Cavet the guy's eruptor!

   The title of this week’s entry is courtesy of Peter Brady (of the “Bunch” fame) and is a distortion of one of his father Mike’s golden nuggets of wisdom. Caveat emptor is Latin for “Let the buyer beware”, which is a bicycle lesson my wife has learned the hard way – although losing $25 is not so bad a blow, compared to potential problems I might have with the big-buck-bikes I deal with regularly.

   One of our neighbors, who is also a co-worker of Sue’s, had never bought a bicycle herself and was a bit intimidated by the prospect. She didn’t necessarily need something new and definitely didn’t want to spend a whole lot of money!

   Sue had found a really nice mountain bike for one of the neighborhood kids – on the Yahoo Freecycle user-group, no less - and was confident that she could come up with a similar find. During one of their Saturday morning yard sale circuits, she and son Carrick saw what seemed like an unbelievable bargain at only $25.

   I was a bit stunned (in a good way) at first when I saw what they had brought home, a 1995 Specialized Hardrock Sport GX mountain bike that cosmetically appeared to be used very little. The tires had rotted away while in storage, and the handlebar grips had cracked, so I immediately ordered some replacements, thinking this would be a simple fixer-upper.

   However, things quickly went downhill from there as I started to go through the normal tune-up procedures. I gave the front wheel a spin, and it seemed reasonably straight, but the center-pull cantilever brakes were off center and rubbed on the rim. These were the type of brakes that have an adjustment screw only on one of the brake arms, and when I went to turn the screw, I noticed the plastic collar that encloses the springs was cracked (see photo below). I immediately checked the back brakes, and sure enough, the collar was cracked there too.

   I’ve seen this problem before and know that with this cheaper level of components, ordering the part is almost as costly as finding a complete set of brakes in good, used condition on eBay, so I found replacement Shimano Altus cantilevers. From my initial check of this bike on BicycleBlueBook.com, I knew this bike was worth about $90, and considering Sue’s buying price, with the new tires and brakeset, we were still making a few bucks.
   That is, until I gave the rear wheel a spin – YIKES, the rim wobbled at least a quarter inch off center in both directions! The spokes were all intact, so I assume something was on top of or leaned against the bike for a long time while it was in storage.
   I gave the rim about ten minutes of work until I realized the effort was pointless. When attempting to true a rim, you turn the spoke nipples opposite the outwards warp, increasing the tension on the spokes to pull the rim back in line. However, I was struggling to even find a normal center line and was maxing out the threading on the spokes before achieving any reasonable results. Again, at this level of components, buying a replacement was a similar cost to any alternative fixes.
   When I explained to Sue that her “eruptor was cavet-ed”, she suggested just putting the bike in the trash. I reminded her that such an act would go against her anti-landfill beliefs then pointed out that she was trying to do something nice and was out only $25. If I fixed the bike and sold it to her co-worker at the posted online value, the replacement parts would still find her down about $25, but at least someone would have a bike to use!
   Within the handful of years my bike biz has existed, I’ve experienced a few situations when I don’t quite get the expected return on a bicycle sale; however, I usually find a bit of balance from the good feeling of someone wheeling away on a “new” ride! I’m pretty sure our neighbor’s excitement will help ease Sue’s pain.

   I had forgotten Peter worked in a bike shop – he was incompetent and Mr. Martinelli fired him within a week, but still…