I can ride my bike with no handlebars...
I have a bicycle! My very own bicycle, which I purchased today. After looking at the 200-500 dollar bikes at the Bike Shop, and the 77-180 dollar bikes at Wal-Mart, I went to Goodwill and purchased a second hand 18 speed 26 inch ladies mountain bike for ten bucks. Yes, ten dollar.
Now of course, this bike was not entirely up to speed so to speak. It isn't the latest fashion or anything, and it's got some rust pitting here and there (though the frame is still solid). It also had two flat tires. We went to Wal-Mart, and collected a couple of tubes (four dollars each) a new seat (a comfort gel wide seat to help support my back) and a tire tool to take the tires off. It took us a couple of hours to get the tires changed since we didn't really know what we were doing - but once we did that, and got the chain back on, the bike was ready to ride. The brakes work great, and it's a very smooth ride.
I have never owned a bike with speeds before (or well, any bike since I was a little kid) so I have no idea how to shift gears or when it is appropriate or necessary to shift them. There are two knobs which I assume are for doing this, but I have no idea what I'm doing there so I will leave them alone.
Steve is going to put the seat on for me sometime this week (he and his friends are good with bikes), so that should make the ride even more comfortable. I also want to see if I can get some handlebar grips to replace the ones it has on there as the rubber is somewhat torn up on the ones it has.
I wonder if there's anything I can do about the rust? I know it is primarily cosmetic, and at least it's not on the painted parts of the bike (which are purple and pink), but it would be prettier if I could get it less rusty by the pedals.
Oh, update on my other project - the box is solid brass, not other metals - all the weird colors I was turning up are finish on top of the brass. The interior is likely cedar. My brother brought me jewlery cleaner, which is fixing it up pretty nicely (the wash with dish soap followed by a dip with some jewelery cleaner seems to be doing pretty good - it's just a matter of repeating it until I can get the layers and layers of gunk off of it). In addition to the toothbrush I've been using, I also picked up a little rubber tipped dental tool today to dig into some of the crevices. Will keep folks posted.
Comic update - it looks like we have found an artist to continue the Michael's Story comic series! spiderteo is going to be our new illustrator. That means back to work on the comic scripts for me. I'm going to be locking myself in my room and writing this weekend - so apologies in advance if I am very out of touch and unavailable to play / hang out.
Though I think I will take pictures of the bike and upload the pictures I took of the box this weekend, too.
Now of course, this bike was not entirely up to speed so to speak. It isn't the latest fashion or anything, and it's got some rust pitting here and there (though the frame is still solid). It also had two flat tires. We went to Wal-Mart, and collected a couple of tubes (four dollars each) a new seat (a comfort gel wide seat to help support my back) and a tire tool to take the tires off. It took us a couple of hours to get the tires changed since we didn't really know what we were doing - but once we did that, and got the chain back on, the bike was ready to ride. The brakes work great, and it's a very smooth ride.
I have never owned a bike with speeds before (or well, any bike since I was a little kid) so I have no idea how to shift gears or when it is appropriate or necessary to shift them. There are two knobs which I assume are for doing this, but I have no idea what I'm doing there so I will leave them alone.
Steve is going to put the seat on for me sometime this week (he and his friends are good with bikes), so that should make the ride even more comfortable. I also want to see if I can get some handlebar grips to replace the ones it has on there as the rubber is somewhat torn up on the ones it has.
I wonder if there's anything I can do about the rust? I know it is primarily cosmetic, and at least it's not on the painted parts of the bike (which are purple and pink), but it would be prettier if I could get it less rusty by the pedals.
Oh, update on my other project - the box is solid brass, not other metals - all the weird colors I was turning up are finish on top of the brass. The interior is likely cedar. My brother brought me jewlery cleaner, which is fixing it up pretty nicely (the wash with dish soap followed by a dip with some jewelery cleaner seems to be doing pretty good - it's just a matter of repeating it until I can get the layers and layers of gunk off of it). In addition to the toothbrush I've been using, I also picked up a little rubber tipped dental tool today to dig into some of the crevices. Will keep folks posted.
Comic update - it looks like we have found an artist to continue the Michael's Story comic series! spiderteo is going to be our new illustrator. That means back to work on the comic scripts for me. I'm going to be locking myself in my room and writing this weekend - so apologies in advance if I am very out of touch and unavailable to play / hang out.
Though I think I will take pictures of the bike and upload the pictures I took of the box this weekend, too.