RoboBike

I got this old bike when I was in B. C. from a municipality. When they find a bike, if no one claims it for a certain number of days, I guess maybe 90 days, the bike is either donated or goes to auction. So I got that after that time period. When I used to work a job in the evening shift, I'd put it on the bus, the rack in front, to work and on the way back, because there was no bike, I would ride it, most of the time all the way back home. It was some 30 Km! Then the bike got a problem, I was thrown out of that job but I kept the bicycle and never used it. Moving back to Alberta, The bike was outside in the balcony for some 4 years and that is in addition to one year in British Columbia! Last week I decided to bring it back to life because this mountain bike I have and that has a separate story, is heavy and not very good for pathways and roads. This Steve Bauer is a very light bicycle with very narrow tires but the poor thing has so many problems. The fact is when I got it, it was not in a very good shape and I had to change both of the tires. Then a problem with the rear shifting lever started. The gear would go back to the original when you changed it to a higher! I took it to a disgusting poser who claimed to be a bicycle mechanic in south Surrey, near White Rock border, the numb-nuts fix it temporarily the first time I took it there (I realized it was temporary when it started acting the same way after just a few days!) The second time I took it there, the bastard refused repairing, stated that it could not have been repaired!

Last week I took it to MEC and there was a guy who seemed to be knowledgeable and experienced in repairing bicycles. He also seemed nice and polite as well. He took me to the shop and told me that a bicycle quite similar to mine could cost some $1300. So I decided to go with the repair which would cost some $200! So much money for a bike which I have not paid a dime. It might sound excessive but I want to get on it and exercise a little bit more, particularly because it's much cheaper than buying a brand new moderate-quality bicycle for $1300. The guy showed me many parts that should be changed including the chain, the main gear in the back (which he used a different term for) and a few others. That reminded me of the famous movie, Robocop that the doctors had to change or replace many main parts of his body after he was found almost dead in an old warehouse! The gangsters shot him probably more than 10 times and they all thought that he was dead when they left him.

Anyways the guy told me that it would take more than 4 days, maybe, to have to bicycle completely fixed because he said there was at least one part that they had to order. Fine! I haven't been on that bike for more than 5 years. I can wait a few more days. I will probably have another post after I try it just to see how it performs. But who is Steve Bauer. I asked the MEC bike mechanics and they even didn't know that he is Canadian! He actually is the first Canadian who won a medal in cycling in an Olympics and that was 1984 Los Angeles. I don't want to degrade anybody's performance and achievement but we all know that 1984 was a bogus Olympics because many countries boycotted that. In addition to that being on Canadian road cycling team should not be very hard. How many people practice cycling in Canada overall. With harsh winters and people's passion for hockey, other winter sports, football and many other sports, I don't think there are many who are interested in cycling. I don't know who bicycle manufacturing like is doing now but I like that bicycle and that's why I wanted to keep it by spending more than $250!

(Photo: My bike on the repair rack. The rusted chain is easily seen and will be replaced)