Another free bike - Oh, joy!

In article . net,
"Claire Petersky" wrote:

"Zoot Katz" wrote in message
...
Sat, 02 Oct 2004 23:20:23 -0700,
, Ryan Cousineau
wrote:

Rarely do I find worthwhile bikes at garage sales.

Last summer I was riding along, and saw a garage sale. Two beautiful Kleins
parked out front. I immediately stopped my bike and asked. Turns out they
were being ridden by other customers. Oh well.

As I pointed out, you have to hit a lot of garage sales to get good
stuff. For me, the one that got away was that I for some reason dithered
over buying an old rigid kid-sized Marin for $10. It was sold shortly
after.

As for what I left behind, yesterday I saw your basic appalling garage
sale bicycle: lady-framed off-brand rigid "mountain bike" with 6-speed
SIS, steel rims (no!), and stamped steel caliper brakes (I think the
brand was Nev-R-Stop). I declined the asking price of $20 after
determining that I didn't really need another set of 6-speed shifters.

--
Ryan Cousineau, http://www.wiredcola.com
Verus de parvis; verus de magnis.

"Claire Petersky" wrote: (clip) Turns out they were being ridden by other
customers.
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
I go to a lot of flea markets, and I have learned that if a bike has a
jacket on the rack, held with bungee cord, a water bottle, gloves and a
helmet hanging from the handlebar, and a cyclometer displaying current data,
chances are it's not for sale.

On Sat, 02 Oct 2004 23:20:23 -0700, Ryan Cousineau wrote:

and a
shedworn Motobecane with an all-french drivetrain

Nice find! I do love those curvaceous French forks.

On Sat, 02 Oct 2004 23:20:23 -0700, Ryan Cousineau wrote:

But Salvation Army? There's no hope.

The Drooling Brigade is often thin on bikes, but in Chicago, I always had
awesome luck with the Ark thrift stores.

Four years ago a found a red Ranger (made by Raleigh) with a three spring
Wright saddle (in perfect condition) for about ten bucks. The groovy
"rope script" decal on the chain guard was even intact.

I gave it to my buddy Tom for his fortieth and the sight of a sturdy
ex-marine tooling about on a kids bike (fit him well, he's shorter) with
no look of irony on his face was priceless.

"Claire Petersky" wrote in message
ink.net
"Zoot Katz" wrote in message
...
Sat, 02 Oct 2004 23:20:23 -0700,
, Ryan Cousineau
wrote:

Rarely do I find worthwhile bikes at garage sales.

Last summer I was riding along, and saw a garage sale. Two beautiful
Kleins parked out front. I immediately stopped my bike and asked.
Turns out they were being ridden by other customers. Oh well.

LOL!

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In article ,
maxo writes:
On Sat, 02 Oct 2004 17:05:13 -0700, Tom Keats wrote:

I just want to say: 'Thank you' to all the impatient mechanical klutzes
and frobnicators out there. Keep 'em coming.

I'm so envious! :P

Here in Nashville, it's next to never that you'll have such luck...

I think you might be surprised. Spotting discarded bikes in
back lanes/alleys takes a little attunement, like finding
edible wild mushrooms. But once you find one, others suddenly
become noticable. Also, abandoned stolen bikes. Similarly, if
you adopt someone's giveaway bike, suddenly other people start
offering theirs to you, too. Before ya know it, you're up to
your neck in old bikes. But there /is/ a lot of cycling going
on here in Vancouver. I don't know how Nashville is in that regard.

Bikes are such simple machines to fix. I just turned a
pile of rusty ebay bits into a super cool neighborhood bike for my mother.
Everything repacked, all new cables, chain and rubber. Total cost: under
150 USD and a lot niftier than something brand new.

Excellent! I hope she derives much pleasure from her new old ride.
I guess old bikes never really die.

I'm in the market for something similar to slap some slicks and fenders
onto, but even the thrift stores are spare, usually only having worthless
bent *mart bikes. I did luck out with my delightful Viscount that's a
great sporty daily rider, finding it at a Salivation Army.

If anybody in my part of the world wants to part with an old tourer, rigid
MTB, or decent three speed, let me know--I need a utility bike in a bad
way.

I think you'll luck in. Things seem to somehow work out in the end.


cheers,
Tom

--
-- Nothing is safe from me.
Above address is just a spam midden.
I'm really at: tkeats [curlicue] vcn [point] bc [point] ca

In article ,
(R15757) writes:
Tom Keats noted in part:

commuterizable


shudder

If you've got an honest
trail bike, build it up as such and ride
some trails.

BTDT. Then I got older, and I realized urban environs
have more appeal to me. I guess I'd rather just do a
bakery crawl, than do half-cartwheels on my bike down
some salmonberry infested single track.

I'm now on the lookout for another milk crate.


cheers,
Tom


--
-- Nothing is safe from me.
Above address is just a spam midden.
I'm really at: tkeats [curlicue] vcn [point] bc [point] ca

On Sun, 03 Oct 2004 15:08:29 -0700, Tom Keats wrote:

I'm now on the lookout for another milk crate.

Going straight for the gut eh? LOL

OH NO HE'S MILK CRATING A TRAIL BIKE!!!



I'm an urban cyclist as well, much more to see. Around here all the
wealthy riders or the ones with the flashiest gear, ride up and down a
tree lined boulevard in the tony part of town. Nothing to see but
McMansions. BO-ring. Me, I'd rather ride down some shadier city streets or
through our growing unofficial latin-American district. You find a lot
more cyclists there, though they're usually on *mart bikes (better than
in cars), people are more polite, and you can stop for a flan or a mango
paleta if exercise starts feeling too grim.

I know I've boasted about this one B4...

About 3 years back I rescued a Norco Kodiak (similar to your Mountaineer,
Tom) off a midden pile during spring cleaning. I was looking at the time
for some lighter wheels for an old Schwinn that I re-built from a wreck +
parts that had been dumped behind our house in Ladner.

Driving up 84th, doing about 55kph at around midnight (home from work on the
3-11PM shift), I spotted this bike on top of the heap and noticed it had
alloy rims...

Let me just admire that last sentence...THAT is how you know how much of a
bicycle enthusiast you a driving past at 55, in the dark, 10m + away and
you can STILL spot a set of alloy wheels...

Anyway TMALSS, the Norco became my primary ride, and the Schwinn had to wait
for new wheels until a friend of mine moved to a smaller place and could
only store 2 of his 3 bikes...

The Schwinn was sold off to an enterprising ticket scalper from
Montreal...Hi Harry!

The Norco was given away to a young Scout for a bike trip to Saltspring
Island last summer.

I'm currently riding a "hybrid" roadie that I built with bikes scored from
THIS years' spring cleanup...

Here is a college town. Students abandon bikes in large amounts. They
are usually locked outdoors, exposed to the elements for who-knows-how-long
before they are collected by the school administration. They are then piled
up together in outdoor storage and auctioned off. I saw quite some people
buy many these beaters -- I think it is a business for them.