Tom Keats wrote:
In article ,
"Kevin" writes:
Just curious... :-) It looks more like an ebay store front.

I've just passed the 8th anniversary of my
stewardship of my main bike -- an old-skool
MTB that somebody discarded at the closure
of our last public transit strike.

The only "original" parts remaining since
I got the bike are the frame (even the
fork is a replacement) and the Sugino AT
crankset.

Last week I dropped $40 for a new rear wheel
c/w screw-on freewheel hub. It's a nondescript,
single-wall-rim'd, straight-gauge-spoked li'l
beauty. I was lucky to find something with
a threaded hub. The outer walls on double-walled
rims wear from braking just as quickly as single
wall rims.

The front wheel rim is getting fairly worn,
so I might buy an whole new front wheel this
weekend. Since I'm doing 40 hour work weeks,
[re]building wheels eats into my precious riding
time. And maybe I'll look into obtaining either
a taller stem (one where the front brake cable
stop is an hole bored right through the thing)
or a riser handlebar.

I've thought about getting a new bike; maybe
a DaVinci Umbria or something like, but my
current whip has served me well and faithfully,
and I've become rather fond of it, and respectful
of its perserverance. It's always there for me.
It's gotten me home while I was in dire straits,
and it's gotten me away from dire straits at home.
Besides, I like having threaded eyelets for everything,
a rigid fork, and old style cantilever brakes & levers.
It's easier to fit fenders around old style canti brakes
than V-brakes, and old style canti brake levers just feel
good to me. And 18 speeds/x-over gearing inc. granny is
generally more than sufficient for my needs.

I bought a new rubber bulb horn for it last week, too.

Maybe I'll paint the frame when (if) the weather
becomes conducive. I think I and the bike would
like something '60s-ish psychedelic.


cheers,
Tom

Yes. Most of us are probably out riding when we can.