I'm Forty-nine, and i've never had a lot of money. My Grandparents (God rest them both) were honest-to-God Great Depression babies and taught me to re-use everything and throw nothing away.
(this is not a good habit to have now that I live in an RV BTW)
At any rate, I was always able to afford decent furniture (Salvation Army Thrift store + sandpaper and varnish = real furniture for next to nothing, Old Pinto or VW + Chilton's Guides and wrenches= something to drive...I have never been able to make more than Poverty level wages here in NC, but with my frugal ways I have been able to, well, stay alive.
When I was Seven Grandad purchased a 1971 Schwinn for $5 and tried to teach me to ride-and I learned, but Seven-year-old Me just didn't have the power, skill or endurance to wrestle that solid 26" frame upright, climb it like a tree, and fall to the ground at the end of each ride...into the barn it went.
Forward Twenty-five years later...Grandad had just received a Quadruple bypass and a pacemaker and was resting comfortably indoors and telling everybody that the whole thing was 'no big deal' and that his wife shouldn't have pulled him off the tractor, after all he'd had a Full Week to recover and he felt 'just fine'...
I spent that day cleaning out one of his many old barns-and I found that old Schwinn, blue and cream and not a speck of rust on the frame...and walked it Home. I remembered every step that Grandad had done all those years ago...I left the chain on the bike, sprayed with WD-40 until every link moved like silk, then brushed on a can of old transmission fluid mixed with motor oil. I loosened the cups on both wheels, not enough for the bearings to fall out, but enough to spray solvent until all the old grease was gone and then emptied half a tube of lithium Chainsaw grease into the cups and tighten them back up. I soaked a plastic Brillo pad in Diesel and scoured the surface corrosion, leaving old blued steel,still perfectly trued.
The next morning I went to a local K-mart and picked up two tubes and tires, installed them with two spoons, wiped the excess oil from my chain and took it outside-my heart was pounding like a damn drum, I hadn't ridden a bike since I was Seven for God's sake...
I took off on that old single-speed as easily as if I had trained for a lifetime, and before it even registered on my consciousness I had travelled 14 miles to the nearest town. I grabbed Breakfast, took a half-hour to digest and started back-and half way back I started weeping so hard that I had to stop awhile, I still don't know why...and afterwards I felt like i'd had a week's vacation, just the simple soft rhythm of my legs on pedals, no hurry or sense of competition...it was pure and relaxing and I had never known how much I needed it until then.
I rode that 1971 Schwinn several days a week for years on end and never had to replace a single component-and about a year after Grandma passed on (outlasting her husband by a single year) I spotted my nephew eyeing my old blue-and-cream with pure admiration-of course I gave it to him, there's no greater joy on Earth than being able to share things with Family, right?
Of course that left me with no bike.
But I couldn't help but notice that people would throw bikes away whenever they got tired of them ( What is WRONG with these people!!!!!) so I would start picking up abandoned frames left by the trash, check my little Repair guide for details and pick up a wrench, take my time and wind up with something that worked...
And then I discovered the Internet (ALL OF THE INFORMATION FOR FREE I MUST HAVE IT)
ran into YOU LOT and there was no escaping after that!
At any rate my lovely 1993 Ford Festiva turned Thirty this year and immediately decided to blow every single electric component at once, alas...So i'm currently on a 2013 Zen-n scooter which is not really optimal for transport of Bicycles. I will have a car eventually though-and then I have projects to begin once more-for here in Newport the wealthy purchase bikes in the $300-$800 range, ride them in the salt air, do NO maintenance or even oiling of the chain, and throw them away when they break WHAT IS WRONG WITH ALL OF YOU AAARRRGGGGHHH!!!! Meanwhile over a dozen retired folks, blue-collar workers and those who have no cars need reliable transport or just cheap, relaxing fun-and all of those 'broken' bikes just need a new chain or a tube or some OIL for God's sake-i'm the owner of an amazing one-speed Kent Traveller folder, a former 5-speed somebody let rot in his back yard, all I had to do was rip off the broken derailleur, shorten the chain and add oil, didn't cost a friggen' penny to get back on the road....seriously there is something wrong with this planet...
Ah well, enough ranting for one night, I have wrenches to clean.
