What we do to bikes

This is a horrible steel back brake. Note the cable is wrongly fitted.

Look at that shine! The bottom bracket was found to be in good nick and re-used with fresh ball bearings (loose, of course) and a liberal application of the good red grease we use.

The bike started life with steel rims. We don’t use these as they don’t let you stop in the rain, so new wheels are needed. The old hubs are fine, so Neil and Wullie build new wheels. In the background, Niall is preparing another part for re-assembly.

Filth. Disgusting muck, but underneath is good paint and no rust.

The basic inspection over, we strip the bike down.

The bike comes apart quite easily until we get to the handlebar stem. Here Wullie has clamped the fork in the vice (using bits of wood to protect it) and is using a steel handlebar to get leverage. Shortly after this picture was taken, the stem came free. If it hadn’t, we would have used destructive methods to get it out.

That’s it in bits. Time to start cleaning.

At Common Wheel, all adult bikes are completely dismantled and rebuilt before we sell them. This is the only way to guarantee the bike is perfect and safe to use. With children’s bikes, we don’t always do this if the bike if fairly new and little used.

This section follows the story of one bike.

The first stage is the customer contact. In this case the customer has been in before. She knows what we do, and we know how tall she is etc, so the order is taken over the phone and a price agreed.

Molly has chosen this sad looking Falcon Black Diamond. In it’s day, this was one of the better touring bikes. This one has plain gauge tubing and 26 inch wheels.

The bike is nearing completion. The rear brake has been replaced with a better one, the old freewheel reused and racks added. The mudguards have cleaned up beautifully, although we’ve had to do a bit of work on the fittings for the rear one.

The finished job united with it’s happy customer. Note the north road handlebars and matching red brake levers. Molly already has rear bags, so we only fitted the front ones.