I did a lot of random house cleaning/organizing this weekend, including finally (after many years) installing hooks to hang my bikes up and reduce their presence on the main floor. They are now comfortably hanging like bats in the basement. Sometimes owning power tools make you feel competent. On a roll, I also installed a lock box to avoid getting locked out of the home. Then, after admiring my handiwork on the bike hooks, I decided to peel off a sticker on the seat tube of my Bridgestone mountain bike. My very first B'stone.
As you all recall, I own four B'stones - each with a different form/function. The RB-1 is designed for light, fast riding. The XO-3 is the all-around utility bike with neat mustache handlebars. The Eurasia is designed for touring and leisurely rides. The MB-3 is the mountain bike of the bunch.
The B'stone mountain bike was an impulse buy of sorts. I previously owned an entry level Trek 800 Antelope which was basically a city bike disguised as a mountain bike. One day, I went off a dirt jump and destroyed the rigid fork. I went to a random local bike shop in Richmond, VA and ended up with the B'stone. I admired a MB-2 in the store but it was $100-150 more and on hold for another customer. Being a poor graduate student, I was satisfied with the cheaper model. It was very cheap indeed (tho' I can't recall the exact price); all the B'stones were discounted. Bridgestone had just pulled out of the US market due to the rising value of the yen (vs. the dollar). Later, I regretted this decision as the MB-2 was lugged (not Tig-welded) and just a whole lot sweeter. Then, sometime in the first year of ownership, I had gotten some Amnesty International stickers (with the barbed wire logo) and decided it looked cool enough to put on the bike. So, I covered the lettering on the seat tube and it has been this way since 1995 or so.
Well, here is where my bad memory comes into play. For all these years (or somewhere along the way), I thought I had owned a Bridgestone MB-3 - a sibling to my XO-3 (i.e., sharing the same numerical designator). After peeling off the old Amnesty sticker, lo and behold, I discovered (and since vaguely remembered) that I bought a MB-4 - one step down from the MB-3. Too funny! It was almost like getting a new bicycle. It is actually a sibling to HW's XO-4 which I picked up for her on Craigslist for a steal about 6 months ago. BTW, I have since retro-grouched her bike and it is just gorgeous with Brooks saddle and wire mesh front basket. So, I just stood there for a moment trying to remember how my memory decided I had a MB-3, not a MB-4.
After feeling amused with this new/old bike, I surfed some bicycle websites and made the decision to resurrect my MB-4 (now properly named Amnesty), which I have not ridden in many years. I retired from mountain biking back in graduate school and have since been kind to my aging back with more upright bikes. Amnesty has sat quietly all these years without a single complaint. But she is still in sweet shape. Still has the original tires on her and they are not cracked at all. My new goal is to convert Amnesty into a winter, commuter bicycle. I plan to swap out the handlebars, stem, shifters, and brakes with some new parts and gently reintroduce her to the road.
Posted by richlee at September 16, 2007 11:11 PM