Jan Oranje July 22nd, 2010
Jan Oranje, originally uploaded by m hoek.
Thinking that I was finally out of the woods with repairs on my new(ish) bike, we set out to name him last night. After reviewing of some suggestions that we got from an earlier post and incorporating our desire to give it a proper first and last name (like Petunia Chanel for instance) we decided on: Jan Oranje.
Jan Oranje is a Nice Phoenix brand roadster style bicycle. This is a good Dutch name on a not so good Chinese bike. To date, I’ve already had to overhall the brake system going from an old rod system up to a combo of coaster and caliper brake. Doing this, of course, required that I get new wheels since the 28″ steel 40-hole Westwood rims are not compatible with a darn thing. Unfortunately, in abandoning the 28″ wheels I also had to forgo using the very nice cream tires that I had purchased before understanding that the entire wheel would have to go. I should be able to swap them out for the tires that are currently on my Batavus Favorite so it isn’t all for naught. The 27″ wheels that replaced them are a decent fit in the fender and the white wall tires have a nice clean look to them so it’s all good.
New retro style battery operated LED lights replaced the dynamo that came with it, soft orange rubber grips replaced the hard plastic grips that didn’t fit my hands, and a sturdy orange cargo rack was been added to the front. Jimmy from Rollin Cycles set up the new brakes so that the original rod brake system could stay in place – just for looks.
…and after all this, the cotter cranks failed on me during my ride to work this morning. I was not more than a mile in when I pedaled and one pedal went the other stayed in place. Now they are both pointing straight down instead of be 180 degrees from each other as they are supposed to be. Luckily this only stranded me a few blocks from the metro and I was able to lock-it up and only be a few minutes late for work. This afternoon I’ll go pick him back up and walk back to Rollin Cycles to get him under the “knife” again.
This cheap Chinese bike is looking to be more of a Lemon than an Orange.
tags: bicycle, DC
3 Responses
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July 22nd, 2010 at 1:16 pm
Nice to meet you Jan!
July 22nd, 2010 at 1:53 pm
Now Jan! U B good bike!
July 23rd, 2010 at 9:28 am
that’s why you dont buy commie bikes! USA! USA! USA!!
looks pretty though in its mao red….