Cycle Repairing and Adjusting
With a Chapter on building a Bicycle from a Set of Parts

32 CYCLE REPAIRING Cleaning the Frame.—Frequently the frame enamel is spoilt owing to careless cleaning. If mud has hardened on it, sponge this off before polishing with a soft cloth. The use of a dry cloth or stiff brush on the mud usually removes a little of the enamel. Repairing Front Fork.—To repair a front fork that has been bent sideways in a collision, remove the wheel and fork from the machine, heat one blade at a time, and bend it back into its proper place. Hold the fork by the steering tube in the vice and pull the blade by hand. Treat the other blade in the same way, and see that the fork ends are at the correct distance apart to suit the hub. The blade should be heated with a gas blowpipe ; no very great heat is necessary, just a suspicion of redness at the worst part of the bend being wanted. Place a straight piece of rod through the spindle holes, and another piece across the blades just below the crown. These two pieces of rod, when looked at from the top of the steering tube, should be parallel. Now replace the wheel in the fork, with the rim quite central therein, and with a straightedge on the sides of the rim test the steering tube for being central. Ball Head Clicking.—The usual cause of the ball head of a bicycle clicking when riding is that the bottom ball-race has become indented by the balls, caused by the road shocks ; or one or more of the balls may be dented or chipped ; or the steering or fork tube may be cracked, and the click caused by the edges of the crack rubbing together. Well clean the bearing races, balls, and tube, and then thoroughly inspect. If the clicking is not due