March 2011 Podcast - Margaret Day
This is the story of a bicycle, my bicycle. It’s a ruby red coloured touring bike called a Sierra and, in bike years, is much older than me and has seen more of the world. It’s my bicycle now but it was someone else's once.
This story starts for me only a few weeks before last Christmas but began for Margaret Day 25 years before. Margaret is known to many in the Adelaide cycling community for her many years of enthusiasm for cycling locally, he 36 years or so of involvement with The Bicycle Institute of South Australia, and touring to many fantastic locations around the world - many on this ruby red Sierra. In late November the Bikes For Refugees group held one of their occasional garage sales to sell off some bike surplus to their needs with he process going to buy parts to fix bikes up for use in the refugee community. I went not wanting or needing to buy another bike but when I saw the Sierra in my size, it’s unmissable generator powered front headlight I was interested. Jeremy Miller, Chair of BISA, said “that’s Margaret Day’s custom made touring bike, it’s seen a lot of miles pushed through those pedals”, my interested was caught, then he added “it’s your size too”. How would I walk away now.
I had been reading Robert Penne’s book ‘It’s All About the Bike’. It’s the story of one journey to design and build a dream bike and I thought about how much passion might have gone into getting a custom made bike and then riding it on some amazing touring adventuers. I did actually go away to think about fitting another bike in my shed but contacted Mike Brisco from Bikes for Refugees, also a long time BISA member, and said I wanted to buy the bike “to save a piece of Adelaide cycling history” from being turned into a fixie or just being used by someone who didn’t appreciate the what building a custom made bike means.
This podcast from Adelaide Cyclists and The Bicycle Institute, SA is a bit of a selfish one from me. I wanted to tell this story and record Margaret telling the story of the bicycle and her involvement in cycling in South Australia with The Bicycle Institute and her touring the world by bike.
Today Margaret and her husband still ride. I don’t want to assume their ages but their energy belies their ages.. Since 1996 when the Sierra was retired from world touring they chose to ride Bike Friday folding bikes on their trips - including from Adelaide to Perth across the Nullabor. As you’ll hear they are very excited proponents of the US designed and made Bike Fridays which worldwide has quite a cult following.
About the Sierra. I neglected to ask Margaret what year it was made. She told me later by email it was 1993 by Sam Pearson at what was known as Pulteney St Cycles. Since acquiring the bike that after a bit of a clean up I realised was in perfect working order, I’ve replaced the handlebars that were too narrow for me with some donated randonneur bars (thanks to Sam Powrie) and with them new brake levers (Tektro Campagnolo copies) to replace and new bar tape. The saddle is now a Brook B17 narrow (thanks Jim Woods). The lights front and back are generator powered. The dynamo being under the bottom bracket and switched in to touch the rear wheel under the rear stays. It did work but soon stopped and thanks to some explanation from Andrew Yip I worked out the generator was kaput and, again, thanks to Sam Powrie I replaced it with a new one. During the heavy rains a few weeks ago the noise from the bearings got very loud and they certainly weren’t rolling so well so a repacking of the read hub and bottom bracket’s grease was needed and what a difference that made. New cables were a given but I held out doing the gear cables for a few weeks and when I did I couldn’t believe the difference it made - these being friction bar end shifters not indexed. I’ve taken off the warning arm as well. Finally I put Michelin World Tour 27X32 tyres in on which are quite a fat tyre but suits my commutes down Linear Park. Still to be done: I want to replace the mudguards with some new matched ones -- replacing the half and half patch up job as you’ll hear in the interview.
As for the paintwork. It seems obvious when restoring a bike you’d get it repainted but I am resisting doing it. Firstly because the decals can’t be replaced easily but making it all shiny and nice makes it more likely to be stolen and as it is my main commuter bike that gets ridden to the city etc this is not what I want to happen. There is a clear lacquer than can be sprayed on the frame to protect it from more knocks and rust but that would still mean stripping it down so again a job for the future.
If anyone knows anything about Sierras, Sam Pearson or Pulteney St Cycles drop me a line. I did happen to see another Sierra, a blue ‘racer’ on Frome Rd a couple of weeks ago.
