So, I just moved to a place that's within a few miles of work. But, I've never really done much biking, and the only bike I owned was some mountain bike that I got when I was 13; too small for me to ride now without hurting my knees, and way too springy to be an efficient ride on smooth pavement.
Anyway, cut to the 1970s. Turns out that my grandfather once decided that he was totally going to get into biking, and he went and got a
sweet road bike.
He also only rode it a couple times before chucking it in his shed, where it rested for almost forty years.
Anyway, recently, he was all like "hey, I've got this bike, want it?"
The old Fuji wasn't in perfect condition; break pads were rotting, cable casings looked iffy, boots on the break levers looked like a marshmallow peep that someone squeezed in their hand, the tires literally made crinkling noises, handlebar wrapping was hard, and various parts were in desperate need of some lube.
But all the core metal parts were basically pristine. This really wouldn't even take much fixing up.
So, yeah:
First things first: When this bike was made, indexed shifters weren't doing a very good job of existing, so friction shifters it is. Took a day to get used to, but I'm sort of liking it. Feels weirdly natural, actually.
Second things second: Road bikes are different, whoa. This thing is
way faster and more efficient than any bike I've ridden before. On my first ride, I was really apprehensive about a brief stretch where I'd have to leave the bike path for a 35mph road. Actually sustaining high speeds will require some kind of "being in shape" thing, but at a sprint I was holding my own.
tl;dr
