Bret Van Horn Dot Org

Quick update tonight: Took a little time to remove the cranks, which came off pretty easily and look to be in great condition. Bottom bracket looks more and more sad the more I unearth it, however. More rust keeps appearing and it’s making some awfully suspicious grinding sounds. I tried to remove it, but the [...]

I blogged about disassembling the Bianchi over the weekend and finding not only a cocoon in the brake lever, but also a wasp nest inside of the bars, which had been plugged for a number of years. Last night, as I was polishing some of the chrome, I noticed on the top bar, very faintly, [...]

With my DIY bike stand completed and a couple hours of free time on my hands this morning, I donned my best grease outfit and braved the garage to begin the disassembly of the vintage bike project. I got most everything stripped off the bike and sorted into ziploc bags, with the exception of the [...]

First, I knew better. I should have stayed inside and rested. You see, this odd summer cold has stricken me and my family this week and I felt rather low all day today, what with the throat burning and the coughing and the tiredness. But I felt like I hadn’t made any progress and had [...]

To the casual newcomer here, one might assume I haven’t logged much time on bikes, but quite the contrary, I’ve been into bikes my whole life. I’ve always loved the feeling of flying down an open road on a bike. It’s just that in recent years, I’ve been, um, busy with life and have not [...]

I’m not entirely sure how long it took me to accept the facts that I’m now a parent and that my life has significantly changed in many ways as a result. But when it did sink in, it hit me hard. I realized that much of my freedom was not, in fact, going to return [...]

I had promised myself I’d get back to the Washougal International Film Festival before it left, and the morning after attending my wife’s surreal high school reunion (more on that another day), I decided I needed a quick break. My mission was to catch Clones Gone Wild!, which I was politely asked to check out [...]

When I decided to take on the restoration of this vintage Bianchi, I quickly realized I was grossly under-equipped for the task at hand. Not only am I lacking experience in the ways of bike repair fu, but I don’t have a decent set of bike-specific tools. Nevermind the fact that I have nowhere to [...]

When I heard that there’s an actual International film festival just down the street from my house I promised myself I’d make it at least once to check things out. I have to say, I’m really excited that Breven Angaelica Warren has put this whole thing together and is attempting to bring some culture to [...]

So I’m looking at my tools and realizing I don’t have much in the way of bike tools. Looking online, there are a lot of options, from smaller “essentials” type kits, to full on retirement-fund-cashing-out master mechanic kits. What I need to know is, well, what do I need? In the short term, I need [...]