Bicycle Repair

As we progress through our economic collapse, I notice more and more people using bicycles. And not the spandex wearing health nuts, but people obviously using bikes to commute or run errands. As fuel prices increase (and they will more than likely increase under the current administration),  more and more of us will be using bikes for short errands.

I recently had a problem with my bike--it developed a grinding noise while peddling. Taking apart the crank mechanism, I discovered that I needed a new one of these:

... a bracket bearing for the crank shaft. There are two--one on each side--one of which had completely burst apart. I had an older bike that I had kept for some spare parts, but it turned out that the parts I needed were incompatible. I bought a couple new bearing brackets, and kept the old one that was still good as a spare. However, it made me realize that there are certain spare parts that I need to set aside for repairing a bike beyond tires and tubes. Some parts will simply have to be scavanged or traded for, such as wheels, because buying extras would be prohibitively expensive. Casting about for advice on bicycling forums, I came across this one that seems to have some good comments as to standard parts to keep on hand.