Do you have an old lonesome bike sitting in the garage begging to be ridden by its long lost owner. Is this beautiful machine neglected due to, ‘just not knowing how to fix’er’. Well then, this guide is for you! I have compiled a simple how to guide for the bicycle which can be downloaded as a PDF. It contains many photos with easy to read details on how to perform the most basic but essential skills:
- What are the basic parts of a bike.
- How to set the bike up to work on.
- What basic tools are needed.
- Where is the OSU bicycle shop.
- How to properly clean and lubricate a chain.
- How to remove a rim and replace the tube and tire.
And much more…
The instructional guide can be downloaded by clicking here!
So why do bicycles matter so much anyways, aren’t they just a toy growing up as a kid? This is a typical question many adults ask today in reference to the bicycle. What they don’t know is that the bicycle can be applied to the many complicated facets of adult life–and in many ways–it makes life a lot less complicated!
Did you know that a bicycle is the most efficient transportation device ever created and it runs entirely on human power. Basically the fuel is your calories, but that is a good thing, right! Currently the U.S. is suffering from TV watching overload and people are not getting enough exercise. The bicycle can help break this habit! A person pedaling an average pace of about 10mph will burn 500 or more calories a hour–now that’s exciting–to be entertained while: being with the family, getting outside, doing something for the health of it, participating in an environmentally benign activity, reducing pollution and car congestion, and saving money! Wow, life couldn’t be better!
Furthermore, on a historical level, the bicycle has done much for the liberation and emancipation of women during the 19th and 20th centuries. A great quote from Patricia Mark’s book, Bicycles, Bangs, and Bloomers: The New Woman in the Popular Press, sums it up nicely:
…to ride a bicycle meant to change one’s life-style in irrevocable fashion. Clothing was the most noticeable manifestation of change… Less obviously, perhaps even the proposition that a woman should care for her own machine meant a radical reinterpretation of the division of labor. The woman who traveled on her own wheels, then, where she did so for a lark or for serious transportation, expanded her boundaries well beyond the home circle. She became… a citizen of the world (2004: 203).
Check it out!
If you think that is cool, check out some of these other references that I have put together:
Bikeportland.org – a nonprofit website that connects you to all the biking resources that Portland, Oregon has to offer.
The Bicycle Transportation Alliance (BTA) – a nonprofit out of Portland, Oregon.
Bikes Belong – a nonprofit out of Boulder, Colorado.
Wiki Bicycles – a plethora of information about bicycles.
A Social History of the Bicycle – by Robert Smith
Ways of the World: A History of the World’s Roads and of the Vehicles that Used Them – by M.G. Lay
Bicycling Science – by David Gordon Wilso
Work Cited
Marks, Patricia. 1990. Bicycles, Bangs, and Bloomers: The New Woman in the Popular Press. Kentucky: The University Press of Kentucky.
