CardiacKid

A good friend of mine, who lives about 300 miles away, called me the other day. He is thinking about doing a triathlon and couldn't decide which bike to get. He had narrowed it down to a $179 Schwinn or a GMC Denali. When I said that neither one of those were a good choice, he made it clear he didn't want to pay $500 for a bike. I told him I had a bike he could borrow if he wanted to drive up here and get it. He insisted he wanted to pay for it. so we began negotiating on my 1989 Centurion. I started at $100 and he was at $400 I finally told him I would give it to him if he would put 1000 miles on it in the next year. I explained that he could never pay me enough cash for the amount of work I had put into that bike and the only way to compensate me for it was to ride the hell out of it.
He came to town today to pick it up. I zeroed out the odometer, showed him how to change a flat and demanded he also buy a helmet and tire changing tools. He left still exclaiming how beautiful and light the bike is. Hopefully, I won't be getting it back anytime soon.
Now I have an empty space in my garage What to do? What to do?

el twe

Very nice!
\/\/\/\/\/

East Hill

First, sign him up as a BF member. Show him this post. Tell him that the empty space in the garage is long gone, and he will just have to keep using the bike.

We expect to see photos of him riding the bike, too.

East Hill

unworthy1

good story!

McDave

I'm only 60 miles away. Let me know next time you decide to clean your garage.

PS Ya done good!

mrmw

OH, this is an easy one.

1. Recover the past post and thread about how a BF member instructs his wife to be on the lookout for worthwhile C&V bikes when she goes to garage sales.

2. Mission your friend to return to you at least one garage sale queen--cost between $5 and $50.

3. Spend countless hours of therapeutic time returning that garage sale queen to its former glory.

4. repeat.

CardiacKid

We would have to make it a lot more than 1000 miles. I do have an old Trek 820 that I have been planning on turning into a single speed for about a year now. Say 100 laps around Canyon Lake on the 35 lb. bike, nah.

luker

good job! and a fair price. Although, i gotta admit, watching someone do a Tri in a GMC Denali would be fun. How was he planning to do the swim?

CardiacKid

Blue jeans

reverborama

I think I've mentioned this here before.... My wife started doing triathlons and duathlons (run, bike, run) a couple of years ago. I'd go and shoot some pictures and cheer. I saw lots and lots of women riding cross/comfort bikes. I just wanted to take them aside and say, "for under $200, I can make you 5 miles per hour faster!" Any 70 or 80's 10-speed is going to run circles around a comfort bike. If you go 5 miles per hour faster you are going to cut 15 minutes off your time! But I don't think they realize they don't have to spend $1000 to $5000 for a fast bike.

I know a guy in a nearby town who refurbs old 10-speeds. We're going to make up some cards and I am going to hand them out at the next couple of events to women riding inappropriate machines and see if I can drum him up some Tri business.

CardiacKid

Okay, I am really getting the itch. That empty space is really beginning to bother me. It must be filled. I am looking at a Miyata tomorrow.

East Hill

That didn't take long .

East Hill

CardiacKid

My name is Mark and I am a Bikeaholic.

green814

I am SLOWLY convincing my wife to stop at any & all S.Army & thrift stores as she works. She pretty much covers the whole lower part of Mi. for work. Wonder if I could slowly add the G. Sales in there as well!

I am sure You can fill the spce on your own though! Congrats on the great gift!

Chris

Pompiere

I am not sure it is the bikes that makes them ride like that. My neighbor does triathalons, so sometimes I see her ride past the house on a training ride. She recently got a new expensive tri bike, but she rides it just as slow as the women on the comfort bikes.

CardiacKid

My friend called me yesterday. He is up to 10 miles a day and loving it. I guess I won't be getting this bike back anytime soon.
The only thing standing in the way of him reaching my goal is his LBS. He went down there to buy a helmet and the tools, etc. that he needs. They proceeded to put a big push for him to get an OCR3.
I think I convinced him that would not be a good idea. I told him to wait until after his triathlon and then decide if he wanted to get a modern bike. Because if he did decide to really get into this sport he would be trying to unload that OCR3 for something nicer a lot sooner than he would want to get rid of the Dave Scott. They are trying to convince him that it is too much trouble to reach down to shift the downtube shifters. They don't mention that in the Lower Rio Grande Valley, you only have to shift at stop signs and turns. The biggest hill for 200 miles is the causeway to South Padre Island.

norskagent

It was too much trouble for merckx, lemond, hampten, all those guys. They would of killed for a giant ocr3.

cooker

This post really needs to be in P&R since it completely undermines the basic assumptions of the Chicago school of free market economists. Anyway good jod on getting your friend riding on a decent bike.