$30 bike ($72 with new tires and tubes)
April 23, 2008
My neighborhood is a loosely collected semi-urban area. We have a mailing list which is really one of the biggest items that ties us together. There’s no ‘home owners association’ and it’s not a planned community in the disastrous sense that a lot of suburbs are. We’re just on the outskirts of what would be called ‘downtown’ in durham.
Two days ago a neighbor posted to the mailing list that he was cleaning out old stuff he didn’t need. Among them was a fuji mountain bike from 1990. I emailed back asking the size and once finding that out that I would take it. He wanted $30 for it. I figured it would be fairly rough. I was not expecting what I found. It had one flat tire and both tires had dry-rotted a bit -which is to be expected for old/unused tires. Otherwise it was in great shape. the shifting works, pedals are solid, very little rust and no weakness. The chain needs lubing and some minor maintenance bits but, all in all, in fine shape. I picked up 2 new tires and tubes, grabbed some spare fenders I had about an cleaned it up last night.
I feel pretty good about it for a total of $72 (so far). I need to get a rear rack for it and some lights and a lock. Then I can give it to my little brother for college. I need to find more of these deals. 
