I wish one of those would drop in my lap again. I had a Series IV drop in my lap some years back, but sold it later. WAY too big.,,,,BD

I picked up this Bianchi Sport SX recently for pretty cheap. I gave it a complete overhaul. It will be going to a friend of my son's.

This is 99% of bike shops I have been to. The last straw for one shop was seeing them offer $150 for a 94ish 853 Lemond with full 105 group. It looks like it had never been ridden a single mile. The owner took the offer, while looking dejected and ashamed, believing the employee telling them that's all it was worth. They had a $300 price tag on it before I left the shop. Obviously after the original owner had left though. It's worth nothing unless they can steal it from you and resell it.,,,,BD

Yes but no - a retail markup of 100% is pretty common on used stuff. Any time I've tried to sell to a re-seller the offer has been ridiculously low. Look at the flipper threads here.
It was up to the owner to do his research and decide if it is worth taking the easy way out. Much the same as trading in a car.

http://www.bikeforums.net/<a href=ht...4c2c035c_c.jpgFound this in someone's curbside pile yesterday. 1990-ish I guess. Kind of a nice little lugged frame with unremarkable parts.

Needs tires and a lot less dirt; otherwise in pretty nice shape.
http://i1182.photobucket.com/albums/...pswwbfebol.jpg

I love this modification! :love:

How do you like it in use? It looks awkward, but so did Gevenalle shifters until I tried them.

What did you have to do to get the shifter hardware to mate to the brake lever?

Update on my "Catch of the Day" posted December 2nd, 2012:
http://www.bikeforums.net/classic-vi...l#post15008209

Here is my lovely vintage (1996) Giant lady's crosstrail bike yesterday (July 11,2016) on the General Jubal A. Early ferry with me crossing the Potomac River from Virginia into Maryland for our 34 mile round trip ride on the C&O Canal towpath from Leesburg,VA to Point of Rocks, MD and back.

You will notice a little bit of modern has been added - a 250w e-hub to get me out of traffic fast and accurately. Otherwise, the bike remains a classic, wonderful, smooth ride, no matter if it is electric, or human powered. She performed flawlessly the entire ride and averaged 8.5 mph under my power alone on the trail (which included our stops to photograph and chat with other cyclists/hikers), and 23mph on her own to get me the 4 miles back to my car (in heavy fast traffic) on the paved highway just outside of Leesburg.

So...Happy 20th birthday to my bike. You make me smile each time I mount up, and remember why I love biking so much. :love: It is fun to go interesting places with you...all the time, every time.

Coincidentally, the two of us together = 83 years of age. :D

It's Me again with yet another almost saved from the dump MTB.

This one cost me $25.00 Canadian and was in ride-away condition. Unfortunately as I was using an X-Acto knife with a brand new blade in it to shave a ridge off the bottom of the left rear brake pad because that ridge was catching under the rim, someone startled me; the blade slipped and the tire got punctured. Fortunately the puncture was only about 1/16" long and I booted it because it was a slit and not a round hole.

The bicycle is a Cro-Moly frameset 21-speed DIAMOND BACK Apex MTB with all Shimano DEORE components. It has thumb-shifters that I love because the left one is ratchet not indexed and the left one can be index or friction with the extra little lever on it. I also like thumb-shifters like this for their simplicity and longevity.

Here are ten images of the bike. Remember the rear tire was NOT flat when I brought it home. Oh the tires are 26" x 1.5 semi-slicks.

https://c1.staticflickr.com/9/8660/2...6729d962_o.jpgIMG_3865 by Miele Man, on Flickr

https://c8.staticflickr.com/9/8800/2...f18f76d0_o.jpgIMG_3852 by Miele Man, on Flickr

https://c8.staticflickr.com/8/7752/2...7df10906_o.jpgIMG_3855 by Miele Man, on Flickr

https://c4.staticflickr.com/9/8778/2...49d87171_o.jpgIMG_3854 by Miele Man, on Flickr

https://c1.staticflickr.com/9/8700/2...e3cc7002_o.jpgIMG_3857 by Miele Man, on Flickr

https://c3.staticflickr.com/9/8834/2...efab8da8_o.jpgIMG_3858 by Miele Man, on Flickr

https://c3.staticflickr.com/9/8700/2...7810037f_o.jpgIMG_3853 by Miele Man, on Flickr

https://c8.staticflickr.com/9/8730/2...4b5bea7b_o.jpgIMG_3863 by Miele Man, on Flickr

https://c2.staticflickr.com/8/7308/2...4c2e918e_o.jpgIMG_3864 by Miele Man, on Flickr

https://c7.staticflickr.com/8/7477/2...d5ec96dc_o.jpgIMG_3861 by Miele Man, on Flickr

All I need to do now is put the repaired wheel back on and then give the bike a good cleaning and replace a few cables. This one is going to be a keeper.

If anyone knows about what year this bike is and an approximate original value, I'd be interested in knowing just for curiosity because i am going to keep this one.

Cheers

The modification is "...a most scathingly brilliant idea"* and simple to do. I just got another MTB that I'll be keeping and replacing this one with. I'll take the shifter apart and do a step-by-step of the modification and assembly. I'll have that posted in the Bicycle Mechanics forum by tomorrow.

Thanks for all the interest.

Cheers

* Hayley Mills in The Trouble With Angels movie.

