Asking for advice
 

I have a few bikes in the shed that need fixed. All of them need new tires, brakes, grease, and tuning.

I started working on the Huffy Marathon 10 that I recently bought for $15 at a yard sale. We may be having trouble with the Elgin American Derailleurs, if anyone has some information on those it would be appreciated.

My next project is going to be the Ultra Terrain Roadmaster with Shimano Index System Derailleurs, it just need tuned and greased.

Next would be my old Murray, the peddle broke off and I need some advice on where to buy a new one.

Lastly would be my step-dad's 3 speed Columbia Bromleigh.

I would also like to ask for any good places to buy parts like tires, cables, and brakes at great prices.

The Huffy looks like the old-style friction shifter equipment; unless the derailleurs are FROZEN/rusted, there should be no issue. Just make sure the cable tension is right, and the limit screws let the unit move as far as it needs to for all gears. Use a light oil on the derailleur pivots. A derailleur is pretty much a "slave" device, it only does what the shifter tells it to.

Your Murray needs a new crank; one-piece cranks are pretty much standard on bikes under $100 new, all over. Google "one-piece cranksets for sale".

The rear derailleur just doesn't seem to spring back outward properly, I'm not sure what the problem is(the cable may need replaced but I'm not sure that it's causing this problem, I will check for rust)

The front derailleur is frozen up but doesn't have a lick of rust on it. It feels to me, who is a Newb, as if the spring inside is too tight.

And as far as the price, lowest is best for me. :)

Here's a couple good places to start:
http://www.parktool.com/blog/repair-help
http://sheldonbrown.com/articles.html

Look through the Park Tool pages. They cover every adjustment and overhaul operation you'll encounter on those bikes. If it's too much, try to find a bike co-op near you (it would help to know where you are) and learn the basics.

Now, please don't take this the wrong way: those bikes really aren't worth it. Even if you spend a bunch of time and money on them, they will still be very low quality "department store" bikes. Unless you have some sort of emotional attachment to these particular bikes, I would recommend finding better quality bikes to work on. It'll be easier to find parts, easier to learn adjustments, and generally less frustrating to learn on a "good" bike than what you have there.

Thanks for the links, they'll be very valuable tools.

As far as quality, I'm not quite looking for it. I rode the Murray for a few years before it broke and the only money I need to put in it is for the pedals, I'll shop around for a cheap one. The Bromleigh has sentimental value, it just needs a tune up. The Roadmaster is in pretty good condition. I've been riding that one around but it could use a tune up. Now the Huffy could turn into a money-pit, but I'm not going to let that happen. If I can't repair the parts that need fixed, and I price out the repairs to be too high for my budget, then there is a guy down the street from me who might buy it from me for the price I paid. If it's not too expensive, it's a fun little project. Most importantly, these are bikes I already have and it'll be easier than finding others. :p

As said, these aren't exactly high end bikes, but don't let that stop you, it doesn't stop me. What you need are parts bikes. How do you get them? Honestly, just ask. In the spring I just put in a request in the "Items Wanted" section of my local town facebook group or CL/Kijiji that I want dump/trash/scrap bikes...that you're going to reuse parts, etc. After that seems to dry up I say I'll pay $5 for anything that's whole...that usually brings a flood of them in, plus free bikes that people just want to give you.

Now, you're gonna have a crapload of worthless, cheap ass department store bikes...but these bikes usually have at least a good tube or good tires, for sure good cranks, many have good pedals, shifters, derailleurs, cables, you name it. I rarely keep a frame unless its a bike I really like or in nice shape, and just dump the rest (look up some of the stuff you can build with bike parts BTW, you will pretty much just dump the bare frame). You will of course get bikes that are 100% bike shaped trash, but I find that about 10% of the free bikes I get are actually something pretty cool or valuable...that's 1 in 10, so you need volume for sure.

