One got away, no great loss
 

On our return at the end of the tandem ride today we passed by a house with an old bike being tossed out with the trash. I stopped and asked the woman who was rummaging on the front porch if it was being tossed, she said yeah, take it if we wanted it. The headbadge said Phillips. It was a geared bike, probably 10-speed though I didn't count, had a Pletscher rack, turkey levers, stem shifters, a mid-length VT or VGT-style RD, cottered crank, a Zefal HP pump on the ST. Didn't notice the wheels. Since we were only a few blocks from the car we grabbed the pump, finished the ride, threw the tandem back in the car, and returned in less than 15 minutes. As we were driving up we saw some other woman putting stuff in the back of a car, and the bike frame wasn't there. I think I saw the frame in the trunk. Oh well...

When I got home I gave the pump a few strokes. It didn't seem to hold air, though the plunger seemed okay. Hmmph. All I really need were the nylon plugs for the frame mount. But a functional pump would have been nice. Another project? Ah, like I need another...

I would have left my wife there and quickly have gone for the truck/van, and rushed back to pick up up the bike! It is too risky to leave bikes behind, oh, and I would have picked up my wife too! :-) No big deal, next time you won't leave without it! :-)

"Imagination is more important than knowledge"!

Einstein

When someone is in the yard I ask if they are discarding it and if so ask if they mind if I wheel it up by the house till I can get back in a short while with my car. If it is trash day and I am sure it is out for the trash but no one is outside I take it I and if I see a neighbor in their yard ask them if it is ok if I leave it next to their house for a short while. No one has ever turned me down.

Sometimes the only problem is that the seal on the plunger has dried out. Unscrew the piece around the shaft and either squirt in a bit of oil or remove the shaft and apply a little grease around the seal.

Or the presta/schrader adapter is reversed. I use my zefal for both types and left the adapter in the schrader position. Leaked like crazy while trying to air up a presta.