RE-Cycle: "Klaatu barada nikto"

Wednesday, April 1, 2015

"Klaatu barada nikto"

WOW!
Once again, yesterday saw an unusual but very welcome swell in the number of folks peeking in on the blog! As I've mentioned before, we usually get between 100-150 reads a day, but yesterday saw 442!! And, a special shout out and hearty WELCOME to all the folks in Poland! Yes, almost HALF the number of reads came from my home country. OK, well, my ancestors home country, but you get my point! Also, had numbers in the double digits from (in order from highest views) Russia, France, Germany, Australia, Ukraine, United Kingdom, Macedonia and New Zealand. We welcome you with open arms folks!
"It's a small world, after all! It's a small world..."
OK, I'll stop!
I wonder how much it would cost to ship a bike to Macedonia?
WOOOF!!!
Ok, those of you in Radovis? I could send you a new ride for a mere $774.32, Economy class, but you have to pick it up at your local Fed Ex office!
Not so sure anyone wants a gently used Huffy THAT bad!!
Ah, the joys of the Internet! Oodles of useless information at your finger tips!!
Yes, in a tad bit of a silly mood today, so please forgive me.
Yesterday, was more of the same oddities. The bulk of the day was quiet, so, once again, was banging way on new builds. And in the case of the Magna "DAILY BANGER SPECIAL" I mean that literally!! It's been a while since I had one THAT fused together with rust! WOW! Took about five minuets of whacking the underside of the front fork with our "Persuader" and a five pound sledge hammer (and a LOT of PB Blaster) to get the handle bar stem freed up! Not to mention the bottom bracket! Hell, even the lug nuts needed a set of vice grips! BUT, in the end, the body was clean, so it was worth the effort. Now, in all fairness (so as to not make me appear a miracle worker) of the five I put out, two were pretty much a cake walk! The men's BIG BOY cruiser, was NEVER rode! A gift, the gentleman who traded it in on the 20" folding bike stated, with his "physical limitations", he could not ride it for it's size. The only thing I had to do with that one was clean off the dust from sitting in the garage for four months. And the 20" folding Dahon Boardwalk (yep, we got TWO now!) was immaculately kept. All I had to do with that one was put on a new set of tires and tubes, and assemble the rest. It had been broken down and in storage for some time, but the gentleman, currently winging his way back to Connecticut, couldn't take it on the trip. He's been a regular of ours for sometime, and has several more bikes, he loves more, going with him!
However, the aforementioned Magna took some doing, as well as the Super Cute 20" girls Raleigh cruiser. Put a lot more time into her then I would normally give a kiddo's bike (don't panic, we take the time to make sure they're SAFE, just not so much an emphasis on beauty) but this one is so unique, she deserved the attention. Then, finished up the day, banging out a little kiddo's 18" Banger. And somewhere in all that, managed to clean up my bay as well! Surprising how nasty a 40 foot square area can get in such a short time!
Sent one of the 6 speed cruisers to a new home. Folks just coming in from Ohio, looking to get in the swing of the Trail. Yes, hard to live in this area and NOT get into the whole Bicycle Riding thing! Of course, it was the ladies one. Ladies bikes are ALL the rage right now, and that truth does not seem to be abating!
ANYWHO!
I spent all that time banging out the easy's so I could focus today on the two JC Higgins we have left. I am succumbing to peer pressure and doing something a little different this time around. We're doing a FULL mechanical refurb on both, but NO body or paint work. I have had several of our local enthusiasts inform me, the big thing now is to retain the aged patina on vintage rides, just make them road worthy. What the heck! It means I get them out quicker, and worse case scenario? If they don't find homes, I can strip them down and do a repaint later. All the hard work will already have been done. So check the blog tomorrow and see how we did!
OKAY! Now, I best get to it, as I hear Rozlynd is getting a little bored and she is starting to root around my bay!
AHHHHHHHH!!!! "she's tidied up and I can't FIND anything!!!"

Hope to see you soon!

"Mam nadzieję, że wkrótce się zobaczymy".

"Надеюсь увидеть вас скоро"

"Wir hoffen, Sie bald zu sehen"

"сподіваємося побачити вас скоро"

"e kite wawe ia koe"

"се гледаме наскоро"

"en espérant vous voir bientôt"

(and if any of these translations are wrong, don't blame me, blame Bing!)