When I was 16, I bought my first new bike. I rode semi-seriously for two summers, and then the bike got stored at my parents house while I went to college and got married. The bike actually moved with my parents, and hung on the wall of their garage for at least 13 years.
Now that my trailer is well setup for hauling bikes I have a renewed interest in riding, so this weekend while visiting my parents, I pulled the bike down and took it home.
I had forgotten even what brand it was - turns out it’s a Bridgestone 300 which is a Japanese bike. Some casual Googling around revealed that Bridgestone got out of the bike business around ‘94, and these bikes are now somewhat of a “cult favorite” bike among hard-core riders.
I spent a couple hours cleaning it up last night (had a major “EWWWW” moment as I pulled the water bottle to find that it still. had. water. in. it…)
While the bike may actually have some resale value (close to $300 according to some of my research) it actually rides great yet, and I plan to put a couple new components on it and ride it. There’s just something kind of neat about riding it again after all these years.
Here’s the bike outfitted with a new saddle, handlebar stem, bag and rear rack:
I went looking at computers, and realized I already had a pretty nice one. One $17 mount for my GPS and now I have a speedometer, trip odometer, compass, altimeter, etc.
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Michael Montgomery on July 10, 2006
Michael Boyink (Author) on July 10, 2006