| | Why not just get an old bike that was made the way they used to make them
On Fri, 04 Mar 2005 14:52:02 -0600, kituyjkm <fchg> wrote:
> Why not just get an old bike that was made
>the way they used to make them- you can pick one up out of a dumpster
>or pay $5 at a police auction. Then spend a few bucks on replacing
>the busted parts, or maybe even upgrading them and Voila! you have a
>Rivendell for about 1/100th - 1/10 th the cost.
>
>I am always amazed at how so many people will pay crazy prices for
>things they can easily do themselves for much lower cost.
I have bought and built up several steel bikes from thrift store 80's
framesets. I would not denigrate Rivendell by calling them equal
value, but they ride well, after a lot of work, and will most likely
last forever unless I abuse them.
Here's my adventure in getting a good lugged steel bike from Goodwill,
actually several, but beware I did *not* save a whole lot of money...
1. It took and still takes many trips and many hours hounding
Goodwill, Salvation Army etc to find a decent bike... many, many hours
and trips believe me. Luckily I live in a rust-free zone, that helps
a lot.
2. Then when I find a great one it is 4 cm too small for me... rats!
3. But I buy it anyway, no sense letting those good parts go to waste,
and heck it's only twenty bucks, forty bucks whatever.
4. So four too-small bikes later I finally find one in my size, wooo
hoo but now I have to build bike racks throughout the garage, up to
six bikes now counting the $1500 store-bought full-suspenson MTB just
to tide me over til I get my save-money road bike built.
5. Let's see, working on my like-new 1984 Peugeot, 501 steel, cool
chrome fork with neat panto on the sloping crown, new tires are
needed, they cost a bit of change, no way to use twenty year old
tires... oh oh can't use the extra 27" tires I bought for my
oldie-but-goodie Schwinn Le Tour... when the heck did they change to
this new-fangled 700c stuff?
6. Okay, a few bucks for a workstand and tools, couple hundred,
nothing fancy, so I can ...
7. Rebuild the BB and headset and hubs... Ooops, where did those
little bitty ball bearings go, under the workbench somewhere, damn,
off to Nashbar to buy ball bearings, might as well get a couple bags
of every size while I'm at it... oh and look at all that other neat
stuff, 'nother couple hundred, no sweat...
8. Like-new old Peugeot, 501 lugged steel, fairly long chainstays, all
ready to ride, monsieur, and it does ride great, but the shifting and
braking leaves a little to be desired... darn.
9. But wait! Trip #84 to Goodwill nets a cool Fila bike with
dual-pivot RSX brakes! And a pretty good crankset! And indexed
downtube shifters and deraillers! Of course frame's too small (how
come everyone who donates their bike to Goodwill is 5'4"?) So up go
the bikes on the workstand and trades are in order, now with new pads
and dual pivot brakes and indexed shifting I am riding and stopping
like mad on that fine Peugeot!
10. So far I've only spent about six hundred, so I have saved a lot,
and I also have accumulated (in my size)
10.1 a cool all-black 1987 Cannondale (27" wheels, brazeons for
touring, double but nicely geared for a light load, side-pulls that
would not stop for nothing til I put on some salmon Koolstops;
10.2 three Schwinns, one a good tourer that I ride on the canal trails
like an XC bike,
10.3 another a spare,
10.4 and the third a pretty clean and good looking fast bike from the
early days of indexed ders, with 700c wheels with pretty new 23mm
Vittorio tires.
10.5 a neat full DA bike from the days when the rear der was Crane
10.6 plus five good MTBs, a couple of which are comfort bikes, and
three hard-charging hardtails almost as good as my $1500 model.
....so, if I were someone whose time is money, my cheap bikes would
probably have so far cost me double or triple what a custom-built
Rivendell costs. And lots more than a Surly LHT which with a spare
set of wheels set up with different tires would no doubt fill all my
road bike needs.
I'm having fun, and I've learned a lot about how to differentiate
between a good old bike and something not worth a plugged nickel. Of
course I still dream that someone out there has a near-mint 1984 Trek
720 tourer or 1988 Schwinn Voyageur in 25" size that they will trade
for my 21" and 19" bikes.
But my wife says I have to stop saving money now, if I save any more
money we will be broke quick, besides the garage is completely full of
bikes, only one small path to get out, bikes two-high stacked to the
ceiling... maybe should donate some to Goodwill...
....but my biggest fear is I will inadvertently buy back from Goodwill
a good old bike I DONATED TO THEM!
--
John Mustarde
www.photolin.com
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