Campagnolo hubbed 8spd wheels $80

Like I said - these are Campy hubs with an 8 speed cassette in excellent condition. The rims show some use, but they are true as anything. The cassette looks like it's barely used. The hubs are smooth. The tires are in useable shape, and the tubes work too. Grab the whole deal, and finish your project. Or, better yet: vastly improve the tired steel wheels on your city bike. If you have compatibility questions, just ask. Hint: if you have friction shifting, they'll work.

SOLD: Ross Eurosport ladies $30

Here's some great 'beater bike' action for mid 5' people. You can lock it outside (where it's kinda safe-ish... the corner?) and not lose sleep over it. That said, it runs smooth, and will get you all over the city - no headache. I got it with a completely frozen rear cable. I replaced the rear cable and housing, and now the brakes work well. The Shimano Tourney brakes - to me - seem almost too nice for the bicycle. They work well.

The rear tire is pretty gnarly, with the side wall rubber coming off. The tire holds air, and the sidewall isn't weakened. You can get away with this for a pretty long time in my estimation. Cost of new tire: $10-15 plus $6ish for labor at all better shops.

SOLD: Ross Eurosport Compact $30

This bicycle would make a good 'beater bike' for a small girl. Everything works, and you can lock it outside. I didn't change any parts - I just made a few adjustments. This is basic A to B city transportation.

Schwinn Prelude Fixie $300

This is the perfect bicycle for tall hip Philly men. The wheels are brand new with zero miles. The rims are Mavic CXP22 laced to Formula sealed bearing hubs. The rear hub is a flip flop with a 14 tooth Dura Ace cog and lock ring. The chain ring is a 40 tooth - that makes 76 gear inches. The tires are Specialized Armadillos that I rode from Philly to Val D'or - so they're not new, but they still have a few hundred miles before they're kaput. If you want brand new 700x28c Paselas, I'll install them for $40 - that's cheap, look around.

The frame is a 61cm Schwinn Prelude. It's a higher quality Chicago-built Schwinn with Columbus tubing. Not the holy grail - but highly respectable. If you're at least 6' tall, and don't have specifically short legs, this is for you. Preferred applicants will like pink.

I converted this myself, and I've done plenty of fixies and conversions before. This bicycle was in awesome condition when I bought it. I converted it to fixed gear because it had Phil Wood freewheel hubs, and I snabbed those for my personal bicycle. I had these wheels waiting to be used - and this was the perfect opportunity. I left both brakes on for several reasons. 1) safety 2) it's nice to rest your hands on the hoods 3) if you want to put a freewheel on and make it a single speed, you should really have two brakes. Now you're ready(!)

If you can pick this up in West Chester or Kennett Square, I'm going to sell it to you first.

SOLD: Jazz Latitude city bike

Cheesy 80's decor at it's best. Set up as a super-comfortable swift city machine. The handlebars and stem were replaced so you can sit up. All of the cables were replaced. The chain is new. The tires were upgraded to Paselas.

This friction shifting smooth city machine doesn't look like much more than an 80's throwback - but it is tuned up, silent, and ready to roll forever. Simple as a bicycle gets, and anything can be fixed for about $.04 in 30 seconds at a shop or in your living room.

When I acquired this bicycle, it was in a serious state of disrepair. I almost nixed the idea of fixing it up, but with a radical name like Jazz Latitude, I couldn't resist. The frame is straight, and TIG welded steel tubed bicycles can last forever. The good news is you can lock it up without looking too fancy or worrying about scratches - but you don't have to sacrifice the perfectly smooth operation. This one is a true sleeper.

Derailers (derailleurs)

Derailers come in two types: nice and crummy. With friction shifting, even the crummiest derailers tend to work just fine. If you upgrade to one or two tiers from the bottom of the product line, you're living large. I use cheap, super-outdated, high end derailers, or failing that, whatever is free - preferably the stock derailer. A truly crummy derailer usually doesn't work well with the also-probably-crummy shifters found on millions of bicycles. The best remedy for this disappointing setup is to switch to friction shifting. Derailers are all capable of moving the chain from side to side. With friction shifting, rider input determines where the derailer moves. You don't want to leave this task to cheap index shifters with squirrely indents moving a cheap dry cable through a maze of dirty cable housing. Cheap derailers will breathe a sigh of relief when you stop trying to put them on a mission of precision.

If you're trying to get better performance from a bicycle, the derailers are not the first thing to throw money at. A Dura Ace derailer will still shift like junk with tired knock-off grip shifters, tired friction-ladden housing or a bent derailer hanger. Put the money (a very small sum) into friction shifters, and learn how to take control of your shifting back. When you do this, you'll find that a twenty-year-old bottom of the line derailer actually works very adequately. If you want to upgrade the derailer, wait for the swap meet when index shifting riders are getting rid of their nice old derailers for $10 each.

When I'm fixing up a bicycle to work great, I use the stock derailers 99% of the time.

Chains

One of the best ways to make an old bicycle feel young again is to change the tired old chain. Sometimes adding some bicycle lube will suffice, but if the chain hasn't been changed in years, you might as well just start fresh. It makes a big difference. My favorite chain right now is the SRAM PC-830. It's just like the PC-850 (formerly the PC-48), but it's cheaper. Why? I'm not quite sure. The PC-830 is a cheap but good chain, with SRAM's 'powerlink' connector which is nice if you don't want to fool around with pushing a pin out just enough with a chain tool and then getting a stiff link when you push it back in. That method takes practice to master, and you might as well avoid it.

The PC-830 is an 8 speed chain. That means that if the rear set of gears (freewheel or cassette) has six, seven, or eight cogs - you're all set. I suspect you'd be all set with a 5 speed freewheel too, but for that I use a different chain. So I dunno.

I ride bicycles almost exclusively with 6, 7, or 8 cogs on the back. That's all I want, and that allows me to use really cheap chains so I have no financial cringe when I want to keep a bicycle running smooth and quiet. If you ride with 6-8 cogs on back, the PC-830 is probably as good as you'll ever need. Look how expensive a 10speed (10 gears on the back wheel) chain is. There's no way I'm going to deal with that.