eom 

Because we could all use a story to make us smile.
Show and tell the one you passed along to someone who needed it more than you did. Inspired by this post. Re-homed my '89 Specialized Hard Rock for a person in need

Last fall I saw a neighbors granddaughter watching her older brother ride his bike up and down the street. I remembered a bike that would fit her and had training wheels to put on too.
I took this picture of Charlotte today(and given permission to post by Grandma). No drive side picture but it's not really about the bike.

thumpism 

I got this little 500A Flandria when a lady brought it into the shop to have it fixed up for a grandchild, but the estimate scared her so she agreed to sell it to me. Once fixed up it lived in front of my fireplace for several years.


Then a buddy asked me if I'd give it to him to fix up for his little nephew. The kid never got the bike.


This Raleigh Portage (in my size) was given to me but we had no extra space so I passed it on to a carless friend who's bike crazy.

alo

In Cambodia, I have bought a number of bikes for students from poor families.

Cyclist0108

I bought this about 10 years ago:

(Trek T-900)

I hauled kids on it. I upgraded half of the components. I still hated it. Finally we loaned it to a friend, and he suggested giving it to someone who would really appreciate it: a single mother and son with Down's syndrome. It was a huge success. I finally felt happy about the purchase.

Velo Mule

I love the dandylions. What some people think are weeds!

I had an Astra bicycle that I got cheap when I worked in the bike shop. By the way an Astra seems to have been connected to Motobecane, because there were markings on the frame somewhere with the flying "M". I think it was too cheap to put a Motobecane name on it. Or maybe there were sub-assemblies purchase from Motobecane?

I think that when I got it , it was a frame only. I used various bits and pieces and some purchased parts to get the bike together as a single speed (freewheel). I rode that bike all over in college and then moved to New Hampshire, where as much as I liked the bike, I didn't use it.

I gave it to a guy I played hockey with. He reported back that he put one of those toddler seats in the back, and that he and his daughter loved taking rides with it.

It made me happy to learn that it was being used and enjoyed.

mgopack42 

Does it count when i gave it away to a thief? I have donated several (some nice) bike that way!

randyjawa 

Thanks to an understandable mistake on the part of someone else, I had to give this away last summer. Pooey-stinko...


And, I gave this away, to my son, a few months ago...

tkamd73 

A Schwinn no less, awesome!
Tim

tyler_fred

I gave my coworker, John, a 62cm
Wheeler that was surplus to me. John was trying to ride an older 52cm Gitane. John was giddy, so I was happy too.

Rocket-Sauce 

Mentioned this one in the bikes bought from the CL thread..

1990 Fuji Ace with mish-mash modern 10 speed parts. Shimano BR451 brakes, Tiagra (brifters), Ultegra (rear mech), 105 (front mech), Sram Rival (cranks + bb), Tange Levin hs, UNO seatpost Specialized saddle, MOST (Pinarello) stem, Shimano Pro bars..

This was my backup bike that I ended up riding more frequently than my nice bike. A friend's boyfriend was out of work but wanted a bike so they could maybe start riding together. He had never had a road bike before.

He LOVED riding it and once he was re-employed, he bought a new-to-him bike -also from Craigslist. He passed the Fuji on to his son who LOVED it but outgrew it (his son is a 6'06" 16 year old high school sophomore who is still growing...). The son is gifting it to one of his basketball teammates. This bike went unridden for the first 23 years of its life. It has made up for it since.

USAZorro

I have two of note:

First one is a 1962 Chain Cycle Corp (aka Ross) Starjet deluxe:

Got it in this condition:


Got it to this condition (would have looked better with larger tires, but was always intended as a give-away)


Gave it to my wife's piano teacher as a thank-you gift.

The second one I don't have pictures of. About a dozen years back, I was on my first purchasing spree and amongst what I acquired was a 1978 Super Course - almost exactly like the one I had through my college years. It was the gold one in 21.5" size. A few years later, I was going into a divorce, and decided that an enthusiastic novice rider in the Harrisburg Bike Club would have more fun on group rides using it, than the garage sale MTB they had been showing up to rides on, plus I went from a house to a 1 BR apartment with about 7 other bikes. Don't even know the person's name, but they seemed happy.

AlmostTrick

I found this near mint, low mileage Specialized Rock Hopper on CL. I commuterized it and gave it to a coworker friend who was riding to work on a worn out box store bike. He was quite happy!

Kabuki12

When I bought my first light weight ten speed in the late seventies , I gave my friend my 1970 or so Schwinn Varsity and he couldn't believe I would just give it away. I told him after riding my racer I doubt I would ever use it. A week or so later I called him to see if he wanted to ride to County Line (about 20 miles each way from where I lived) and he said yes. I swung by his apartment to meet up with him , he had swapped out the handle bars for butterfly(ape hangers) bars! To his credit, he kept on going even after a head wind came up. Joe

Drillium Dude 

I gave away a frame/fork once. The new owner is here and rides it regularly



DD

grayEZrider

I gave these two to a couple of my younger brothers but have donated several others to local kids and the charity thrift store. But I really enjoyed rebuilding (that word should be in caps!) a schwinn 3wheeler. An local waitress at a cafe I frequent was dejected over a recent large loss. Her house had completely burned and the pair was living in a borrowed RV. But her only complaint was about the disappointed grandkids who enjoyed riding the bike (the only thing that survived the fire) but was then backed over by the fire truck. It took quite a bit and a lot of work but remains my favorite rebuild ever. She told them Santa Claus fixed it.

Wildwood 

Very nice Wheeler. Are the non-aero levers original?

Here's a zero bike, that resides in Arkansas, that i've ridden on only 2 extended visits, maybe 50 riding days. This one is 58cm ctc and i forget the top tube. RSX brifters were gummed up but made useful with cleaning. Next visit, i should take the stuff needed for an overhaul.

clubman 

My wife's besties from U of Waterloo are still tight to this day. 4 of them got Sports or Superbes womens bikes from me. My fave was this 59 Raleigh Canadian. Danielle was/is very petite and required longer reach roadster bars and they worked a treat.
Sorry for the pic but 22 years ago I was using a point and shoot Canon film cam.

tyler_fred

Stuart,
Brake levers aren’t original to the bike. I bought it as an NOS frameset on eBay. I pulled it from storage last year and rebuilt it with a mish-mash of 80s Shimano parts just for John. He thought it was just a loaner until I said “No loaner, it’s yours!”

dougdunn

I bought a '78 Centurion Super Le Mans from the only distributor in Detroit who handled Centurion. Wasn't even in a store - had to go to a warehouse in a really sketchy part of town. I had read about the bike in Bicycling mag. Yes, I lived in Detroit in 1978 - downtown. Murder capital of the US. I had so many bikes stolen that I lost count. On a trip to Boston I saw this new type U-lock and bought one. I didn't even own a bike at the time. But with that lock I felt confident and bought this beautiful robins egg blue baby.

I did the Belle Isle Marathon that summer - 200 miles in 24 hours - round and round a 5-mile loop on an island in the Detroit River. I did two Cycle Across Maryland tours on it and lots of other touring. The barcons were great with a loaded bike. Long story short, I bought a Schwinn 594 (also after reading Bicycling) and donated the Super Le Mans to Cycle Across Maryland for their youth program.

Long about 2011 I got to really missing that bike. I tried to find one, but no luck. Long about 2016 I bought a bare Super Le Mans frame and started collecting components. After powdercoating, starts and stops on the hardware, and other things (like an aborted retirement) it will be done this weekend with an eBay purchased correct headtube badge. Can't post a picture yet but I will soon. And will post the original to if I can find a picture..