So I work as a bike delivery guy when I'm not going to school full time. I have a pretty great life and due to the fact that I don't smoke or drink and am a total nerd, I have some extra income that I have been able to use on bikes. I ride every day, for transportation and fun. I have a mix of old and new bikes, an IRO is my work bike, I just built up a surly 1x1 for the winter and to take off road, I have a 77' schwinn superior that I need to get around to finishing up, I have a bertoni corsa mondiale that I built up using modernish parts. Point being that I have nothing to complain about when I'm deciding what bike to ride. I rarely have a moment where I feel that I don't have a bike for a kind of riding that I would like to do.

That being said, I have the N+1 disorder and am always lusting after some bike or another. Crabon fribe doesn't interest me much, but classic steel has always captured my imagination. That and some of the work that is being done by custom builders today; which is another matter entirely. Back on topic, I deliver in an area with a few college dorms. About a month and a half ago I see this beautiful bridgestone RB-1 locked up outside one of them. I don't know what year it is but the thing is beautiful. Yellow and white paint scheme, set up with bar end shifters, everything looks shiny and well taken care of, but it has a terrible locking job. This was at 10 pm and it was locked up, I'm assuming overnight, with only a single u-lock securing the top tube to a pole. I make the delivery and then drool over the bike for a couple minutes, lamenting the fact that it doesn't belong to me.

This bike sticks with me, but I tell myself that in all likelihood the owner uses the bike as transportation and at least it's getting ridden. Well, I've delivered to the dorm several times since then and the bike has never moved. It actually slid down the pole so that it is on its side, and someone else locked their magna on top of it. We've had snow on the ground here in Minnesota for weeks now, and during that time the snow has continued to accumulate on the bike, leading me to believe that this bike does not get ridden, and will be left in the snow all winter.

I am not a thief, I have never and will never steal a bike, but let me say that this bike is tempting me like a damn demon. I'm assuming that you guys have seen similar stuff to this in the past. I'd like to hear similar stories of head banging frustration and how you dealt with it. I think that one of the things that frustrated me so much was coming back to the store and *****ing to my co-workers about it and them not getting it at all. In the end, I know it's just a bike, but it's one that is getting more rare every year that has a pretty cool history behind it.