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.
It doesn't sound bad at all because you can always walk difficult hills, and the challenge means you'll get to know the bike and whether it's worth keeping for a while. THEN you decide if upgrades are worth doing.
ReplyDeleteAgreed the challenge is a good way to get to know the bike before doing a bunch of upgrades
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