The Perils of FB marketplace- Giant Allegre road bike (1993 or 94)

 

The combination of boredom and FB marketplace (or CL) is a dangerous thing.  

Hmm  This Giant Roadbike has been on FB for 3 weeks wonder if its still available? (It was).  

$150 seems high I wonder if they would take $100.  (they would)

40 miles away is far but with COVID traffic I bet I could make good time (I did)

There is a great burger and beer place out that way I wonder if they are open for eating in (they were I did - yum)

I could just clean up the Giant, post with better marketing and double my Money in this crazy market - easy peasy ( I need to stop listening to this guy he doesn't know a thing!)

So I might have picked up a bike to flip.  Only I don't think its going to be as easy as I though it might be.  The picture at the top was what I had to work with, upon closer inspection I see the following areas to address and I haven't put it in the workstand yet:

• Needs new tires, might be able to use the one I have left over from the Allez
• The brake hoods are shot, finding new ones that fit and don't cost a kings ransom could be tough,
• There is tape on the seat post that I *think* is just marking the insert line but could mean the post is too small.
• Lots of sticker and tape residue on the frame so the clean up is going to harder than I first thought.
• Front wheel needs to be trued.

The good.

• Lugged steel frame
• Chrome fork which I really like
• Seat post and stem are NOT stuck 
• Campy 8 speed Ergo drive train which intrigues me and may add "cachet" when I list it.
• Its all there.

Next week when I am done with the Univega I will see what I can do with the Giant to get it sale worthy while the sun still shines.   I will look more closely at the serial number but it has an interesting mix of Shimano RX100 brakes and front hub (93) and Campy shifters, derailleurs, rear hub etc. (94).  Also the rear rim is super areo and the front is standard for the time.  I won't be bored lol.

Ride. Smile. Repeat.

State of the Fleet during a crazy bike market

 I currently have six bikes, which for one guy seems like too many and since we are at the vortex of a crazy bike market and about 5 weeks left of summer if I was going to sell something now would be the time.  Does any arrow in my quiver really need to get sold???

1989 Specialized Allez.

For many reasons the Allez isn't going anywhere.   I just got the shifting sorted so I can ride it.  I have been wanting one for years and the guy who gave me such a great deal on the bike in the first place hasn't had a chance to ride it yet due to the Pandemic.  I am guessing I could get some nice $$ for it but have no desire to sell it.

1978 Motobecane Grand Touring.

On the one hand this bike really only gets ridden to the French bakery, as it was above.  On the other hand I looked for years for a Grand Touring in my size and spent allot of time and effort refurbishing the bike and it is my most stock vintage bike.   Cold logic says I should sell it but I am sure I would regret it immediately so it is staying for now.  

1987 Nishiki Cresta GT

I spent so much $$ and time on this bike I see no way I could get my $$ back even in this crazy market and I like it and want to ride it more.  In addition with the replacement fork I could never advertise it as stock.  I just need to ride this one as its not going anywhere.   And I have a set of fenders to put on it.

2009 Handsome Devil

This is the workhorse, you can't sell the workhorse can you?  I mean there is allot of overlap with the HD and other bikes but I am just not sure I could get enough for it to feel good about selling it.  And I have some ideas that with a set of new tires, bar tape, a wolfs tooth for the derailleur hanger and a 11-40t 9 speed cassette this bike would have a new lease on life.

1987 Trek 520 Cirrus

Ok, this bike I did actually try to sell at the I don't really want to sell it price of $400.  No one came up with that but I did have interest in the $300 to $350 range.  Also with its current 28t cog FW its not a great climber.  I do have a scheme where I could put on a Shimano LX RD I have in the stash and I think that would work with the mega range 34t FW it came with.  That would make it a great climber again and it is so smooth and fits so well.  When will I ever find another 520 for $75 in my size?  On the other hand it duplicates the Nishiki so I am on the fence about the 520.

