The Wichita daily eagle., 1897-09-03
The Care of a Bicycle.

Spokes may be rusty, chains the same,
all bearings more or less checked with
sand; handie-bars, cranks and other bright
parts badly spotted and showing the nickel
wearing OF. Wood rims. too. may be
cracked or warped badly out Of shape;
wheels, as a whole, out OF true, and. as to
frame, the enamel may show the rough
usage which baggage-masters or express
men have subjected Il to. 1t viii be neces-
sary, therefore, to give such wheels gen.
eral overhaul;ng, and, II the work cannot
be done at home. the wheels should be
sent at once to the nearest reliable repair
shop, to avoid the rush that this year viii
be greater than ever before, the number
of new riders whose wheels will be in
very bad shape having increased ten-fold
since last season.
II the rider decides to try his own hand
at the job, he had better start at the main
bearing in the bottom bracket. As bear
ings and bali-cups are now made in such
a variety of styles and adjustment no
two machines alike, each rider will be gov
erned by the rules set down by the manu-
facturer of his own machine for loosen
ing the cones. In some makes the ball
case on the movable cone side will be
merely unscrewed a turn or two; in 9TH
ers, the small dog-catch must be tapped.
free from the adjusting ratchet disc; in
others. the small PIN underneath bracket
must be released to admit Of sups being
drawn asunder; and, yet again, in wheels
having the one-p.ece crank and axle. the
cones can be exposed instantaneously. But,
no matter what the style of bracket-bear-
ibg, the idea is. in cleansing. not to remove
the entire bearing il 1t can be avoided, but
TO loosen the cones so that when the ma
chine lies on its side. a half-pint, or. il
necessary, a pint Of kerosene or gasoline
can be injected into the bearings from a
syringe or large oil-can with spring bot
tom, such as engineers use. This will gen.
orally be sufficient to force all grit and
Dirt out of q bearing, and in a few mo-
ments the cavity will dry out, when a few
drops of good lubricating oil may be in
jected. and the bearings frightened up
again. The same tactics should be follow
ed in the case of the wheel axle and steer
ing-head bearings. upper and lower; and
IL the work is done carefully, the machine
should run as smoothly as If ii had been
sent to a repair-shop. If 1t does not, then
the bearings have either been badly ad-
justed by the amateur, or the balls or cones
have roughened up, or, maybe, there Is a
ball or two broken. In such q case Of
course, it will be necessary to remove the
bearings from the frame and make requi-
site renewals. Before taking out q bear
ing, unless ball-retainers are used, a large
piece OF thick cloth or flannel should be
spread on the floor underneath the bracket
to catch the balls or other small parts;
and it is always well to count the balls
as they are removed from each side, so
that the proper number will be put back
aeyasv, -t,1,-D Ill
orally speaking, to be the same number
on each side, but in some cases the assem-
blers do not think it necessary to adhere
to this rule; indeed, sometimes, and espe-
c.ally in cheaper machines the fitting Of
the cones Will not admit Of 1t. In putting
balls back into cases be sure to use a
little vaseline-it holds them together and
In alignment until the cups are screwed
into place. If this Is not done in putting
pedals together. the smaller cones push
tiny ball up out OF place, and it gets
tammed. the pedal in revolving sticking
at one point, yet moving easily at another
In some makes the crank hangers are hol-
lowed out and open to tubing, and where
this is so, if first kerosene and then Oil IS
poured down the seat-post tube the main
bearing can be flushed out very thorough
ly.
1t is good plan 20 remove both sprocket
wheel and chain, and drop them both into
a shallow pan filled with kerosene, then
knock nail or hook into the floor. hitch
the chain TO 1t, and stretch it across the
pan and scrub it with hard brush, moving
the pan towards you as you work back
along the chain. Then let it soak a bit
more, hang up chain over pan to dry,
then drop it into the pan, which can now
be filled with lubricating OIL Wipe chain
off, clean sprocket, and put all back on
machine rub chain with graphite, and, If
the frame is in line and sprockets true,
absolute noiselesSness will result when run
ming. II chain is found to be worn on one
s,0e Il Is a good plan to turn 1t over so as
10 present an even surface to the sprocket-
teeth. In some machines too. the sprock-
cts themselves can be turned, but II there
is bad creaidng when set up. put the
chain back as It was originally. and be
satisfied that your wheel wants truing up,
or a new chain is In order.
If your wheel-rims are much out of true
don't try to put them into line yourself
unless you know the rule for so doing and
have a proper hand-vise or spoke tighten
ing tool to work with. Handy little wheel
truing machines are sold nowadays. and
VIII be found reliable and very useful,
and given ordinary intelligence any anna
teur ought TO be able to get rim into a
perfect circle better than many OF the so
called professional wheel-truers in some
shops. The work Ia quite simple. II you
work systematically by sections, starting
with some particular spoke and truing
gradually around TO II. But II you have
never done such work before. a good plan
is TO practice on some other fellows wheel
and send your own to a frst-class shop.
Truing up Will generally obviate trouble
from cracked rims but the latter should
always be gone over with glue or rim
cement, and then vanished over.
All nuts that have been temporarily fore
ed on with blacksmith's tools or other road
SIDE implements to get you home on some
unlucky trip should be replaced by new
ores and all crank-keys that may have
worked loose and been hammered n to
tire limit should be dealt with in the
same manner.