I went to a church sale Friday evening. I really wasn't planning to buy another bike but they had about four outside. I asked the guy in charge how much? He said pick of the litter ten bucks. I chose a really nice looking but old huffy sissy 26" bike.
When I got it home, I realized I would only be using it for parts since the pedals were set up for a short girl and my legs are too long. But the rear wheel looked perfect, the front one only had a sprinkling of rust. The tires looked brand new and of course it had that comfortable padded cruiser seat. I took the tires wheels and seat then dumpted the rest on the curb for the metal scrappers to get.
So I spent the day Saturday changing the wheels on the big bike, but the story is the church sale bike's real value. Now I could buy a new bike, that would be perfect for the Bam (big a motor) bike for about a hundred bucks. But I have already got it on a bike I have been experimenting with to test the mount and what size would work best. So to keep it, I would have had to buy the same parts which I stripped from the ten buck church sale bike.
The wheels are about 30 bucks each new. Tires and tubes about 20 bucks a wheel. So there is the 100 bucks I would spend for a complete big box store bike. That doesn't even count the twenty dollar seat.
When I build the bike that I will ride into the sunset on, it will probably be box store bike and 2.5 hp motor with a lift mechanism. Something for about 250 bucks.
I found that the price of fixing up a bike at piece by piece price to be ridiculous. The church sale bike had just the right pieces at a great price so I felt lucky as heck.
So the Bam bike is back to a 26" but this time it is a coaster brake so I didn't need two hand brakes on the bars to confuse an old man. I did keep the front brake as well.
When I got it home, I realized I would only be using it for parts since the pedals were set up for a short girl and my legs are too long. But the rear wheel looked perfect, the front one only had a sprinkling of rust. The tires looked brand new and of course it had that comfortable padded cruiser seat. I took the tires wheels and seat then dumpted the rest on the curb for the metal scrappers to get.
So I spent the day Saturday changing the wheels on the big bike, but the story is the church sale bike's real value. Now I could buy a new bike, that would be perfect for the Bam (big a motor) bike for about a hundred bucks. But I have already got it on a bike I have been experimenting with to test the mount and what size would work best. So to keep it, I would have had to buy the same parts which I stripped from the ten buck church sale bike.
The wheels are about 30 bucks each new. Tires and tubes about 20 bucks a wheel. So there is the 100 bucks I would spend for a complete big box store bike. That doesn't even count the twenty dollar seat.
When I build the bike that I will ride into the sunset on, it will probably be box store bike and 2.5 hp motor with a lift mechanism. Something for about 250 bucks.
I found that the price of fixing up a bike at piece by piece price to be ridiculous. The church sale bike had just the right pieces at a great price so I felt lucky as heck.
So the Bam bike is back to a 26" but this time it is a coaster brake so I didn't need two hand brakes on the bars to confuse an old man. I did keep the front brake as well.
