Tuesday, March 9, 2010

The Garage Sale Continues

Not much blogging or riding action over the last week or so. I haven't ridden in 11 days now, due to various reasons - from allergies (spring comes early to the Pacific Northwest), to work, to family related reasons - just too busy.

As usual though, bike related tomfoolery continues. My garage sale to score some dough for Project Access is going well. I've sold off some items and will list more stuff on Craigslist or eBay soon.

What's been sold.......



Clean Burley solo trailer sold quickly on Craigslist. These are always in demand, built well and hold their value. This trailer is headed to family number 4 to use - pretty cool. Having scored a killer deal when purchased off a neighbor a few years ago, I actually sold it for a profit. I did give the same neighbor a like new Trek Jet 16 bike for their son for free, just to keep the good karma rolling.




I've been saving these for years - but why? I never plan to use toe straps again. If you were to use toe straps, can't do much better then old school Suntour XC Pro pedals. Go ahead, try - I double dog dare you. Sold quickly on Craigslist for a pretty penny.

Items not pictured include...

Ibis Trials Comp featured in last blog post. Only had one bidder, but that's all you need on eBay. Bike is boxed and will be headed to Nebraska tomorrow. I hope the new owner digs it.

My cool neighbor Kim who I've known for 20+ years, has been threatening to give me the two bikes hanging in his garage collecting dust. And he did just that two weeks ago. Both bikes early '90s vintage. Pre-suspension, steel frame and forks, 1" quill stems, old school stuff - not worth a whole lot, but still decent bikes. One was a lower end GT with Suntour parts. The other a Giant with all XT - not bad at all. The Giant truly was giant being a 22" frame however.

I've been emailing recently with my old bike shop pal and ex-Greenpeace head honcho John about his utility bike project. He's been looking for a suitable donor bike to rig up a Xtracycle - maybe with electric assist. Him being a tall dude, the Giant would be perfect for this project, so off it goes to Virginia after we worked out a deal. If we were corporate types, would call this a "win win" situation.

Future items to sell are a '99 Ellsworth Truth frame and a pair of old school wheels in new condition - Sansin hubs, RM20 rims, 130mm spacing. If anyone out there in Blog Land is interested, let me know. There may be other goodies as well.

Along with selling off bike related stuff, I purchased a few items to build up Ian's bike. The shipping damaged frame was replaced by Performance - new one looks great. I then scored a new Cane Creek headset, Shimano LX crank (with BB), and chain off eBay. Followed by a new SRAM 9 speed cassette off Craigslist. It's mind boggling how much bike stuff - new stuff - that's on eBay.

At the moment, plan is to score myself a new 29er hardtail, then move my old XTR, Fox fork and wheels, currently on my Cannondale, to Ian's frame. The new parts I scored would still be needed - since I want Ian to run a 170mm crank and my chain, cassette and chain rings are toast.

While cruising the local bike shops for empty bike boxes needed for shipping - and checking out 29ers and other bikes - came across a 2007 Gary Fisher X Caliber leftover at Kirkland Cycle....




I took it for a fairly long test ride. Medium size frame, 17.5" seat tube and 24" top tube. With the stock 80mm stem, felt way too short. The nice bike shop girl swapped a 120mm for me to try. I also flipped it over to lower the bars. Ah, much better. Technically I should fit a large frame and run a normal sized stem. At almost 5' 11", I always seem to fall between medium and large for most production bikes. I also like a stretched out position, with the bars a little low - what I'm used to. With the 120mm stem this bike could work for me. It also gets me on smaller frame to compensate for the monster truck 29er wheels. Killer deal, since it's a leftover, but I passed. A little heavy with lower end SRAM X7 parts (2007 version) and the sparkle metal flake silver paint was a little too Ace Frehley for me.....






With that, I will end this ramble fest of a post and call it a night. If you made it this far - I thank you.

Adios for now.

4 comments:

  1. I thought you were gonna say you also sold a Gibson Les Paul Custom "Ace Frehley" flametop with triple humbuckers:).

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  2. I always thoroughly enjoy your bicycle enthusiasm, I often wonder how come most the world is lacking bicycle passion. Hmmm you suppose maybe they forgot how to ride em? :-)

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  3. @Anonymous. I'd hang on to a Gibson of I had one. I already own a Fender I don't know how to play.

    @Mr. Davey. Thanks. Yes, the world would rock if more people had a little bicycle enthusiasm and passion. It would rock like......like...Ace Frehely. Sorta.

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  4. You may not have ridden in 11 days but you sure have been bike busy. Growing up and having responsibilities is the pits, lets just ride.

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