spalding blade

[brad g]

I have found a spalding blade, actually 2 of them, at a local thrift store. They're in kinda bad condition, as far as I can tell, they need tires and the shifter cables are frozen, also there's a lot of rust on the chain and seat post, so they spent a part of their lives outdoors. I first thought they were wanting 40 buck apiece for them, which is laughable. Since my wife works at that thrift store, she found out that they actually want $8 for them. I am only considering this as a "rainy day" rider because I really hate messing up my 7.2FX with road grime and such. the components seem to work fine, other than frozen cables, which I may be able to do something about, and the most costly part will probably be tires. Is this worth a look?

 

[cycling_jedi]

I would probably buy both bikes sight unseen.... 16 bucks and you get two bikes.. sure things are wrong with them but you could rebuild them for a decent price or chop the bikes up and sell them for parts.. Even if you only sold the parts on ebay for a hundred or so bucks, that is nice profit...

I would probably re-build at least one for myself though... I have been looking around here for bikes I can re-build, but haven't had any luck yet.

 

[brad g]

I did buy both of them, and after a little bit of elbow grease, I took a ride on it tonight. I spent a total of $12 on them, my wife gets an employee discount. I was pleased at how well the better of the two cleaned up. I greased all cables, lubed chain, re-packed the wheel bearings. I just bought some tires for it on ebay, totaled $19. I have one question. I took the front derailleur off and rode without it. Will this cause a problem in the long run, because the chain never skipped or anything and I'll just leave it on the big ring and ride it 6-speed. After all of the longing for a road bike and it always being out of reach financially, it's nice to mount up on a bike for which I payed a total of $31.

 

[cycling_jedi]

you can never go wrong at a thrift store.. I always seem to find something good.

Glad it was worth it for the bikes, as for your derailleur question... I dont know, but I am sure someone here knows the answer.

 

[brad g]

Here's some pictures of the blade after I got it together. I know the tires are bad looking, new ones are on their way, but it seems as though only the whitewalls rotted, the black parts of the tire and the inside are fine. The middle picture is a shameless plug for our forum, hope the mods dont mind.

 

[cycling_jedi]

nice! I have that same exact water bottle on my bike... I took the clear lid off though... only gets in the way.

 

[brad g]

I rode about 30 miles today, mostly on the trace. My dad came with me and he rode the Trek while I put the blade through it's paces. about 3/4 of the way through the ride, we switched. I can honestly say that I prefer riding the blade. The position and geometry seems ideally suited to me. The Trek is about 4lb lighter than the blade (26lb vs 30lb) but I don't mind that. I did notice how much more plush the cromoly frame was versus the aluminum trek. I guess overall, I kinda regret buying the hybrid, I should have listened to my gut. I wanted to go with a roadie from the get-go, specifically a Specialized Allez, but went for the penny saved on the 7.2FX. I'll keep riding it because I can't stand to think that I wasted all that money, but I'll probably ride the blade more than the Trek.