mstrpete

After all my stress about knobby tires for my old Fuji touring bike, I was out in the garage the other night when I noticed this:



And I thought to myself, "why, there's my winter bike!" I had scored this over the summer form the LFBC for the wife, but it's too small for her, and borderline for me. All it really needs are front brake pads and more aggressive tires, for which there are a zillion options in a 26-inch size. Meanwhile, I'm finally getting around to seeing about fixing the frame of my old Trek MTB:



Hopefully, it can be repaired at a reasonable cost, 'cause I l-o-o-v-e that bike:



Wish me luck on that!

jgedwa

That is a shame about the Trek. Good luck finding someone who can do it for a reasonable price. I fear you will have trouble with that.

Nice Bridgestone. Judging from the size of the Trek, this one will be pretty small for you. For maximizing eficiencey and performance, there is not substitute for a properly sized bike. But for tooling around in the Winter, having a bike that is small under you has its own advantages also. Might take a longer post, and you might have to rethink the stem/bar set up, but it is not out of the question. If you have spare parts around that you can experiment with, or if you have the kind of LBS that has old parts in the back room, you should be able to set it up very cheaply.

jim

p.s., if you decide not to mess with the Bridgestone, send it to me!

mstrpete

You're right on with that. The Bridge is a little short from seatpost to stem, but I have an idea to fix that. I have parts bike with a longer stem and straight bars, which I prefer anyway. Of course, the Trek is the one I'd rather have going, 'cause it fits me perfectly. We shall see, probably next week I can get some estimates on repairing that frame.

mstrpete

UPDATE: The Bridgestone's seat is too far forward, or the handlebars are too far back, or both Other then that, it's fine. I took it to work and back last night and it rode just fine. Sorry, jim, but I think I'm gonna hang on to it for a while.

bicyclerider1

1) HOW did you manage to break the head tube???

2) Lugged frame = fairly easy fix.

sknhgy 

I think it would be fairly easy/cheap to braze or weld that frame.

mstrpete

I think I just came down off one too many curbs with 20+ lbs. of schoolbooks in the newsboy rack that I had on the back. I was riding home one day, and the front end started feeling really loose, and it's obvious why.
As for it being an easy fix, I hope I can find someone locally who thinks so, and can actually do it. Right now, the bike is at my LBS, who is a Trek dealer. They're going to look into the frame warranty situation for me, but I'd just as soon have that one repaired as a new frame that I have to spend money on parts for. But we'll have to wait a bit and see what happens.