Originally Posted by
The Historian
The verdict from a mechanic who examined the bike this afternoon:
Clean it up and lube it. Add extenders to the pedals - important for me, otherwise I'll hurt my knees. Bring it back for a proper fitting so I can get dialed in. Consider it my foul-weather bike. Use it on paved rail-trails and flat charity rides like the MS City to Shore I'm riding in September. Possibly replace the cables, although these seem OK. Carry a wrench in case of a flat on the rear wheel.
Improvements to consider at some point:
A rear wheel with a QR
bar end shifters, or STI if I want to invest in them, although stem shifters work OK.
wider handlebars - this has nothing to do with THIS bike, but just an observation in general. I'm very wide shouldered, but hunched from my scoliosis. Switching to a wider set of bars on a road bike will spread my shoulders and expand my chest cavity.
Excellent ideas! Are your brake levers the same as the ones in the Craiglist Pic? They call those "suicide levers". If you have those, dont get in the habit of grabbing the top lever to brake even though it is fairly handy and easy to reach when your hands are on top . You can apply much more braking power with the lower levers. Some folks even remove the top lever .