I bought a bike!

I’ve been riding bicycles borrowed from my roommate David the bike fanatic since cracking my frame last month, and putting off searching for a used road bike on the internet, but now my waiting has paid off. David bought a bike for his father, but then saw one better suited to him, and bought it too. So today he sold me the first one, for $250. My first task was to take it to a bike shop for a large number of small repairs, which will total around $100. It’s just the sort of thing I’ve been looking for; cheap and old enough to lock downtown, but good enough for heavy city use and some light touring. I’m very happy. I’ll try my best not to break this one in two.

For fellow bike geeks: the machine is an early 1990’s Schwinn Prelude, with a nice Columbus frame. It has those strange oval-shaped biopace cogs which I might change later, but for now they haven’t been bothering me. Schwinn used to make some very nice road bikes; too bad they decided to go low-market and sell overpriced, over-designed junk years ago. (My first full-sized bike was my father’s old Raleigh, manufactured before that company made the same decision.) I don’t have a photo of the bike but here’s a photo of another Prelude if you’re curious.

Alright. I’m off for a bike ride :)