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Free Bike!



 
 
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  #1  
Old March 23rd 07, 09:44 AM posted to rec.bicycles.misc
Tom Keats
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Posts: 100
Default Free Bike!

In article ,
Zoot Katz writes:
Nothing is free.

.....

While it's not "free" it's certainly a sweet and solid street machine
at a bargain.


I did pretty good, myself. Over the last summer I snagged
a number of put-out gimme bikes, all with combinations of
serious malfunctions and good parts.

I built up one good drop-bar'd streeter out of them.
The frame isn't much to write home about, but it steers
good & true, and has nicely sculpted lugs with the simplist
elegance of mission furniture. The top tube says "Road King"
and the down tube says "Seville." DT shifters. It had
chromed rims. That's okay, I also scored a Centurion roadie
with alloy wheels, so I overhauled those and installed 'em,
along with a beefier alu handlebar (foam grips) with which
to swap out the orig steel one with the tape peeling off.
The Centurion has a bent fork. It also had stem shifters
which I kicked off the stem, and then installed the handlebar
plus stem into Road King's headset. I also have an old Mercier
which has those lovey wide-flanged one-piece Suzue hubs (supporting
textured chrome rims.) I'll have to build wheels on those hubs one
of these days. The rest of the Mercier is, well, French. The
backwards threading, weird sizes and cottered cranks leave me cold.
Although I do appreciate good steel cranks.

I had a nice old Sakae standard BCD 5-bolter crankset kickin'
around, so I stuck that on, c/w a pair of nice KKD cage pedals.
I thought I might have to buy clips & straps, but I found some
spares in one of my parts drawers. The Road King came with
a rattail rear fender and wire rear rack. Maybe I'll reinstall
them. It also had a 7-speed freewheel (one of those Shimano
Magna-whatevers?) that was seized up. I had a 6-spd 14-28T
and its mated chain handy, so that's what makes it go now.

My cost -- a bunch of bike skeletal remains stashed in the
garage that I hope the landlady doesn't find out about before
I get rid of them.

The bike goes pretty fast. Maybe that's to do with the 52/42
ringset, lack of add-ons, and all the work I've invested into
goading Ol' Pig Iron along. I've dubbed it: "Crazy Daisy".

But heck -- a Miyata tourer is an excellent score!
Especially since it's your size.

Pedals & saddle are personal adjustments anyways,
even with a new bike.

Are you gonna keep the moustache bars, or revert to
the more traditional?

Remember the practice among some, to saw half the drops
off, invert the handlebar with the half-drops /up/ and
pointing back (as opposed to simply twisting a handlebar
the wrong way around, with the drops pointing forward,
and having the levers upside down) and remount the brake
levers & shifters, properly oriented?

Of course, that was before brake hoods were comfortable
to ride on, and before brifters.

Maybe that more upright position kept some folks from
riding up the backsides of parked cars ;-)


cheers,
Tom

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




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  #2  
Old March 23rd 07, 03:53 PM posted to rec.bicycles.misc
Daryl Hunt
external usenet poster
 
Posts: 134
Default Free Bike!


"Tom Keats" wrote in message
...
In article ,
Zoot Katz writes:
Nothing is free.

....

While it's not "free" it's certainly a sweet and solid street machine
at a bargain.


I did pretty good, myself. Over the last summer I snagged
a number of put-out gimme bikes, all with combinations of
serious malfunctions and good parts.


This weekend, My neighbor is coming over and we are building him up a bike
from my old spare parts. He's disabled and never has enough money. He
doesn't drive either. I asked him if he had a bike, would he ride it. He
said he would. I told him I would give him one. He wanted to find a way to
pay for it. I told him it was free and I would have to throw it out if he
didn't take it. He accepted. I just love the pride some of the disabled
folks have and try their damnedest not to get a free ride as much as
possible. So, we get him into a one year old mountain bike that I took off
the line because I got a better one. No charge, no money, good feeling all
the way around. And the look on his face is priceless.




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  #3  
Old March 24th 07, 05:23 PM posted to rec.bicycles.misc
Just A User
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Posts: 297
Default Free Bike!

Daryl Hunt wrote:
"Tom Keats" wrote in message
...
In article ,
Zoot Katz writes:
Nothing is free.

....

While it's not "free" it's certainly a sweet and solid street machine
at a bargain.

I did pretty good, myself. Over the last summer I snagged
a number of put-out gimme bikes, all with combinations of
serious malfunctions and good parts.


This weekend, My neighbor is coming over and we are building him up a bike
from my old spare parts. He's disabled and never has enough money. He
doesn't drive either. I asked him if he had a bike, would he ride it. He
said he would. I told him I would give him one. He wanted to find a way to
pay for it. I told him it was free and I would have to throw it out if he
didn't take it. He accepted. I just love the pride some of the disabled
folks have and try their damnedest not to get a free ride as much as
possible. So, we get him into a one year old mountain bike that I took off
the line because I got a better one. No charge, no money, good feeling all
the way around. And the look on his face is priceless.


Yeah there is something about helping someone out. And putting another
cycle on the road too. A few weeks ago I had a guy at work who killed
his Mustang and needed a way to get back and forth to work, he said he
had a bike but it was kind of old and didn't ride so well, so being
known as "the bike guy" he asked if I could look at it and maybe
"adjust" it for him, well it wasn't old, but needed lots of tlc, chain
and cassette were well past the worn stage, but the rest of the drive
line was in surprisingly good shape, the derailers needed adjustment and
the cables needed to be replaced, the brake pads were shot and those
cables needed to be replaced. So between what I had hanging around and
scouring the websites looking for a new cassette and chain, and a few
hours of work I managed to tune up his ride, and now he is a bike
commuter, and has said it's not that bad riding into work and he doesn't
miss driving all that much. I told him I used to do it all the time but
can't do it very often anymore. He has even talked about doing some
longer "fun" rides. But he is happy just to be able to get back and
forth to work without relying on others.

Ken
  #4  
Old March 24th 07, 05:39 PM posted to rec.bicycles.misc
nash
external usenet poster
 
Posts: 1,061
Default Free Bike!


"Daryl Hunt" wrote in message
...

"Tom Keats" wrote in message
...
In article ,
Zoot Katz writes:
Nothing is free.

....

While it's not "free" it's certainly a sweet and solid street machine
at a bargain.


I did pretty good, myself. Over the last summer I snagged
a number of put-out gimme bikes, all with combinations of
serious malfunctions and good parts.


This weekend, My neighbor is coming over and we are building him up a bike
from my old spare parts. He's disabled and never has enough money. He
doesn't drive either. I asked him if he had a bike, would he ride it. He
said he would. I told him I would give him one. He wanted to find a way
to pay for it. I told him it was free and I would have to throw it out if
he didn't take it. He accepted. I just love the pride some of the
disabled folks have and try their damnedest not to get a free ride as much
as possible. So, we get him into a one year old mountain bike that I took
off the line because I got a better one. No charge, no money, good
feeling all the way around. And the look on his face is priceless.




--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
I am using the free version of SPAMfighter for private users.
It has removed 5995 spam emails to date.
Paying users do not have this message in their emails.
Try SPAMfighter for free now!

Way to go you two.


 




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