Darn bikes…

I realize it’s been quite a long time since I’ve posted and, in all honesty, continuing to write about my summer trip doesn’t seem all that promising. The trip was great, now I’m thinking of the next one.
Which brings me to the topic of those darn bikes…especially this one at the moment:

I pulled out my Fujiyama the other day in hopes of resurrecting it a bit. A Fujiyama is really an obscure sort of bike, being the brand name employed by McCully Bicycle & Sporting Goods for their own branded bikes quite some time ago. Mine doesn’t look anything like it did way back when, not even the same color, but it’s still on the road.
Which brings us to the problem…
I’d laced up a wheel around the Sturmey-Archer Duomatic hub, a two speed “kick back” hub, a while back. Then it stopped working. You could ride it, but you could no longer change gears. It might not have been so bad had it been stuck in high, but it was in low and, well that was pretty slow – great for hills or hauling, but not so great for riding around town.
I did a bit of research and came up with a contact for Sturmey-Archer, now owned by Sunrace, in the US. I received a very friendly email suggesting that the fix was easy and all I had to do was open up the hub and tighten a washer.
Simple it might be, but not have the appropriate tools (mostly a spanner), I was out of luck. Then I met a new friend who volunteers up at Cycle Manoa. This is a place the builds up bikes for a once a semester sale to UH students who need healthy, inexpensive, transportation. A great thing really.
More to the point, they have an open shop evening where, with luck, I’d be able to find the right tools. Well…yes and no.
I was up there last night and had no trouble getting things ready to crack open my hub but…no such luck. It just wouldn’t open up as shown here…

No matter what we did, and ultimately three of us had a go at it, the internals would not spin free from the body.
No love.
I haven’t given up hope yet, and I did manage to meet some great new folks and discover a great community resource, but I’m a bit disappointed that it just wouldn’t open up.
I’ll find a way yet…a way that doesn’t involve building a new wheel I hope, but hey, it is what it is.
That’s my report for now and, as always, I hope to get back on track with this blog.

Aloha!