habilis

All those miles you did years ago - holy krapp, that's impressive! Other than the miles logged, my history is similar to yours. I owned an '80s Puch Luzern, but did very little work on it before giving it to my son. I laid off biking for 20 years and resumed just a few years ago.

I 've overhauled a few loose-ball bottom brackets, headsets, and hubs. Just did the BB on my wife's Dunelt last Sunday and found that the grease had turned to something like tar. However, the balls and races were still fine. They hadn't been serviced since 1968!! Cleaned and repacked 'em and all is well. Yours will depend not only on the mileage but also riding conditions. Rain and road grit are probably more harmful than miles and elapsed time.

Put a large cardboard box lid or similar container under the BB, hub, or whatever you are disassembling, to catch the bearings that fall out. Clean and examine them. If they are nice and shiny, reuse them, but don't mix new and old - even if spec'ed the same, they will be slightly different sizes. Cones and races are the last things to wear out. If your bearings spin freely without roughness or binding, and they show no scoring or pitting, they're still fine. Ordinary automotive wheel-bearing grease is absolutely okay.

For a workstand, I get away with hanging the bike from a rope attached to a hook in the garage or basement ceiling.

NukeouT

I made Sprocket, a bike info app for your smartphone. I dont have the Puch brand in there yet, but I will eventually

You can get it for Android through here sprocket.bike
Finishing the iOS app soon

Glad to hear youre getting back into biking. Thats awesome!

FuwaFuwaUsagi

I appreciate the thoughts. I am, more or less, a Renaissance man wannabe. I am still kicking myself for having someone put the new roof on my house, as I have always wanted to roof a house (no idea why, just how I roll). But I had no time and no knowledge, fortunately I had the money, so new roof it was. But I still lament I was not part of it – sigh.

Money is not the issue, it is just the innate satisfaction I get that comes from starting something and seeing it to conclusion. I spent too many years working on parts of things, in other words not seeing the end result except as a paycheck. I like to do tangible thing, no matter how small. Heck I grow most of my own fruit for that reason, every year I get measure of satisfaction, grafting out new trees for friends, and nurturing my own trees. So the bike thing is kindred. That old bike and me, well, she has been part of my life longer than my woman, I want to do the work on her. Many a night I tied her tires off to trees to stabilize her in a gale and pitched my tarp over her, letting her help shelter me from the storm. And more than once her frame was between me and couple of feral dogs, Zephal frame pump flailing away as she shielded my lower extremities.

I guess what I am trying to say is, she may not be light and fancy, may only have 10 gears, but she is still my lady. I want to be the gentle hand that maintains her. I owe her that. I hope that makes sense.

Thank you for your thoughts, it is appreciated.

By the way we are distant neighbors. I am over on the far west side of Aurora. Any co-ops over by you? I could not find any that were not Chicago proper.

Kindest regards…

FuwaFuwaUsagi

NJ, that must be fun to bike around. Glad to hear you are biking again, it is nice to come home. I am looking forward to a very active retirement. I have about 2 years left to go, but after that, I am hitting the trail hard. I am hoping to warm up on the Natchez Trace trail. It is short ride, maybe 400 miles or so. So I should be able to go back and forth in 10 days or so. At least I think so, not sure exactly what my 50 something body has left in the tank, but we shall find out. I think that sojourn wil let me know how much of future on the trail is reality and how much is just wishful thinking.

Thanks for advice. The bike shops that did a tune-up on her say she needs nothing. But I find that hard to believe. She was never ridden hard, but she was ridden loaded for so many miles. I suspect the grease is as you say: tar.

big chainring 

FuwaFuwa,
You should check out the Classic and Vintage section of the forum. Steve Whitlatch lives in Aurora or Geneva, Batavia, one of those. Hes a great guy. He hangs out on the C&V forum. I am up in Wilmette, long drive, but I could walk you thru a bike overhaul. I've a bike in some sort of rebuild most of the time.

I use old bike innertubes hanging from the basement ceiling as my "work stand". For tools you need 8mm thru 15mm wrenches, a bike specific cable cutter, chain tool to pop the pins out of your chain, a set of cone wrenches, and a crank removal tool. That will get you most of the way thru overhaul of a bike.

WMcCready

FFW, Bike Winter Swap meet is coming up on 1-31-16, @ Harper Collage ( see .Bikewinter.org ) a good place to buy tool's, old parts,ect. I have also done volunteer work @ WorkingBikes.org on 24 th & Western , Chicago, they sponsor bike drives to pass on old bikes worldwide, and they will be @ Bike Winter, taking donations.

3alarmer 

...I did my roof on a small two bedroom house here when I was in my early 40's. I did the tearoff, and most of the decking and structure repair from rot, etc.

Honestly, It was kinda fun/a challenge at the time, but I would never do another. And even on that one I contracted the one piece gutters and the shingle installation. Life is short.


You did not mention you other areas of expertise (on the other forums). If you have some experience in the mechanical trades, a lot of it is applicable, as is a general knowledge of metals, fasteners, measurement with calipers to determine various standards for parts replacement........a lot of the same stuff you run into with cars, but you don't usually need a lift or an impact wrench.