I had a strange weekend. My neighbor, who's a good friend, brought over two POS bikes for me to fix up for himself and his wife. One of them was this Huffy, perfectly awful bike, no way I'd fix it, but I could rescue a couple parts off it, such as the wheels.
Another neighbor, not really a friend, brought over a bike he wanted me to fix a flat tire on. It was a Panasonic Sports 1000 mixte, clearly rescued from the trash man, double butted Tange 900 Cro-mo tubing, nice SR forged crank, mismatched wheels, derailleurs rusted to inoperable, only the back brake working, saddle bent...all kinds of problems. I told him I couldn't fix the tube, it was shot. So he brings over a pair of wheels: Normandy hubs, Super Champion rims, says I can get the tube from one of these. I ask about the "other" bike.
"Aw, that bike? I got it off the trash, man. It's all rusty and spray paint, I just took it for the tubes and the seat, it got a big cushy seat! But the tires ain't the right size. Maybe you can use some of the parts off it?"
I said I'd take a look, at least I could change the seat over for him.
Then I went to a yard sale and picked up this Fuji Absolute for $10. Valite single butted tubing, aluminum rims, pretty nice bike... all it needed was a tube. This photo is after I "fixed" it; note the big cushy seat! But I haven't explained that yet....
Then the guy comes back with the rest of the other bike. I put the wheels on it and took this photo:
Then I put the big cushy seat and one of the innertubes on the Fuji, and gave the Fuji to the guy who brought me the two junkers.
Then I took the best parts of my friend's POS Huffy and made a frankenbike out of the Panasonic Mixte, and gave it to his wife. I'm planning on making it a three speed one of these days, if she likes it. She loves it.
And I'm left with the Poo-Joe. I think it's a PA-10 or something; but I guess it deserves its own thread.
It's funny, I bought a perfectly good Fuji at a yard sale for $10 and traded it for two totally trashed piles of rusted steel... and I think I did okay! Am I crazy, or does anyone agree it was a good trade?