I Admit It. I Killed Her!

I swear I didn’t mean to kill her! I don’t know what happened exactly, it was a crime of passion?! I was trying to fix up the old Irish girl, my dear Green Lady and what have I done!!! Now she’s just laying on the garage floor in pieces!!! Maybe she’s not really dead and won‘t really die? But gee the prognosis doesn’t look good! It doesn’t look good at all! There might be a happy ending somehow, right?! It can’t end like this!
I meant to post Part II pictures of Motorcycle week, but I think that will happen next time. I just had to come clean about it and what I have done. This 70’s era vintage Raleigh grand prix 10 speed was a yard sale find last year and it was in horrible shape. The front derailer was rusted frozen as well as the brakes both stuck. The tires were petrified on cracked with the ages to the point I can‘t even read the size of the tires.
Looking for my next goal I was thinking about doing more serious mileage riding on a road bike rather than just on my hybrid bicycle Boba. So I set to work on the old girl. Half a can of spray oil and wrenching I got the old brake cables front and rear off as well as both the seizing brake calipers. For the life of me I reefed and reefed but can’t get the broken seat off yet to fix it.

A trip to my trusty friends at the bicycle shop for parts didn’t go so well. Adding in new tires, replacing the cables, rewrapping the handlebars… I had hoped to do neon green theme to highlight the beautiful green of her paint… the price kept going up and up near the 200 dollar mark. What to do?! To a vagabond like me that’s a serious bundle of cash that isn‘t easy to come up with! Not to mention the couple of races I hope to ride in coming up are going to need entry fees and travel gas…

So I end up sitting on the curb next to the local corner store with a coffee, and trying to work out the plans and goals and praying what to do… if the goals are worth going for. I asked God quietly out loud “How am I going to pay for this?” Then I look down and find a penny and another penny… I laughed, apparently God gave me his two cents about what He thought of my plan?! Then I found another two cents and a dime… coincidence? Perhaps, but I took it as a sign not to give up just yet.

So I went to another Bicycle shop to see if he might have some cheaper supplies from different sources. I saw an old bike in far better shape rust wise with the same old style brake set ups kind of just leaned haphazardly in the corner. Out of curiosity I asked if that one was for sale and how much. He said he’d part with it for $30 then a moment later said, “Naw, actually just take it. The bike needs a bit of tinkering though.” I had to ask him four times *Really*?! She's below... Isn't she pretty?

I’m not sure how this story ends yet because it’s still playing out. The bike shop is doing some very basic stuff to the newer 12 speed including hopefully finding an old junk seat to refit it with or fix it because the other was broken. Hopefully there isn't anything major they find. I’m not sure if the wheels might actually transfer over to the old Raleigh size wise and gear wise. But I also have a basic set of bell cables I got at the department store to try to replace on the old Raleigh. I haven't given up on the Raleigh! Hopefully with all the tinkering one of the two will be ridable and I will have a true skinny tire race bike to replace the old black “shade” that I used last fall to race with, the one with fat sized tires.

Actually since I promised, I will post two pics from motorcycle week to give you a little something till next time. My favorite sign above I spotted at a vendor, “unattended children will be given a shot of tequila and a free puppy” and a shot of a custom bike build modeling show below.



Till next time Fools Fitness Fine Friends- Alan