Yet another post about building a Bike.

Bogota from the Monserrate (a big church up a mountain)

 Hola Amigos!

Yet another post about building a bicycle, So far this blog has been exclusively about the building of bicycles, If you’re getting bored please bear with me, I assure you I will leave very soon and write about something more interesting but for now I will be mostly writing about building my second and (hope to god, Krishna, Buddha and all those other ones) final bike.

I am still here in the sprawling concrete jungle they call Bogota working on my Spanish, leading a fairly quiet existence, and enjoying a few home comforts such as a bed and the use of a kitchen. But the novelty of such things is starting to wear off and I am excited to get back out on the road. This has probably been the longest time I have ever spent in such a big city, if it wasn't for the fact that I am learning a new language I could never have stayed so long. When you are learning a new language everything becomes interesting again. It doesn't matter if I am speaking with a chartered accountant or a philosopher, in both cases I am clinging on to every word and trying to decode it, everything is fun because half the time I have no idea what's going on. Sometimes It’s like being a kid again and trying to understand the financial times, just doesn't make any sense, to be honest it probably wouldn't make any sense to me now either so that’s a poor analogy. Its like being a kid and trying to understand Einstein's theory of relativity, actually that doesnt make a whole load of sense to me either , i'll give up with the analogy's. Its hard. Anyway I am itching to leave the city, pining for the fields, “just cant wait to get on the road again”.

a pile of stuff

I am back on track to leave at the end of the month after the robbery of my ex-bike a few weeks ago. I have been selling my skills as an English teacher, I moved to a cheaper room, my indigogo campaign (http://igg.me/p/241867?a=1487771) is going well, (Thank you to everybody who has been involved, It is so moving to know that people care and are interested in my ridiculous pursuits), and I have built a new bike.

Last week was spent scouring the numerous bicicleterias in the city in search of second hand parts. My method was rather backwards I must admit, I visited each store countless times, each time in search for something different. I probably returned to every store a dozen times, often not purchasing anything. After a few days and a shed load of walking I had everything I needed.  Found a simple steel hard tail mountain bike frame, wheels, handle bars and forks second hand and everything else was bought new. 

a pile of stuff made into a bike

I returned to the same bicicleteria as last time to build the thing, they found it rather amusing that the funny looking gringo was back to build another bike, and like everyone else they were persistent in reminding me, whilst seemingly holding back mocking fits of laughter, that I need to take more care with the bike and always lock it up, which would have been very useful advice previously but now I am very well aware of that risk and don’t need reminding so much, it almost hurts my feelings a little when I am.

welding on the lugs

Putting everything together was fairly simple. I have some recent experience. So within a day it was ready to ride home. The only trouble I had was that the frame was too narrow to accommodate the copious amount of gears on the rear axle, so I had to smack it a few times with a mallet to widen it a little. The benefits of a steel frame.  

lugs welded on

On my previous bike I had some very fancy integrated brake and gear leavers, but this time around I couldn't get such a good deal on them and I didn’t feel like spending £100 on some new ones so I searched far and wide for some little steel lugs to weld to my frame so I could use the old school style frame mounted gear shifters, after asking the same question in about 50 different shops I found some. My Spanish is almost fluent on the subject of bicycle repair now, sadly not much else.

I paid somebody a few quid to weld them on to my frame and repainted over them, I guess you could say I now have a custom made frame. Proper fancy.

Red handle bars as an ode to its preprocessor

 Here is the thing pretty much ready to go. The day after I completed building it I decided to put it through a durability test and smashed it full speed into a taxi, wrecked the tyre and the inner tube, bent the forks back a little into the frame and bent the rear derailer in a bit but apart from that it passed. I had been fiddling with my front wheel and forgot to re attach the brakes so when I came to a road I couldn't stop and consequently became very intimate with a taxi, I was fine, could have been much worse. (dont worry Mum and Dad I am now seriously considering insurance)
The way I look at it is that I am learning some very valuable lessons here in Bogotá which may prevent disasters down the line, I am providing a service really, others can learn from my mistakes; Never take your hands off your things in Bogotá unless you want them robbed and never fiddle with your brakes, forget to re attach them and then smash into taxis.
To be honest, with this track record It will be a miracle if I manage to leave the city, let alone the country. but have faith people it will happen.

 

bent forks, (its worse than it looks)

   

The damage wasn't so bad after all, I had to replace the tyre and inner tube, I managed to bend the rear de-railer mount on the frame back into place but had to buy new forks, they only cost £5 so its not going stunt my progress.

And that's all for now

Take care all
I promise these posts will become more interesting, once I have something more interesting to talk about