Bicycle Bonanza

Tonight I was working more on the Electricle™, and found the chain was a few links too long to possibly work around. Easy to fix, with a simple ten-buck chain tool, which I didn't have. So I took a short ride to a bike shop that I hadn't been to before, mostly because they would still be open when I got there, unlike any others in easy range.

Got the tool, and while talking to the shopowner about getting certain parts (which he doesn't carry), I mentioned that I sometimes get what I need off scrapped bikes or ones from thrift stores, garage sales, etc. He just happened to have gotten a pile of them dropped off that he hadn't looked thru yet, so we went out back and he decided only one of them was worth doing anything with, and said I could do what I wanted with the others.

I called a friend with a pickup truck, and we took the lot home. A couple were pretty bad, one having been in a horrible wreck at some point (when I got a good look at it's front fork, I got the shivers, because whoever was riding it can't have gotten away unscathed--it looks like it was hit by a car, at the very least). Three are actually almost intact and probably could be ridden after a bit of oiling and tightening up of things. Three more are almost just a frame with some bits left on, but useful bits. Another wrecked one has a slightly bent frame, but not so bad on the rest of it (though no wheels/rims).

There's two of them with the same SRAM Gripshifters I use on my bike, and another that uses a different make of Gripshifter I can still use. Two of the working derailers are indexed and can be used with my bike; a third is also indexed but is badly damaged (off the first wrecked bike). All the brake levers are good, and most are metal, instead of plastic. Most tires are junk, some dryrotted, but some rims are nice enough to use. I dont' like any of the seats, even the ones that aren't sunrotted. They're all hard and/or narrow.

The best part about all the frame-only bikes is that they are small ones, pretty much exactly what I was wishing for today to use as a mount for my motor and gearing, under the cargo rack. Too late today to actually do the cutting and stuff, because of the noise, but tomorrow morning I'll be continuing the work, and hopefully will have a testable setup by Saturday.

Then comes alpha testing, where I get to completely redesign everything based on whatever horrible things happen to it when I ride. :-)