Saturday, June 7, 2008
Monday, June 2, 2008
Friday, May 30, 2008
Scavenging
I think I have a problem!
I can't walk away from a bike. I saw this Schwinn, in cranberry like color in a local CL ad and took a ride to visit the seller. In person, the bike was much worse than the picture. It has corrosion or pitting on all Aluminum parts from salt water, because the previous owner said he used it on a trip to the Acadia National Park. It is a Schwinn Frontier.
Still, I bought it. I ignored that it was a ladies bike, too. My wife has a brand new Huffy 5 speed comfort bike. She is happy with that. She does not like more gears than that.
I cleaned it up and at least it rides good and feels lighter than the MGX. Took it to work a couple of times so far.
That was a few weeks ago.
A few months ago, I spotted a bike in Costco parking lot. It was locked to a handicap parking sign pole. Someone had already taken off the rear wheel and the cable casings are coming apart. Some plastic stuff is broken, too. Couple of weeks of followup with Costco and now the bike is home. A nice guy in the parking lot saw me struggling and helped me lift the bike up to get the cable off the pole.
Took off the rear rack, put it on the Schwinn mentioned above.
Took off the fork, the main part I was interested in, painted it with red Rustoleum paint and it should fit the MGX S20, which is sitting forkless, like a horse that needs to be put away. It will make an interesting site. Orange bike with red fork.
Harvested a cable for locking the bike from the Costco bike, too. BTW, it was a GT Windstream. Has nice upswept handlebars, too, which may go on the Miyata someday, to make it a comfortable touring bike.
I can't walk away from a bike. I saw this Schwinn, in cranberry like color in a local CL ad and took a ride to visit the seller. In person, the bike was much worse than the picture. It has corrosion or pitting on all Aluminum parts from salt water, because the previous owner said he used it on a trip to the Acadia National Park. It is a Schwinn Frontier.
Still, I bought it. I ignored that it was a ladies bike, too. My wife has a brand new Huffy 5 speed comfort bike. She is happy with that. She does not like more gears than that.
I cleaned it up and at least it rides good and feels lighter than the MGX. Took it to work a couple of times so far.
That was a few weeks ago.
A few months ago, I spotted a bike in Costco parking lot. It was locked to a handicap parking sign pole. Someone had already taken off the rear wheel and the cable casings are coming apart. Some plastic stuff is broken, too. Couple of weeks of followup with Costco and now the bike is home. A nice guy in the parking lot saw me struggling and helped me lift the bike up to get the cable off the pole.
Took off the rear rack, put it on the Schwinn mentioned above.
Took off the fork, the main part I was interested in, painted it with red Rustoleum paint and it should fit the MGX S20, which is sitting forkless, like a horse that needs to be put away. It will make an interesting site. Orange bike with red fork.
Harvested a cable for locking the bike from the Costco bike, too. BTW, it was a GT Windstream. Has nice upswept handlebars, too, which may go on the Miyata someday, to make it a comfortable touring bike.
Friday, May 9, 2008
BarebonesBicycling
This will be an ongoing journal of keeping a couple of bicycles equipped and running for commuting a short distance and for self-contained touring.
The bikes I have are
- A MGX S20 MTB. It was bought from a big chain store to replace an aging Kent Terra old school 10 speed MTB, a bad decision in hindsight as the Kent was very comfortable. The MGX has a fork recall (Ballistic fork) and I am looking to replace the recalled fork with an unsprung plain MTB fork from a cheap MTB.
- A Miyata Twenty road bike I bought recently, in nearly mint condition. This will need to be equipped for the self-contained touring.
I think I need to add fenders to the MTB, besides the fork and a rear or front rack to hold my lunch bag.
To the road bike, I want to add rear and front racks, panniers, fenders and a whole bunch of stuff needs to be collected too, e.g., spare tire and tube, puncture kit, frame pump, tent, sleeping bag, etc.
Barebones Bicycling
The bikes I have are
- A MGX S20 MTB. It was bought from a big chain store to replace an aging Kent Terra old school 10 speed MTB, a bad decision in hindsight as the Kent was very comfortable. The MGX has a fork recall (Ballistic fork) and I am looking to replace the recalled fork with an unsprung plain MTB fork from a cheap MTB.
- A Miyata Twenty road bike I bought recently, in nearly mint condition. This will need to be equipped for the self-contained touring.
I think I need to add fenders to the MTB, besides the fork and a rear or front rack to hold my lunch bag.
To the road bike, I want to add rear and front racks, panniers, fenders and a whole bunch of stuff needs to be collected too, e.g., spare tire and tube, puncture kit, frame pump, tent, sleeping bag, etc.
Barebones Bicycling
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