind of gel meant for putting on chains, but keeping the chain from rusting in a long period of time. We sprayed it any way and tried making the chain flexible again. We were done fast but my mum cut her hand and I had to pump the tyres on my own. Finally 2 hours later I could cycle.
Now the fun had just begun. We setup all the tools and got to work. We started with the tyres, I pumped and while my mother made sure that the air got in. My mum’s bikes front wheel was really flat so I had to pump a lot until the tyres were rock hard. The wheels were now done and we moved onto the rusty chain. We sprayed the whole chain with W-40 and then started getting the all the parts of the chain moving to full flexibility so the bicycle would work. It took us a long time before we got the whole chain to work properly and the bicycle would move. Last we sandpapered all the rusty parts of the bicycle. When finished the bicycle look good as new. My mother tried the bicycle around the car park and she found the bike was working really well. Now we wanted to fix my bicycle but we had just run out of W-40, so I cycled on my sister’s bike to the Esso station to get the W-40.
Upon my return we started with the chain because my mother’s hands were already dirty and we didn’t want to make other things dirty with oil. We sprayed the chain with the lube and we found out that it was a kind of gel meant for putting on chains, but keeping the chain from rusting in a long period of time. We sprayed it any way and tried making the chain flexible again. We were done fast but my mum cut her hand and I had to pump the tyres on my own. Finally 2 hours later I could cycle.
1 comment:
How cool is that...you spent 2 hours fixing your bikes so you could ride them. There's a lot of learning and ownership you get from doing a project like that.
Now don't let them get in that condition again, eh?
mjh
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