Tomorrow we escort #3 son (out of #4) off to university. No. 3 is the one who always enjoyed a ride with me, and thought camping and riding trails during the week between Christmas and New Years was fun no matter how cold it was. Rather than a Wall Mart bike he is taking the Antelope. This is our 93 vintage Trek 830 Antelope, full chro-moly 21 speed, Araya rims, etc. Its a great riding bike, but with a 22" frame its always been a tad big for me, but my boy grew into it just fine. In fact, its now a little bit small for him.

So I spent the better part of the morning getting the bike ready while he was packing. I changed out the nobby tires for a set of almost new 26x1.90 Specialized Hemisphere tires with new tubes. These are smooth tires that will be much more suitable for the roads of Lubbock than the 2.2" nobbies. I adjusted the brakes and trued one wheel just a little bit. I cleaned the chain, gears, and derailluers, put ice-wax on the chain, and then cleaned and dry-lubed it. Then I packed him a box with some dry lube, a mini-tool kit, tire levers, a few nuts and bolts, two extra tubes, and a helmet.

The bike is black, so we covered most of the logo stuff with black tape to tone it down some and make it little less obvious to the potential thieves. From 10 feet away, I think it looks like a cheapie. I changed out the saddle for an old Schwinn saddle and changed the quick release on the seat post. I went to Wal-Mart and picked up a cable lock, a U-bar lock, and a cheap kickstand and mounted both locking systems and the kickstand onto the bike. Basically, we want it to look like an old beater bike so it doesn't get stolen.

All in all, its been a bit of a nostalgic day.

Here's a pic of the bike. Betcha can't tell what it is. The Trek headbadge is all that's showing.

Monoborracho.......and every turn of that spoke wrench was done with love. I've seen 2 of mine off to college. My mom warned me they'd grow up but of course I was too busy growing them to think about that. I understand universities let out around Christmas....you've still got some holiday trail riding ahead of you.

We dropped off my riding partner yesterday at her university. She is 2 hrs away at school with her older sister, who would never ride. We have a planned ride on the 16th of September when the local bike store at her school has a ride. I'm back to solo riding until next summer. This was her first summer of riding so I gave her my old Cannondale that I bought the same year she was born (19 yrs ago).

These bikes for Uni's are a pain. Wallmart type bikes will not get used very often and a good bike will get nicked. What you have done to disguise the thing is right and providing the locks get used- there will be no problems.
8 years ago a friend of mine had his daughter off to uni and he built up a bike for her. All the old but servicable parts he had onto an old Raleigh Frame. It did not look very pretty but would be OK. When she got to the end of her 3 years- Dad asked her to lose the bike as he did not want another bike in the garage when she returned. She left it unlocked and it did not get stolen,and that was about 3 months before she finsihed- Tried to give it away but no-one wanted such a rough looking bike. Abandoned it in the Town and one of her mates bought it back as he thought it had been stolen. Well the bike came back home and Dad looked at it and rebuilt it for his other daughter that was about to go to Uni. There was no way she was going to have such a crap looking bike. Dad checked it over abd gave it away to someone who wanted a bike. 3 years later and that bike is still being used, and the owner loves it. Apparantly it rides beautifully and can be left anywhere without fear of it being stolen.

I'd wrap the head tube with tape too........

You are going to miss your riding partner. Good luck to both of you.

About 2 years ago, I sold my wife's nearly unused (1,000 miles) Cannondale R300. The guy bought it for his daughter going to college. I suggested that the daughter should come over and ride the bike to be sure it "fit." He looked at me sort of arrogantly and said that, "He knew all about bikes" and it would do fine. OK, I sold it to him.

I got almost the exact amount for that bike as the cost to purchase a Trek hybrid for my wife, which is what she wanted.

Good idea, I just covered the head badge and the chro-moly sticker by the bottom bracket. Off we go.

Stampfam....great story about the old bike.