what was that? is that all there is? who is this? this is it.

can you find 14 differences between these two photos?  the dream of the 90s is alive in Rainier Beach. I know a guy that knows a guy who's wife dropped this bike in my garage and said "can you tune it up?" and I thought "are you fucking kidding me?"     but I said "how do you feel about those handlebars?"  I'm pretty sure I can make this bike a bit more comfortable for every day just riding along and I pulled a few parts out of my back pocket and slapped them on and when I say a few I mean a riser bar  thumb shifters  brake levers  el diablos  a smaller chainring and cables & housing and a 27.2 post to replace the 27.0 that was in there with the binder bolt mashed to the max bottomed out and then she said she wants to pull a kid trailer around the neighborhood and it's all downhill from here so she wants some low low low gears and I said "I don't have all that in my back pocket right now"... but it is possible with a triple crank up front then change the BB spindle length and of course the front derailleur and the rear derailleur and the cassette too and toss in a new chain or you could just buy a used mountain bike and could I interest you in a lock? lights? a helmet? fenders? a rack? bottle cages? a computer? a bell? gloves? a jacket? a cycling cap? frame pump? tire levers? a patch kit? multi-tool? saddle bag? 

8 Comments

Saddle angle, seatpost, handlebar, pumped up rear tire, chainring, rear derailleur cable, rear derailleur housing, rear brake cable, rear brake cable housing, thumbshifters, front derailleur cable, front derailleur cable housing, brake levers, front brake cable (not the housing though, looks like you scavenged that off the rear derailleur). That's how i see it anyway.

right on. but that front brake housing is silver sparkle rainbow as seen on department store kids bikes.

Also, it should be said that your version of the bike makes way more sense. Good looking bike, it's got your stamp all over it. Nice work Mark.

I learned today that this bike did RAGBRAI in 2006 and a triathlon a few years later and then in started collecting dust.

Frogs for front and rear derailleur, saddle back a bit, pink(!) rear and front derailleur and front brake cable caps (nice touch), fixed front QR orientation, water bottle cage to proper location, stem raised, pumped up front tire, grips, adjusted front derailleur down to match new chainring, changed rear quick release (at least drive side nut), and I betchya a beer you lubed the chain. That's what I see from here. Hopefully, you can repurpose the old handlebars into a Halloween costume. Most importantly for her, you turned a toy into a tool.

Alistair and Dr 37 your amazing attention to detail surprises me but only for just a split second and then I realize we're on the same page. literally. philosophically. former messengeringly and bike ridingly and other ways I might not even realize yet. I did replace the rear QR skewer because the old one was stripped out and with a few more megapixels you'd see protruding from the driveside a superfluous 4mm that I haven't hacked off yet.

that unsightly spoke protector is still there because I didn't really mess with the drivetrain yet. If she goes full-on triple crank wide range cassette with two new derailleurs that busted faded plastic disk will surely come off.

I just picked up a black one of those. Apparently same vintage as parts match. When I went to pick it up I found the D/S dropout was broken. This weekends project paint stripping and firing up the torch. Keep up the good work.

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