gyozadude

Don't feel too bad. I just bought two used bikes off Craigslist from two different folks - one mtb and one road bike. Both had not only their cones and lock nuts loose, but the QR skewers were tightened by axial rotation and not by flipping them concave down closed and both axles were loose. Of course, I mentioned nothing during the transactions, and they both seemed happy to get what cash they could for bikes that had such poor handling and wobbling on the wheels, which never seemed to stay set, one guy said. The guy who sold me the road bike, admitted the rear wheel was misaligned, and it could be that the frame was bent. I checked it out and he didn't know that on old classic steel bikes with nice pantographed rear horizontal dropouts, there are adjuster screws that set the position of the rear wheel axle to center it in the frame.

And the guy who sold me the MTB tried to upgrade his bike with nice Deore/DeoreXT components, but ordered a bunch of parts, got some of it on, but lacked the tools and couldn't get it riding ever again. So he gave up and went to the LBS and got himself a full CF 29'er with a service contract and loves his new "sweet" ride. He works at a local graphics company that supplies chips to that fruit-computer company with stock prices over $500/share and is single with too much disposable income. He either needs a wife quick to spend his money for him, or he needs to buy a house and pay for a monster mortgage in Silicon Valley. But meanwhile, I was happy to part him with his old ride and parts.