Trash To Treasure | How To Fix Up An Old Bike

What would you check on a bike you found? Let us know below. 👇

Hey! I found one! I was walking down the street and I saw a pristine Cervelo S5 leaning up against a fence, obviously just discarded. The first step in restoring it was to cut off the U-lock the previous owner had put around it that was tangled up with the fence. There was a cable through the wheels, to. I came back with my cordless angle grinder and got them off pretty quickly. I didn't want to disturb anyone, so I waited until a truck had parked in front of the bike to help screen the noise. The tires were still full of air. I rode it home! Thanks GCN! This video made me realize how important it is to keep my eyes open for those 'hidden gems'. They're out there!

This was the best maintained “free bike” in the history of the bicycle. Nobody is ever that lucky.

So this should be called, "Hey look it's an old bike that's perfectly fine."

Hats off to Jon and GCN for promoting old bike restoration. The only thing I would add is encouragement to those who will find abandoned or cheap bikes, restore them, and donate them to the local bike rescue charity so that kids or adults get to enjoy a bike.

Hey Jon, Are you sure it wasn't your wife that was trying to get rid of an old bike from your own attic?

I wish they would take this concept and do a competition like their cheap ebay bikes awhile back. Everyone finds a bike out of the trash or thrifting or ebay, they show what each one needs to get working, show how they can be fixed cost effectively, do whatever challenges, and best bike per pound gets the win.

This is pretty much what happened to me, there was spring cleaning here where i'm at and this older guy was getting rid of his entire collection, I was 15 at the time and had little money so I would go around this time of year and see if there were bikes being left out. This older man had a old spray painted frame he was giving away, along with a groupset in a box that I didn't know about at the time. So I picked it up and did my research. Turns out it was a '81 SR gran course and the groupset he gave me in the box was an old shimano 600 arabesque groupset. Put the bike together, and freshened it up with some new pads, chain and a good cleaning and painted it. For me being that young it feels good to find a rescue bike and give it life. I'm 27 years old now and I still have the bike. Good memories.

Always check if the seat post and stem are not stuck. If one or both of these components is corroded in place you might be looking at significantly more work to get the bike to fit you properly. Not a deal breaker but for sure will alert you to future headaches.

What a peach of a find - you're lucky to find a Reynolds 531ST sticker on it! I have a v small cycle business which is mainly concerned with fixing up this sort of bike, often in about this sort of condition, often quite a lot worse. There are some good tips there, but I don't think you went far enough! That bottom bracket is probably all dry and crusty - for reliability and in the interests of preserving the components, you'd be better off dismantling it, cleaning it and re-packing it with fresh grease. Same with the headset, which TBH in my exprience anyway, don't tend to suffer much from pitting, but more from the bearing races failing and falling apart. There ain't usually enough torque going through a headset to seriously damage the bearing surfaces if you think about it. With the wheels, you can't really tell what the bearings are like by spinning the wheel - at the edge of a wheel, you get too much mechanical advantage to feel anything. Much better to remove the wheel from the bike and spin the axle. I bet they're rough! Just like the BB - dismantle, clean and re-grease. You can also then satisfy yourself that there's no pitting or failed bearings. Also check spoke tension, by the sound of the spokes when you ping them if you don't have a spoke tension guage. Cables-wise, I think it's a false economy to keep the old ones or bother to lubricate them. They're so cheap and make such a difference - just replace them. Old cables stretch in use anyway (they don't just get longer over time, but become stretchy like elastic) so new ones will give a much more positive feel. Brake blocks and wheel rims: check both and note that on vintage rims without wear indicators, rim wear can be hard to detect. The brake blocks are probably hardened with age and for a few quid change them. Finally, treat the brake pivot bolts, chain and derailleurs to a bit of lubrication, even if you can't be bothered to clean them up. Send me your bike and I'll have it feeling like new again ;-) Cheers, Simon (of Kinglite Cycles)

Cup and cone bearings are great! Service them regularly and they will last forever. If I intended to ride the bike, I would disassemble, clean, grease, and adjust all bearings - BB, hubs, headset, and pedals. Clean and lube the pivots in the brakes and derailleur. Also, changing the brake and derailleur cables to new stainless steel ones will make everything smoother.

First HD footage of a Suntour Accushift system functioning correctly.

I hang out at a bike co-op, so I've done this a lot. I usually repack the bearings, even if they feel ok, because grease is cheap and you can (almost) never have to much grease. I also change the brake pads, as those are close to 30 years old and are hard as rocks. New cables and housing always, unless I'm feeling really cheap. If I do just lube the cables, I use molybdenum powder in the form of Dri-Slide. I also remove the chain and and give it a thorough cleaning and lubing, although if it's a personal bike I wax it (1/2 hour in ~250F wax + Teflon).

Next video should be "GCN presenters go cyclotouring on old bikes"

Throughout my working career people that I have worked with have asked how they could get a good bike to ride for a reasonable price. I would agree to help out and after finding a good deal at a garage sale or something like that. After new tires and tubes, maybe a new chain. Most of these bikes ended up hanging in a garage for years living their second life the same as their first life. As they say, "You can lead a horse to water".

But as you said, Jon, this bike was in pretty good shape all things considered. How about taking a classic that's REAL rough and restoring that? Or even modernizing it a bit, say downtube shifters to STI levers or something. Loved the video BTW!

This is what I love about GCN is you never look down at older bikes and bikes riders are so proud of, and you personally inspire them... In other words, you are not modern, hi-tech snobs (even though your dam good at it), Ha ha ha haha. You guys have real golden hearts, keep up your wonderful work.

I can't believe Jon didn't go into the bearings. I have reconditioned many old bikes, and the first thing I do is all the bearings. I got an old Trek for my wife at a thrift shop. I paid $5 for for it. When I got it home, I got into it, and was pleasantly surprised that it had been well taken care of. Always, always repack all the bearings.

John's bike collection is so vast, he didnt even realise that this was actually his own bike that his wife/partner had removed from the loft to try and make a bit of extra space. ;)

Great video, my bike is an older one so really enjoyed seeing GCN giving some classic/vintage rides the spotlight in a vid.