I started a new position at work. And I have been finding myself walking everywhere; 2-3 miles a day. While that’s great for my health, it’s wasting time. So I went into the local bike shop and asked if he had any beater bikes. The owner takes me down to the basement to look through his stash of used trade-ins. He showed me a few that were my size and I settled on this one.
My initial inspection had the bike looking pretty good. The saddle was spun and I had to manage the quill post. It’s not the easy to adjust like modern ones. The wheels were fairly true and the brakes didn’t rub. But the shifting was real bad.
I replaced the rubber and adjusted the deraileurs. And it was rideable. It had old thin bar tape. The hoods were dry-rotted. I peeled all that off and installed new. If you going that far you might as well change out the cables also, why not.
The original pedals she came with were needing toe clips and straps. I returned to the bike shop and he had these modern cheapos. In the future, I’d love to get some metal toe clips with leather straps that match the hoods. The ones from Velo Orange would be fantastic. I’d even consider the leathers. But I have to remember that this bike will spend lots of time outdoors. Fortunately my employer has bike parking very close to my office. So it could be outside for weeks at a time.
This bike was in such great shape when I got it. Even the pie plate was still intact. All I did was add some grease in the right splots, cleaned it up, and added a few new bits to spruce it up. It rides like a dream. Who knows, maybe I’ll take it for a longer spin one weekend. Or maybe even a charity ride or two.
I couldn’t be happier with this bike. For buzzing around at work to save the boss some time, it’s perfect.
Chris Sussmann 
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