The Bicycle experiment

Lately I've found, with additional time on my hands, that I have a renewed interest in bicycling, a past time I loved as a young man moreso than driving an automobile. Being forced into frugality, my selection for bicycles to engage in this past time is limited to the products at the local Goodwill Thrift Store.

Which means..Huffy bicycles, at one time Huffy was just considered a lower end bike, now among bicycling purists Huffy is akin to cow flop with rims that may or may not melt when exposed to direct sunlight.

At least that is what my online research (research=lurking on Bicycle Forums and reading old posts) has shown. Undaunted, I picked up two Huffy bikes, one a Superia 15 speed, the other an ancient Santa Fe 10 speed. The Superia appears to have been what I'd politely call a "good idea at the time" bicycle, someone bought it, rode it maybe 5 times, parked it in the garage and eventually donated it to Goodwill, the tubes are fine, the tires are fine, the brakes work etc. But with air in the tires, and a relubing the crank, forks, and wheels, it was road ready from Day 1.

It also cost a whopping 12.50 cents

The Santa Fe is a different situation completely, it was more or less from the "rode hard, put away wet" category, the 1 3/8th inch tires were flat, the front derailuer does not work, the bearing were all dry as sun bleached bones, the inner tubes had holes, the rear dereaileur was out of adjustment, and to top it off, it came from an era where tires and tubes are not standardized a 26 inch road tire could mean one of 3 possibilities and no amount of googling will solve the mystery one has to try them out or take the wheel to the local bicycle shop were to enjoy the faintly patronizing looks as the innocent question of "do you have a tire to fit this rim" question is asked.

I have no intention of mentioning that it belongs to a Huffy, least wise the patronizing look turns into thinly veiled contempt as they consider this klutz in front of them basically married their Sister, or at least 1st cousin, by owning a Huffy and having the gall to walk into THEIR shop with such a piece of garbage!

Pardon the digression.

The Sante Fe cost a whopping 10 dollars, but the reality is a Huffy of that vintage is worth 100 dollars..at most. So repairs are an expense that is not going to be recouped. However the advantage the 10 speed has over the 15 speed is simple, it is a lighter, quicker bike if one has to peddle 10 miles less weight and less rolling resistance is the way to go.

I found the tires and tubes needed on Amazon.com for 32 dollars delivered which is somewhat expensive, however if the Santa Fe works I suspect that it will be ridden far more than the more durable, but heavy, Superia. 

At the end of it all, the benefit from a cost point of view will not be all that great, even with gasoline at 2.80 a gallon, my vehicle achieves 22 mpg, meaning to recoup that 42 dollars I'll have to peddle 70 miles or so to just break even and since it is the Fall heading into Winter, that seems like a tough deal to manage to accomplish. However the health benefits should not be ignored as if one does not have health, what do you have to replace it?