This is one of those projects where I wish I'd kept better notes and photos, because it was pretty fascinating to me....
In spring 2001 a friend learned I'd been renovating old bikes and asked if I'd look at his daughter's bike. His daughter has some issues with mobility, so the bike in question was a handcycle. I'd never heard of a handcycle, let alone put a wrench to one, but was I going to let that stop me? No, I was not.
When it came to me, it had been sitting in the back corner of a warehouse for some time, and that time had not been good it it. Aside from a thick coating of dust, it appeared someone may have backed a forklift into the front wheel. In addition, chemicals in the air at the factory had attacked the metal parts.
The starting point for this project. Dirty and neglected, but sound.
On the other hand, the paint was still good and it was sound and not overly rusty. It would clean up.
Before I tore into it, I took a minute to familiarize myself with handcycles. Essentially they're sort of a trike, using wheelchair back wheels, coupled with a combination steerer/crankset operated by the rider's hands to provide forward propulsion. So there are lots of off-the-shelf bike parts coupled with off-the-shelf wheelchair parts, all used in interesting new ways and mixed in with some bespoke custom stuff to make it all work.
The crank is a pretty standard 110BCD square-taper triple crank. Looked a bit like a Sugino to me, but it wasn't marked. A very tiny chainring is bolted to the inner mounting point. You can also make out the vertically-mounted brake lever, which is set up to act as a parking brake.
For the most part, this was a straightforward refurbishment, with a few twists. All the normal stuff you'd buy for a bike refurb was just a bit different. For example, the tires were wheelchair tires, which I had to track down a good source to find. Eventually I discoverd sportaid.com, who have everything one could want for a high-performance wheelchair, including some nice tires.
One thing I learned: wheelchair tires run at very high pressure and they are very hard to seat on the rim. I think I broke a half-dozen tire irons.
The chain was also a bit quirky. Because of the length of travel from the hand cranks to the front wheel, I had to buy two chains and merge them together.
The front wheel had a big flat problem.
The front wheel had taken a pretty bad hit, and I didn't trust the rim to be solid anymore. I lucked out and found a New Old Stock Sun CR18 rim that matched the stock rims nearly perfectly. Score! This was before I learned to lace rims myself, though, so I had a local shop lace swap over the stock Shimano internal-geared hub to the new rim. They did a great job.
Speaking of that Shimano hub, they're not for the faint of heart, even for someone like myself who's experienced with Sturmey-Archer 3-speed hugs. Luckily I just need to re-lube it and it and give a good cleaning. It worked beautifully.
Reassembly. That big bracket on the fork is for two chain idler pulleys. The chain is that long.
A lot of the work was pretty normal, though: disassemble, clean, lube, re-assemble. In spite of the surface corrosion the bike cleaned up well and as it came back together it looked nearly like new.
Finished!
So what's it like to ride? It's work. The 8-speed hub and small chainring help, but even if you enjoy cycling, this is a whole different set of muscles. But it's also a lot of fun.
Most important, the owner loved having her bike back so she could go for a ride whenever she wanted, on her own terms.
And isn't that what it's all about?
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