My wife and a friend went on an excursion today. She called me about two Peugeot bikes she had found in a thrift shop. Here they are:

The paint is remarkable and the tires are new. The man's bike has Sachs/Huret derailleurs and drive train, the mixte has Simplex. The man's has a derailleur hanger on a forged drop, the mixte a claw on a stamped drop. Both have stem shifters and Weinnmann brakes and levers.

The saddles are toast and must be replaced. The fabric cover is releasing and the under glue is sticky and dirty. It appears that the were tuned up by a bike shop and left in a hot shed for a couple of years.

The men's bike has a sticker (3367001) and a stamp on the BB (Y4012641). The mixte sticker is(2995003), a "Z" stamp on the BB, and (Y306 19719) on the NDS drop. Both have Carbolite 103 tubes.

She paid $26 for both - good girl.

She done good! :thumb:

Picked up from the town dump's "swap" area today:

https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-L...61b00ebeff.jpg
https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-2...0073f4a2bf.jpg

All it needed was a good cleaning and the tires re-inflated. Oh wait, I also had to replace the missing front reflector (I took one from my son's long-outgrown bike).

Monday evening, while out of town last week, I discovered the el cheapo Wal-Martian mountain bike I had purchased last month while at same location didn't just need a new rear gear shift cable it needed a new rear gear shifter. I made this comment to an aunt who was present at the time who lives in the area and was told my uncle had tossed her old bike on the back of his pickup truck to haul to the scrap yard a week prior and that if still their I was welcome to dig it out from under the rest of the junk and have it. I find some irony in that the near forty year old rear gear shifter is in better functional condition than one from a bike that couldn't be over two years old... Not pictured is the rear wheel that was literally so badly rusted that a section of the rim cracked off when I tried rolling the bike. Did salvage the reflector, washers, and all but one nut from the rear wheel before contributing it back to the scrap pile. Sadly the free wheel was completely rusted frozen and I couldn't even free it from the hub, also had to cut the almost completely fused chain off of the bike with a hacksaw.

http://www.tweeg.psoarchive.com/othe...corcher_01.JPG

http://www.tweeg.psoarchive.com/othe...corcher_02.JPG

http://www.tweeg.psoarchive.com/othe...corcher_03.JPG

http://www.tweeg.psoarchive.com/othe...corcher_04.JPG

http://www.tweeg.psoarchive.com/othe...corcher_05.JPG

http://www.tweeg.psoarchive.com/othe...corcher_06.JPG

That is too cool - going to have to steal that idea for my next build ( a 1982 Giant built Schwinn World ). Neat idea.

Snagged a Panasonic AL-9000 for a song today. Specs in the Panasonic catalog say Shimano 105 components, but this one has mostly Sport LX stuff. Whatever, it's a neat bike. Tires need to be replaced, stem should be lower, the chain needs lube and the tri-bars got to go, but other than that it's pretty much good to go. Needs new pedals, too, I guess, but the rat traps on it work OK.

https://c5.staticflickr.com/9/8621/2...e168e075_c.jpg
Panasonic AL-9000

Nishiki Gran Tour 15
 

Bought this Nishiki for $15 from the original owner, he had converted it to a flatbar town bike and then mothballed it in a shed for a loooong time. Raided the parts bin for some wheels, a light action RD, bars and levers, and shifters (placed low due to recycled cables that are a bit short - wanted to keep the build cost at zero). She's a very nice rider.

Stripped frame shortly after buying:
http://i67.tinypic.com/vrua1d.jpg

Rebuilt with parts on hand:

http://i68.tinypic.com/dqhr6.jpg

Wow. That's the biggest POS on the thread so far. Looks nearly impossible to resurrect, much less ride a 100K.

In other words, great find! :thumb:

Found this 1985 Fuji Club at the LBS sidewalk sale. Other than the saddle, bar tape and missing decals, it appears to be all original down to the (hardly used) tires. Oh, and it's my size. Not that I need another bike.
http://i1182.photobucket.com/albums/...psagntgafm.jpg

I picked up this Gary Fisher Aquila recently. When I got it the rear wheel wouldn't turn. I gave it an overhaul and I am ready to pass it on to someone else. It is in excellent condition. I have a total of $22 invested in it.

1976 Schwinn Continental. Nothing special for a collector, but, in 1978 I purchased a slightly used twin to this one. Filled with nostalgia I snatched it from a pile of throw-a-ways and put in a few hours work.

http://i83.photobucket.com/albums/j2...psde8bjwqs.jpg

This Univega frame just arrived from a fellow forum member, EXTREMELY well packed and ahead of schedule. Looking forward to building up a bike with canti brakes and BIG TIRES.

Haha thanks! It's still a toss up as to whether to harvest the rear derailer and re-use it on the el cheapo POS Next mountain bike or if I should just hold out for finding a 26" rear road bike wheel to mount back onto this "Scorcher" frame. If I fix the "Next" MTB there's always going to be that lingering question of what will break next and when, though it might surprise and last a couple of weeks before something else catastrophic breaks on it. But if I fix this rusty clunker I have the sneaky suspicion it just might cling to life a few more years, so unpredictable.

Needless to say the hunt for a discarded bike which could potentially contribute back to both is underway. But being that I am notoriously cheap that just means I am keeping a keen watch out for trash piles. :lol:

I must say, for some reason I got confused and thought I was replying to your post on the "Clunker Challenge 100" thread. Hence the bit about riding the bike 100k.

You should consider diving in on that :)

Needed nothing but a clean up. Marin Bear Valley SE
http://i256.photobucket.com/albums/h...psg9ftz8ib.jpg

Orwell, or Carlin..?