Bent Bike

I picked up this Trek 620 back in St Louis with high hopes to build it up into my main bike. The advantage I saw over my current Trek 400 was mostly the cantilever brakes (more clearance for tires + fenders) and more braze-ons for rack mounting. The nice old lady I bought it from did mention her husband had crashed it once injuring his knee, but the bike was unscathed. OR SO I THOUGHT! Check out the picture and you can see the tubes are slightly bent just past the lugs.


And here is the worst shot I took, but it shows the bottom bulge better than the others:



I was utterly disappointed when first I found the lump on the bottom tube. I think I now understand how it feels to one day in the shower discover a strange new lump on a testicle (or breast for all you females). I have to admit the old lady seller likely didn't know about it and didn't purposefully deceive me. But this experience has made me almost resolve to swear off all elderly women entirely!


Lesson to be gleaned here: please tell me in the comments what lesson I should learn. And please make it funny, because I can't be expected to come up with all the comedy all the time. Those of you who know me will surely understand how true that statement is.

On a happier note, I finally got around to fitting a tire in the 400 with the fenders installed. I had to drop down to the 700 x 28 Panaracer Pasela TG tire. I do miss the extra cush of the 700 x 32's but the 28's aren't that bad if the psi is around 75 or 80 instead of over 100. So here's what the 400 looks like now all enfendered.



When I put the fenders on I removed the front rack, but for a while there this bike really looked like a good randoneering bicycle. Someday I hope to do a few brevets, but until then I'll have to live my long-distance dreams vicariously through my sister's marathon training. Go Diana!