Re: To FIX, or not to FIX.
Yesh, that's some of what I'm talking about! (See the thread I tried to hijack.)
I used to pick up lawn mowers people would put out for the trash collection. Once, I got one that didn't have a full season on it. Looking that new, I knew exactly where to go first. I pulled the flywheel off, and sure enough, it was a sheared key. A 50 cent part, reassembled, and it started up on the first pull. And even if you got one that was really abused, you usually get parts for your stockpile.
I collected lots of bicycle parts over the years, and cobbled together quite a few usable bikes. They weren't too bad looking after they were repainted.
Re: To FIX, or not to FIX.
Brand new Craftsman 16" chain saw at auction. No start, got it for $10. Broken wire in side casing. Have used it ever since. There are always some people out there that would rather not waste their time fixing stuff and just raplace it with new when it breaks down....and then there is the rest of us!!
Re: To FIX, or not to FIX.
[img]/forums/images/icons/tongue.gif[/img] With three bike-age kids and not much money, the 80's were all about bike mix-n-match. We made lots and lots of good bikes out of free ones. I welded up various kinds of frames, we respoked wheels to put three speed center sections into 20" bikes, swapped crankshafts to get longer pedal stroke; you name it. [img]/forums/images/icons/smile.gif[/img] One of my sons is a meter reader for a metropolitan water district and walks 120-miles each month. You would not BELIEVE the dozens and dozens of sockets he finds, along with other tools. Many of them are oriental junk, but some are good ones like New Britain and SK. He also keeps an eye out for cast-off mowers and appliances that are fixable. he has really scored on some of the stuff; just like that mower that had a broken key and the chainsaw with a broken wire. I got a free Kitchen Aid dishwasher that had a broken wire in it. [img]/forums/images/icons/cool.gif[/img]
Re: To FIX, or not to FIX.
There are differences between bikes and bicycles! [img]/forums/images/icons/grin.gif[/img] [img]/forums/images/icons/grin.gif[/img]
Huge differences! [img]/forums/images/icons/grin.gif[/img] [img]/forums/images/icons/grin.gif[/img]
Egon [img]/forums/images/icons/grin.gif[/img]
Re: To FIX, or not to FIX.
[img]/forums/images/icons/blush.gif[/img] They is? [img]/forums/images/icons/blush.gif[/img] Er.... ah, ... I thought the word: "bike" was just shorthand for "bicycle" a term denoting a two-wheeled, operator-propelled, land vehicle? [img]/forums/images/icons/blush.gif[/img] The dictionary just says "bike" is "bicycle" no other explanation is given. [img]/forums/images/icons/tongue.gif[/img]
Re: To FIX, or not to FIX.
Oh it may be a two wheeled pedal powered land vehicle but it takes on many different forms. [img]/forums/images/icons/grin.gif[/img]
The Tour De France is on at present and I'd be willing to say that the riders have at least three or four different bicycles to ride depending on what the conditions of the days stage are. [img]/forums/images/icons/grin.gif[/img] These simple little machines may cost as much as a car. [img]/forums/images/icons/smile.gif[/img] and be usefully for riding in only one type of situation. [img]/forums/images/icons/grin.gif[/img]
It's just like saying a car is a four wheeled apparatus for transporting people. [img]/forums/images/icons/grin.gif[/img]
Look forward to seeing more of them on the road as fuel prices increase! [img]/forums/images/icons/smirk.gif[/img] [img]/forums/images/icons/smirk.gif[/img] [img]/forums/images/icons/smirk.gif[/img]
Egon [img]/forums/images/icons/grin.gif[/img]
Re: To FIX, or not to FIX.
[img]/forums/images/icons/smile.gif[/img] OH, yeah, I getcha. [img]/forums/images/icons/tongue.gif[/img] Way back in the Plehistocene Epoch when I attended college we all rode bikes because the campus was so spread out. I met a guy who was on kind of a high-end ride and he mentioned that it cost 600 bucks; ....this was in the early sixties, mind you. I was astonished at the price, and then he said: "Here, pick up the bike." I lifted his bike and there was like NO WEIGHT. "That's why it cost 600 bucks." he said." [img]/forums/images/icons/crazy.gif[/img] [img]/forums/images/icons/crazy.gif[/img] The frame members of that bike were actually thin in the midle and thicker at the joints. Tubular material that was drawn in such a way to achieve that weight-saving configuration..... YOW! [img]/forums/images/icons/crazy.gif[/img]
Re: To FIX, or not to FIX.
The more you pay the less you get! [img]/forums/images/icons/grin.gif[/img] [img]/forums/images/icons/grin.gif[/img]
Re: To FIX, or not to FIX.
</font><blockquote><font class="small">In reply to:</font><hr />
The more you pay the less you get!
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Maybe that's the reason my bike was so heavy. [img]/forums/images/icons/laugh.gif[/img] I only had one bicycle when I was a kid; got it for Christmas when I was 8 years old I think. I rode it until I got a drivers license, then my younger brothers, 5 and 6 years younger than I, rode it until they got drivers licenses. I didn't know until I was grown that my Dad got that bike, used, from his boss, cleaned it up and painted it, and I thought I had a new bike. But it had no name on it, had the upper bars (or whatever you call them on a boy's bike) side by side instead of one over the other (made it more comfortable for a second person to ride between the seat and handle bars). Even by 1940s standards, it was much heavier than the bikes all my friends had. And we discovered that the chain was longer than any bicycle chains made at the time; had to have 2 master links to splice an extra few inches.
But the upside to that weight was an almost indestructible bicycle. [img]/forums/images/icons/laugh.gif[/img] One crash destroyed the front wheel and another crash destroyed the handle bars, but I think the frame, sprockets, etc. stayed original.