Hello to all, new here
 

Hello, everyone... a "newbie" here, could use some help on things like, well, posting messages, to begin with. Also, wouldn't mind meeting a few people to chat or otherwise communicate with. I am a 45 year old male in Iowa, a throat cancer victim (no big deal) who enjoys riding bikes, (which is a good thing, as Iowa prefers that I not drive a car). I recently picked up a Cannondale F500 at a garage sale at a VERY good price, thirty five bucks, from some lady who obviously didn't know her bikes very well.Unfortunately, the bike needs a tad bit of TLC, but hey, for 35 bucks, should I have thought otherwise?
Anyway, I could use some advice, tips, words-from-the-wise, etc., about ways to possibly improve the performance/rideability of this particular model, hopefully from someone with first-hand knowledge. Also, such basic things like regular maintainence procedures, adjustments, and the like. I fixed TV's, stereo's, etc. for a living, and used to let other professionals handle the repairs of other things I owned that needed repair, but since the cancer stuff, I no longer have that option, as I am forced to try to survive on a whopping $434 a month in disability benefits. Besides, I now have plenty of time on my hands, with which I can do things like learn to fix my own bike, and write extremely long, boring posts to various forums!
Any takers out there? Feel free to contact me anytime, either through here (although you'll also have to explain to me how to do it!), or email me at tronicsdoc@hotmail.com. Thanks.

Welcome to the forums! It looks like you have your work cut out for you! Working on a bike is not difficult. If you have electronics experience you are savy enough to work on a bike. I used to regularly completely tear down my Trek road bike, clean, re-grease, and adjust all of the bearings, etc. It is not hard if you have a few basic tools and have any make/model specific tools you might need. If you have to deal with small loose ball bearings you might want to consider doing disassembly over a clean white sheet. It makes it easier to see those parts that somehow seem to get away. You might try the technical forum here if you need help. Good luck and happy cycling!

'bent Brian

What? Work over a clean white sheet? Would take all the fun out of it, wouldn't it? Seems it would be a bit more challenging if you had to spend half the day looking for that one part that rolled off somewhere. In Vcr's, gears and such were held on by "jesus clips", as in "jesus, where in the heck am I gonna find that at?".
Anyway, thanks for responding, talk at you later. Rob.