NOS is great, but it is also good to see UOS (Used Old Stock). The following bicycle is the most used bicycle that has ever come my way...

Some time ago, I swapped a Bianchi Pro Team Race for some cash and an old (early eighties) Bianchi Touring...

Upon initial examination of the Touring, one's first thought would have had to be - "poor, poor bicycle, the abuse it must have suffered", however...

As I got into the bicycle, it occurred to me that the Bianchi had not been abused, at all. But, boy oh boy, had it been used. My guess would be that this old lady (Bianchi sounds feminine to me) must have been ridden the equivalent of around the planet two times. Everything was either worn out or replaced, the wheels being the replaced portion.

But the more I looked, the less abuse I saw. Not a single dent, or crack, or unwanted bend, or road rash, or... The point is, the bicycle was USED and is that not one of the primary purposes of a bicycle?

Anyway, with everything else on my plate(foundation, fire wood supply and now a septic field in need of my attention0, competing for my time, the Bianchi Touring is good to go - almost. It is built, it is test ridden (yehaw!) and it is ready for the road. I do, however, need to go through the hubs on the replacement wheel set (lovely Sunshine hubs laced to Weinmann concave 700c rims and hardly used).

This is this coming Winter's Jamaica bicycle (and what I intend to ride for the balance of the Thunder Bay Summer (both days!-)...