So, for a bit of collecting time and tear apart time (people will bring bikes to you, but I usually offer to get them), you now have lots of free, functional spare parts and you can pretty much rebuild any bike that comes your way including your own fleet, which will now also have any amount of accessories from left over gel seats, cargo racks, etc. Where I live, you can get $40 for a functional bike regardless of brand and low end bikes are can pretty easy to adjust especially when they are just friction shifters and such. It's old school stuff, but sometimes people just want a bike that goes from point A to B at their camp 1 week a year...and that's the price and bike they need. You'll learn how to work on bikes and you'll have nothing but hobby time spent into it...and sell one or two and you can go out to eat.

There are lots of tips and tricks, but most people start out on low bikes, as they get more successful and make more money at is, the move up in bike scale and style, but a lot of people start at the bottom and work up, adding cool stuff they run across as they see more and more bikes. Good luck!

The very first thing you need to do is to become accustomed to looking at how things operate and interact on a bike. You are focusing on the derailleur springs, but that is only a part of what moves a derailleur. The cable either pulls a derailleur or brake in one direction or allows the spring to move it in the other. If the cable is rusted, kinked, or dry where it passes through the housing both actions will be more difficult (or impossible in the case of bad rust). When something is comprised of several parts you need to isolate each one to determine the problem, rather than guess.

I agree that you should not spend much money, and not a whole lot of effort, on many department store level bikes, especially Roadmaster, Huffy and Murray. Some other brands sometimes sold in dept. stores are not so bad - Schwinn being one example. You seem to have reasons for working on the ones you already have, and of course that's fine. But there are a good number of better bikes available at garage sales (preferable because you can see them and prices are usually better) and Craigslist or similar (not as good because "flippers" often improperly fix the bike and sometimes hide problems but charge you for a "fixed up" bike). I personally think your dad's 3 speed is the one you should tackle once any immediate transportation needs of your own are addressed.

I have a couple of posts to reply to and it seems best to start off with a little info about myself, since my intentions and purposes may not be clear. I am a 22 year old college student. I don't have hobby/play around money, nor storage space for a bicycle graveyard. I need to fix up what I have as compared to shopping around for something "better." My purpose for the bikes is to have an abusable piece of junk. If it breaks: who cares. If it gets stolen: who cares. If it lasts a while: Woohoo! That being said, there may be better bikes available, even in my budget, but that's not what I have.

As for where I live, since I forgot to mention that, Mom's place is in the Marion/Mansfield Ohio area and my apartment will be in Dayton.

And CNY-Bikman, I bypassed the cable and tried moving the front derailleur with my hand, and it is very tight(which is where I say it feels as if the spring is too tight). Even then, I agree that I know little about this and should learn more! Could you refer me to some good resources?

And to everyone, Even though buying parts online isn't always preferable, does anyone have any good online resources for parts like tires, brakes, and cables?

Its always good to assume that no bike is fixed and go accordingly. If you are on the edge about a bike but think "good thing its fixed" think again as cny-bikeman is right, some flippers hide stuff to sell a bike.

Ya gotta love it

You are a college student, does your university have a bike coop? Ask around, they are great places to learn, and then serve. If you can find one, you can probably find used parts cheap there, and cheap or free labor / instruction and maybe even loaner tools / workspace.

The spring has to shift the chain off the larger chainwheels to the small ones, which takes a good amount of force. It's normal for it to be very strong, but your shifter has more than enough leverage to move the derailleur against the spring tension. You apparently have not checked the other half of the equation - what you need to do now is see how the cable moves when it's not connected to the derailleur. I'm betting it's very hard to move, and that rust has settled in the bottom curve of the housing - very common with dept. store bikes, which at least in the past came with unlined housing, and never have proper lubrication.

Check out Bicycles For All - in Dayton, article dated 3/13/13, also previously mentioned were sheldonbrown.com and parktool.com/blog. You can also just Google what you want to know, once you learn terminology (start with bicycle part diagram)

There's nothing wrong with buying online if you know what you are ordering - many folks forget you can still pick up the phone and ask questions of the supplier. There are multiple sources - just search for what you want to see some of the choices. Bike Nashbar is headquartered in OH, so that may be helpful.