Originally Posted by
FBinNY
it's a question of economics, a few dollars and a bit to time to fix what he has vs. spending more than the bike might be worth for an upgrade that isn't necessary.
There's also the issue of compatibility. Depending on when and where this bike was built it might have a 26tpi bottom bracket (Nottingham built bikes thru the early seventies). In that case he won't find a BB for it that easily, and if he misses that detail could end up stripping the shell and have made scrap when all that was needed was a simple repair correctly executed.
In the Ops shoes, I'd either fix this bike for a few dollars, or pass and put the money toward a better platform before I bought a new crankset and BB.
+100 I absolutely agree with this, its an old outdated bike that needs work and the money that I would put into it to get it ridable isn't worth it in my opinion. This bike has been sitting for years and needs the following parts
all cables and housing
brake shoes
spoke on rear wheel (drive side of course)
tires
tubes
rim liners
I don't have the freewheel tool to remove a large size milliard freewheel so I will check at the co-op for that before going to the bike shop.
But this is about $70 for parts and when I am done it is still a cheap bike that isn't worth $70. And that is what I will tell my friend to see if he want to really spend the money that way. He already has a older road bike and is looking for a new bike this year, so my opinion is to donate it to the co-op and get on with the new bike.