Over here (the Netherlands) we usually reserve the word 'b*st*rd' for the bloke that just stole your bicycle! With 800.000 stolen bicycles per year, you learn to appreciate a good lock!

Well I cut that lock off with my hacksaw! Unfortunately I also put several scratches on the rim in the process. Seems someone else at one time or another had tried to do the same thing as there was a nick in one of the spokes. However even with a few scratches the bike is in excellent shape! I'm going to clean and tune it up and then who knows! What a Basta** it was.

Aww, isn't it cute? This is my wife's first bike, from over 25 years ago.
Her mother is selling her home, and we rescued the "Rampar" from a trip to the landfill:



Lugged steel, no markings other than "Rampar" decals and headbadge; Suntour coaster brake.
Also has a decal from a bike shop in Minnesota. (too bad the fork is bent)

You could make a pygmy Raleigh Sports out of it.

Judging form the bent fork, your wife rode with the wild bunch....

...or at least she stopped with them.

you guys are harsh. . .

It needs an alloy seat post

LOL



Olds

LOL... you're right, but I was the wild one she stopped with.

ah, jack. wild boy. You can straighten those forks, you know. LBS'll have a fork wrench, probably, or some duct tape to protect the finish and an appropriately sized pipe...

Just so's ya know, "Basta" means "enough" in (I think), Portugese. It happens to be the name of a solo piece in classical trombone literature (although it AIN'T that classical). Ah....all my expensive hobbies.

Well another score this week for $20 on Craigs List It's a Piero Zurino "Pierro Special" Comes with Columbus tubing, Shimano 600 Arabesque group, dura ace brakes and levers, silca pump. More info on another thread. Anyways, should clean up nicely.

You varmint! How did I miss that one!?

Trade ya a mixte for it....

As I've said, the summer is the slow time and I never find anything.

Today Fan thrift coughed up a 1984 Trek 720 Tourer. It was kinda expensive for me, $75, but it was my size and I couldn't bear the thought of some art school kid turning it into a fixed gear. Not that there's anything wrong with that in general, but this is a high end tourer. There's some rust on the frame, particularly around the cable braze ons on the top tube. And oddly, though the serial number suggests an early 1984 build, the decals are the 1985 set. Frame details suggest 1984, as well. Must have sat around awhile before being painted. Stats are:

Frame Full Reynolds 531 c frame, fork, stays
Suntour Barcon shifters
Cinelli Bars and Stem
Shimano 600 DX seat post
Specialized saddle (crap)
Shimano 600 triple w/biopace
Shimano touring mechs with stag insignia (see photo)
Stronglight Hinault A9 roller bearing HS
Joytech/ Matrix wheelset
Specialized touring pedals (nice)

One the plus side, the frame has 3 bottle mounts, plus a rack, and is missing the stock wheelset, which was a helicomatic rear hub (urgh). On the minus side, it doesn't have the stock huret duopars and Brooks saddle either, so it's a wash. The front wheel is not great, but I have a Normandy Luxe Comp/Matrix wheel off an 84 Trek 620 that was toooo small for me. The frame looks like it was stored in a mud puddle the last several years, but should clean up okay.

The funny thing is I had just given away a Trek 400 to thin out the herd a bit... now I'll likely fix this one up and make a choice between it and my Panasonic Touring Deluxe.

Sure there is - don't be so PC.......

John D.

For $7.50 on eBay (I was the only bidder), allow me to persent my new Mondia Super brake levers - a nice set of Suntour Superbe's. I've spent less on whole bikes, in fact I only spent $5.00 on the Mondia.... But I figured what the hell, you only live once....

John D.

Those mechs are original xt! hehehehe!

"Sure there is - don't be so PC"

For this bike, yeah, there is. I'm ticked it was in the Fan near VCU, on Southside it would have been 15$. Maybe less, given the filth on it. The VCU students would have snagged it if I hadn't. Gawd knows what would have happened to it then. I'm a-fixin' it up as a tourer, although I will strap a wire basket onto the back rack just so I lose some coolness points. Nothing against fixie conversions, I've done several, but a bike like this is so task/use-specific I ain't messing with it. Much.

"Those mechs are original xt! hehehehe!"

Hard to tell if you're serious with all that guffawing, but thanks for the id... they're pretty nice mechs, though I really wanted the duopars. Too bad I sold the last ones I had.

"For $7.50 on eBay (I was the only bidder), allow me to persent my new Mondia Super brake levers - a nice set of Suntour Superbe's. I've spent less on whole bikes"

Yeah, I've bought single bikes cheap and then spent more on a single part than I did for the rest of the bike combined, too. Such prolifigate spending habits we have.

I spent $26 (with shipping) for an Araya frame and fork just so I could steal the head badge off of it - anyone want the frame and fork?

btw, the stag was on the original - the Deore - before XT was an idea. I seem to recall that they had a blue background worked into the first year parts. Are the stags on all of the group or just the rear derailleur?

Oh, hey! I got and eco-duopar rear knocking around in my garage. You want to trade something for it?

depends--watcha need?

uh, trade'ja a cinelli model b frame and fork for it...

well, I would but that'd not be fair, I guess. Got any OMAS junk lying around? Or an EDCO red letter rear hub (or wheel)? or a white silca pump body? Pinarello stickers? Or Avocet crank parts (esp the bolts that hold on the third ring)? Anything by Excel? btw, we need to see more penguin pics...

Well it took me a couple of weeks to get to it, but I've finished the overhaul on the Fuji tourer. I cleaned off 20 years of guck and found the front derailer nearly shredded in two. The bottom bracket cups were worn beyond use, and it took two days of saking in tri-flow and WD-40 before I could get the old rusted rat-trap peddals off. The upshot is that after the initail $40, I spent 5 on a used Suntour front derailleur, 12 on a seat, 15 on pedals, and 23 on a brand new enclosed bottom bracket thingy.( It's been about 15 years since I was the 3-speed specialist in the local bike shop, it's amazing the advances in technology) and new cables and casings. I guess that my new/old ride cost me a little more than $100, and it's a sweet ride. My husband took it out last weekend, and I rode it yesterday, it's awesome - for a commute, it's definitely not a performance bike.

I'm in the middle of the next project - overhauling and somehow making ridable the POS Sear's bike my neighbor gave me for free thinking my daughter would like it. I'm almost done, all I need to do tomorrow is string it up. I'm feeling optimistic about it. The first thing I did was ditch the Positron stuff, and replace it with decent used Shimano bits. Along with new tires my total on this project is about $24. I must say though that whoever though one-piece cranks were a good idea should have ended up in an institution. In any case, if my daughter (she's 14 and we refer to her lovingly as "the destructor") shows any kind of care and respect for this bike, I've promised to build her a "real" bike next summer.

In your daughter's defense, it can be hard to work up any care and respect for a Free Spirit. Maybe you should settle for her not taking a hammer to it.