Breaking-Up is Hard to do (When it rounds out your allen key)

Another interesting side effect of a new bike joining the FMFT extended family was the chance to look at what would be salvaged from the old one.

The bike wasn’t in a good way. At some point someone had either tried to steal parts from it, or simply to vandalise it. They’d not done a particularly good job either way but had succeeded in removing the stem cap, and several bolts form the stem itself. They’d also fully unscrewed and lost the bolts that should hold the brake cables to the brakes. Perhaps in frustration at his own mechanical ineptness, the wannabe thief seemed to have buckled the back wheel with a kick. All they’d actually got away with was the seatpost and saddle, which were, admittedly, probably the most expensive bits of the bike.

I guess it’s what you expect from a bike left out on a quiet corner of the road for a winter, but the damage ultimately just made the bike unusable without a bit of investment to anyone, be they the owner or the thief. Perhaps for the sake of not losing too many bits from bikes it is a good thing that not everyone is an expert bike mechanic.

Having braved a short walk and managed to not get stopped by the police carrying a bag which contained only tools, big spanners and a metal bar as well as latex gloves (in no way suspicious I’m sure), we attacked the bike in the comfort of half of FMFT’s sitting room.

From it’s wobbly remains we were able to salvage some emergency replacement parts including handlebars, grips, the stem, shifters and levers, spacers, brake blocks, a rear mech, and a straight front wheel. There’s also something satisfying about stripping a bike down, an effort which took under 40 minutes (making the potential thief’s efforts somewhat lame). Left with a decent looking frame, which it was still decided to get rid of, my only regret was not being able to shift the crank bolts to get the bottom bracket out. That was really the only part I was hoping for. It also pretty much destroyed my only 8mm allen key, which is annoying.

With enough bikes that end up the same way, who knows, one day we might be in the position to build one all the way back up.

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