I've often thought it would be fascinating if an old bike could talk. I'd love to hear where it has been and what kind of riding it facilitated. How many times it had changed hands. With my 84 Schwinn Voyageur, I wrote a little note, rolled it up and tied a string to it, and wedged the string between the bar end shifter and the handlebar, so that if anyone ever pulls out the bar end shifter, the string ought to come with it along with the note.

I took 1/8 of a normal letter sized sheet of paper, and wrote how I came to own the bike, some notes about the bike itself, a little bit about myself and how I intend to use it, what I know of the original owner, and why I was building it the way I was doing it. Put my name, city, and date on it.

Message in a bottle.