Another free bike - Oh, joy! - Cycling Mob: Road Cycling, Mountain Biking and More

10-02-2004, 05:05 PM

I recently acquired a thrown-away, rigid forked Norco Mountaineer --
the Paragon of 'sensible', commuterizable MTBs. Apparently its
previous ward had monkeyed around with it more than they knew how
to fix. The chain was threaded wrongly through the rear der, which
blew the shifting all to hell. One spoke on the non-drive side
of the rear wheel appeared to be broken; someone had bent and
twisted it around some adjacent spokes to keep it out of the way.
On closer examination the spoke wasn't broken at all. Someone
had undone, and presumably lost, its nipple. A cheap-o DT straight
gauge replacement spoke fixed that. The (V) brakes were way out
of whack and non-functional because of slack cables and horribly
untrue wheels. A little adjustment & wheel truing, and now they're
wonderfully positive.

With all these small but cumulatively incapacitating malfunctions
the bike was left out in previous owner's back lane next to the
garbage cans for whomever would take it. I would dare to presume
the previous owner became frustrated at his inability to restore
the bike to operational condition, and just wanted to get the damn
thing out of his sight. I was happy to oblige.

A scant 4 years ago, discarded bikes were mostly Bike Boom
"10-speeds" and prototypical MTBs (with the old fashioned
centre-pull canti brakes.) Now it seems we're up to Shimano
SIS grip shifters and V-brakes. Maybe in another 4 years we'll
be up to Marzocchi Bombers and Magura disc brakes.

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

It's such a pretty bike. Red up front, fading to black stays in
the back. And black-&-white lizard scales on the drive-side
chainstay (I dunno if it's paint or a decal; I haven't looked
that closely at it.) So I think I'l name it 'Diana', after the
live-rat-eating, femme fatale antagonist in the old TV sci-fi
series: 'V'. Besides, it's got V brakes.

cheers,
Tom

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