1993 Univega Via Montega

I have been enjoying riding this bike on the clunker challenge as I did this morning for 20 km.  I do find it gives me hand numbness on the long rides and while it would be fun to make a gravel grinder out of it I do not really need a hybrid.  Also I have a barista friend who expressed interest in having a bike and I think at my current costs of about $100, minus the Ergon grips which I will keep, it would be in his budget.  So plan A is to pass this one along at cost.

I do still look at ads with the idea of finding something inexpensive and in need of a bit of TLC to turn around in the market for a bit of cash but I have been thinking of getting down to maybe 4 bikes.  If, god forbid, I have to move in the next 6 months what am I going to do with 4 bikes let alone 6! lol.

Oh well first world problems.  For now I shall....

Ride. Smile. Repeat.

Specialized Allez: Operation Transplant

 

I mentioned in July that the iffyness of the shifting on Allez was dissuading me from riding it much, which seemed a waste after the work to rebuild it.  My fix was a 7 speed Shimano 105 indexed rear derailleur and shifter to replace the Suntour GPX parts.  All of the parts had arrived and I finally got around to transplanting them this week.

The process was fairly straight forward.  First remove the derailleur cable, carefully so it can be reused.  Second break the chain and un-thread it from the RD, thank you quick-link and quick link tool for making this easy.   Then I could remove the GPX parts, as I did for the shifter above.

Then it was on to installing the Shimano 105 bits and re running the derailleur cable.  After I got the chain hooked back up the bike didn't want to shift to the smallest cog and I struggled a bit until I realized I was adjusting the wrong limit screw! (facepalm)  Amazing how making the correct adjustment works wonders.  I got it to shift to all 7 gears in the stand after that.

One nice thing is that the late 80s was the era of grey anodized parts so both the 105 and GPX groups look similar and certainly pass the 10 foot test.  Nothing is standing out like a sore thumb and an obvious mismatch.

On my brief test ride I was able to shift up and down the cog with no indexing issues.  Yeah!!  I need to take it on some longer rides to be sure, but it appears my fix has worked to make this a dependable shifting bike.

Ride,  Shift confidently. Smile. Repeat.

PS I might have a 7 speed 14-28t cog FW on order since the 105 RD can handle that many teeth. Shhhh

Clunker Challenge 2020: Univega Via Montega

 

A few weeks after I acquired the Univega I saw that Bike Forums was having a clunker challenge again this year.  Since I had purchased it for $40 the Univega was the obvious choice but if I had known ahead of time there would be a challenge I might have done things differently.  First off I paid the LBS to take care of the missing spoke for a cost of $23 that I may have tackled myself if I had known this would be a challenge bike.  

I also ditched the stock Ritchey grips after the first ride due to hand numbness and replaced them with the new Ergon's out of the parts bin that I had paid $25 for about a year ago. Really like the Ergon's btw but now I am at about $90 of my $100 budget.

After a 10 mile ride with my siblings, pre-challenge, I decided I was not a fan of the original saddle and so I gave myself a $5 charge for a parts bin Marin saddle.   That pretty much takes care of my $100 Budget.

What that means is that the new chain and cassette I ordered for this bike will remain in their boxes until after the challenge.  Dealing with the narrow range  11-19 corncob cassette is the biggest challenge with this bike in that any hill over about 3 or 4% is a no go despite a triple chainring.

This is my 3rd consecutive Clunker Challenge and while I haven't done any long rides yet I have been riding each morning this week and am over 40 km so far with about 12 weeks left to get to 100 km.  Hope to get in a longer ride on the weekend.

Ride a clunker. Smile. Repeat.

Miyata 112 Rebuild: Finished

 

After being distracted by my nephews bike and the unexpected arrival of the Univega Hybrid I got back to the Miyata 112 rebuild.  

I got the rear hub cleaned  up and the rear wheel back together but then had two tubes in a row pinch flat in the rear wheel when I mounted the rear tire so I needed a bit of a breather and I had to wait on new tubes!  I am not a fan of cheap CST 27" tires but it was what I could find at the time at a decent price.

