As a long time lurker I set out to find myself a "Do Everything Bike". After several trials and errors I landed a 1990 Trek 990. That's a whole lot of 9 nine 90 nineties for one mouthful.
What I thought I was in for looked good. The picture was great. It showed a really clean black 990 with white decals and a rear cargo rack to boot. The local bikes were too large or too small. A new trek at the LBS that fit the bill was $600+ before adding anything. At the time I probably didn't have money for ramen noodles much less a bicycle. But I chose to drive 45 minutes to get this bike that just spoke to me.
I arrived and the garage door opened...
.... not what I expected but after all this was the internet.
The bike looked like it was taken through a "One last time" ride. Caked in dirt, dirty components. Wear on the finish that couldn't be seen in what I now figured were the "Before" photos. This rear rack, a silly addition that could be had for $20 or less pushed me to go 30 minutes out of my way to check out this bike first. Because after all this was a gusseted frame 990 instead of the lesser quality 9xx bike closer AND it had a place for me to hang stuff off of. This wasn't it chief. This wasn't $200 that was better than financing for 6 months and spending the $200 on stuff to make my adventures happen.
Pick it up and run the gears. Stiff as hell on the grip shift like they are as dirty as the rest of what I see. Test the brakes. Fronts hang up, rears adjusted properly but no meat left. Look down at the rear rack. You know the added bonus to my little trip-----
It is hanging on by a zip tie. No, I didn't pay $200. But I didn't leave it either. It fit. It had an appeal to it. So I brought it home.