Bicycle repairs

I have two old bicycles at home. For years, they've been lying around the porch gathering dust and rust because my son and daughter didn't want to use them any more. And in recent weeks I had been toying with rehabilitating them so that my wife and I can ride around the neighbourhood. So I had given them a thorough wash about a week ago and yesterday, went to the local hardware shop to buy a can of WD40. My friend Eric swears by this stuff. He claims it can clean and lubricate just about anything in the world.

So I gave the can of WD40 a try. On my son's bicycle, it went onto the front brake calipers to loosen the grit. In this picture, you can see the before and the after effects of using the lubricant on the lop-sided calipers. World of a difference. The moving parts no longer stick and the brake pads no longer brush permanently against the wheel's rim. The lubricant also went onto the other moving parts, especially the chain and the gear sets.

Finally, I tried to raise the bicycle's seat. I felt it was too low for me. When I was riding a bicycle to school a very long time ago, I liked my seat to be raised up high. So I tried to do the same with this one. However, it was a challenge because no matter how hard I tried to loosen the nut and bolt which held the seat in place, it just couldn't be removed. Yes, the bolt turned perfectly well but it just couldn't move forward or backwards. I used spanners, pliers, screw-drivers but nothing worked. I got so fed up that I gave the end of the bolt a hefty whack with the hammer and then....I felt the nut engaged on the thread. Seizing the moment, I quickly re-applied the spanners and gently turned it and voila! The nut came off.

As I had suspected earlier, part of the bolt's thread had been sheared off. It was so smooth that it wasn't any wonder that the nut could turn effortlessly around the bolt without tightening or coming off. I inserted a new bolt and nut, readjusted the seat's height, tightened the nut and okay, it's time to give this bicycle a spin around the neighbourhood.

I haven't finished with this bicycle yet. I've to find a way to eliminate the squeals totally when I apply the brakes hard. It's already an improvement that the squeals are so much softer but there must be a way to remove them. Also, I must search for a better seat or at least find some cushion or padding. My crouch hurts. Ouch!