On my third try, using the old talc (baby powder) on the tube trick I finally got a $%#!! tube to inflate in the rear wheel and could move on to other things.

The sharp eyed may notice that I, unintentionally, reversed the brake cabling.  The right brake lever is controlling the front brake rather than the rear.  I didn't realize my swap until I had it all cabled up and didn't feel like correcting it, I am curious if anyone will notice.  The bike still stops fine and I know people with a motorcycle background cable the brakes this way on purpose.

The index shifting behaved itself so I didn't have to fuss with that which was nice.  The black platform pedals are clunky and not my first choice but they are practical and free! I was trying to keep costs down on this build so that is what I mounted.

I think I ended up with a solid if unspectacular build and its come a ways since November (top picture).  I believe its a good value in this crazy market based on what I see in this range, we shall see if that brings buyers.

Ride. Smile. Repeat

EDIT Sold within 3 hours of posting!  Probably could have asked for more but I am glad its moved on to a new home and I actually made a bit of $$

1991 Trek 820

I mentioned in an earlier post that I have spent a few month looking for a bike for my Nephew.   He had asked for a recommendation and based on what he wanted to used it for I suggested a early 90-ish mountain bike,   I did find bikes for under $100 but they tended to be gone before I could act. Finally this Trek 820 popped up for $120 in my neighborhood and I snapped it up.

I was planning to replace the cassette and chain and when I was removing the old cassette I noticed the hub felt a bit gritty so I took it apart for a clean and rebuild.

This where I made the first of two stumbles, first I put all the grease and new bearings in the cassette hub before I had replaced the threaded cylinder (at bottom of the picture above) that connects the cassette hub to the wheel.  Guess what?  you can't fit the cylinder after you do the bearings, you have to put it in the freehub body before you do the bearings.  Yes I had to remove all the bearings and seat the cylinder and then replace the bearings.  I had to laugh at myself.

My second gaffe was to reverse the axle when I put the hub back together.  That resulted in the wheel not being centered and more vividly the chain fell off to the inside of the cassette - as seen above.   Fortunately it was easily resolved by correctly fitting the axle and viola the wheel was centered and the shifting all worked as intended.  Opps!

So I updated the tires, cassette and chain and throw in the price of the bike it was all done for under $200.  Considering what I see on CL and Facebook marketplace for that price in this crazy COVID market I think we made out pretty good.  He is picking it up today so fingers crossed it works out for him.

Ride. Smile. Repeat.

I guess there are still deals out there

loading up my prize

Having done a lot of looking lately to find a Mountain bike for my nephew it seemed to me that in this COVID market that the deals have, understandably,  dried up.  Today I was browsing Craigslist, like you do, and saw a bike for $40, it was a fair drive but not horribly far, it listed issues with the front derailleur and it was a vintage early 90s hybrid and looked to be about my size.  Too good to be true right?  and normally if I see a deal it evaporates but this had only been up about an hour so why not take a flier?  Long story short I ended up getting it.

I did notice while loading it up that in addition to the stated derailleur issues it was missing a rear spoke too, but for $40 I wasn't going to complain.  The lady selling it was the original owner who said the bike had been tuned up about 4 years ago but that she had bought a new flat bar road bike and so this Univega was now excess but it had obviously been garaged, used and well cared for.

Based on the Power Oval sticker and the Shimano 400 CX group I put this bike at 1993.

Its got a real corncob of a FreeWheel that I don't think was stock but if your were mostly riding trails it was probably fine.  The serial # appears to be KGO3372 but I haven't been able to decode it yet. EDIT I missed some letters before the K so its actually WEKGO3372

I guess my hankering for a Hybrid finally came to fruition when I least expected it.  For now, after dealing with other projects,  I am going to get the rear spoke dealt with and the front derailleur working or replaced and then I am going to ride it!  After that we will see, lots of options; I could sell it and make some $, I have friend who is interested in getting a bike if its not too dear,  and then I could also go the gravel bike route as I think this would be perfect for that.

Ride. Smile. Repeat.