08-22-2010, 05:55 AM
I have just bought myself a super-cheap city runaround to get into town and back (There is little point leaving anything that looks expensive in town - there are high bike theft stats where I live, and it -or bits of it - would just walk.)
As in I paid just £10.... for the whole bike! It's an old Ammaco mountain bike, still in solid condition - the frame, the saddle and even the tyres, and though the rims are rusty a lot of it is cleaning up quite well. So I say the bike's worth a little bit more than I paid for it.
However, regardless of how intentionally crappy it looks I still want to make sure it's safe to ride. The brake setup is still the standard mountainbike caliper one that came with the bike, (see bottom photo) so is probably 10-15 years old.
The brakes still kind of work, the levers and calipers spring back ok, but all the cables are old and stiff, on the front brake it's permanently kinked on the metal yoke(?) so the cable doesn't sit in the centre, and keeps creeping back to the kinked bit, throwing the brake pads off balance. The braking power isn't great (even after adjusting the pads to toe them in, and also replacing the front pads)
The nuts and bolts are also rusty all over. What's also not nice is that the brake levers are nasty cheap plastic ones and are not kind to the hands! Also, due to the state of the nuts and bolts around the brake levers I'm not keen to press down on them too hard incase they break...
Questions -
1. Is it possible for me to replace the plastic brake levers with standard polished metal ones?
2. Would it be possible to replace the old cables myself too? If it would be too difficult for a noob, then how long would the new brake levers + cables replacement job take at a bike shop, and how much should they charge for the work?
I know it's a cheap, basic old bike by today's standards, but it would be nice to have a crappy-looking bike that I didn't have to worry about, AND that I could use safely without fear of dying... so it would be worth a few pounds to make it roadworthy.
Many thanks.
As in I paid just £10.... for the whole bike! It's an old Ammaco mountain bike, still in solid condition - the frame, the saddle and even the tyres, and though the rims are rusty a lot of it is cleaning up quite well. So I say the bike's worth a little bit more than I paid for it.
However, regardless of how intentionally crappy it looks I still want to make sure it's safe to ride. The brake setup is still the standard mountainbike caliper one that came with the bike, (see bottom photo) so is probably 10-15 years old.
The brakes still kind of work, the levers and calipers spring back ok, but all the cables are old and stiff, on the front brake it's permanently kinked on the metal yoke(?) so the cable doesn't sit in the centre, and keeps creeping back to the kinked bit, throwing the brake pads off balance. The braking power isn't great (even after adjusting the pads to toe them in, and also replacing the front pads)
The nuts and bolts are also rusty all over. What's also not nice is that the brake levers are nasty cheap plastic ones and are not kind to the hands! Also, due to the state of the nuts and bolts around the brake levers I'm not keen to press down on them too hard incase they break...
Questions -
1. Is it possible for me to replace the plastic brake levers with standard polished metal ones?
2. Would it be possible to replace the old cables myself too? If it would be too difficult for a noob, then how long would the new brake levers + cables replacement job take at a bike shop, and how much should they charge for the work?
I know it's a cheap, basic old bike by today's standards, but it would be nice to have a crappy-looking bike that I didn't have to worry about, AND that I could use safely without fear of dying... so it would be worth a few pounds to make it roadworthy.
Many thanks.