The Beginning of My Bike Building Project

            On Thursday at noon I took my two French bike frames over to Bike Pirates. Dennis at the time was the only volunteer on the floor and I was only the third customer and so there was no need to sign up first. I leaned the Peugeot frame against my table and clamped the unknown French bike to stand number two. The first thing I wanted to do was to get some advice as to which frame would be best to start building a bike from. He asked which bike fit my body. I told him that they were both within the range of my required frame height but that the one on the stand was 61 cm tall while the Peugeot was 59 cm. I held the Peugeot frame up side by side with the other one and noticed that it was about as much longer though than it was shorter. If the top tube is too long I’ll be leaning forward too much. I decided to go with the taller one but kept the Peugeot in case I needed the bottom bracket.

            The first thing that Dennis advised was for me to remove the axel and the cups of the one on the stand, then to clean everything out. We needed to find out if everything was threaded properly and there was no damage to any of the hard to replace French lower bracket parts. I couldn’t remove one of the cups and so after the axel was slipped out I took the frame off the stand and laid it on its side on the table. Then I removed the ball bearings and cleaned out the area. I greased the cup that wouldn’t come out and put new ball bearings in from the other end. Before greasing and loading the other cup with new ball bearings I showed it to Dennis and he found some damage, so I decided to clamp the Peugeot frame on the stand and to remove the cups from that to see if those were better. It turned out that they were better and the one I needed fit perfectly to replace the damaged one. I saved the other Peugeot cup for the future, in case I can ever get the other cup off, then I donated the Peugeot frame back to Bike Pirates.

            A woman came in who was helping two guys fix their bikes. They were on the waiting list but she came back to loudly ask why there were unused stands. Dennis, also with a raised voice, told her that it was because he was the only volunteer and he couldn’t handle more than four customers at a time. She argued that she was fully knowledgeable and did not need his help and so she was making herself a volunteer. He firmly declared, “No you’re not!” I could see her point but I guess maybe there are security issues if she’s not part of the recognized pool of volunteers.
            A woman named Melissa who was both volunteering and working on her bike asked where to get a good burger in Parkdale. Someone mentioned Harry’s, which is in the back of a plaza next to the No Frills down at King and Jameson. I remember it being a dive but another customer said some hipsters bought the place though it’s still a dive.

            At one point Dennis walked in from the back and called out, “Okay! I want everybody to put down their tools and grab a piece of scrap metal to take to the back because the scrap metal truck is here for pick up! Most of us helped. Once the stuff lying around it had been carried out, I rolled the big plastic barrel of scrap to the back, and once some of the rims were handed to the scrap man, he closed the tailgate on his little pickup truck and then myself and someone else lifted the barrel, tipped it over the edge and emptied it loose into the truck.

            When I was done installing the bottom bracket Dennis told me that I should give myself an extra pat on the back because of how notoriously difficult the French versions of that mechanism are to put together. He was about to tell me how to put the crank arms back on but I told him I was going to go home and have lunch, then take a nap. He exclaimed that was a great idea and declared that he wished he could do the same. My plan is to pace myself with this bike build. I’ll spend two or three hours again on Saturday and then come back on Monday evening, Tuesday evening, then Thursday afternoon and keep on going like that till the bike is finished.

            When I got home I had a look at pictures of French bikes to see if I could figure out who made my frame. I strongly suspect, based on some of the fancy decorative lines at the ends of each stretch of tubing where the welding has been done, that I actually have a Peugeot, perhaps a Canadian built version. But then again, maybe not because the lines on mine are more jagged and at odder angles. I can’t find a serial number at all.