I don't think God ever wants me to actually ride this thing! It's been one thing after the other over the last couple of years and as I have always had other bikes, this one is kind of back-burner. The latest thing is that I can't get the back wheel to shift right.

LAst year I threw my hands up in frustration and "brought it in" to somebody who got it all tuned up and ready to ride. Every thing was greased, repacked and aligned. I had the chance to ride it two or three times before a spoke broke. Again. This has proven to be a chronic problem with this bike. So today I slid in another 27 inch, 6 speed wheel that I had pulled off an old Shogun. It didn't line up right and the gears didn't shift. I can't figure out why. 26 inch MTB wheels swap out one for the other and they have INDEXED gear-shifting! What I'm thinking about doing is just replacing it with a modern wheel with a cassette and some index shifters on the down tube. I'm also thinking about having the original wheel re-laced.

I really want this bike to work, but it just never has worked right for me. Perhaps it's cursed? With all the time and money that I have put into this bike (for sentimental reasons as much as any thing else) I could have bought a "new" steel-framed bike with modern components.