"Hopelessly" meaning it looks like hell but was made "rideable." The cranks feel crunchier than I'd like them to after cleaning and re-greasing, but we just did a thirty mile ride (my friend's first road ride) and things were "fine."
it's time for a new one and new bearings.
looked a bit like this, only worn more in line-- this one looks like it was also loose...
http://www.bikeforums.net/classic-vi...l#post16102012
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The bicycle, the bicycle surely, should always be the vehicle of novelists and poets. Christopher Morley