Fail by Rail

I tried to catch an Amtrak train into Dallas, TX in hopes of being able to write about the experience and its bicycle compatibilities (I do dream of one day owning a Brompton, Dahon or Moulton AR). However, upon my arrival at the station an hour away from home I found out that the train was delayed five hours away due to a freight derailment. So, I canceled the ticket and drove back home. I'll have to save that piece of reportage for a later date.

In the meantime, I've been marveling at all the wonderful pictures here, at a blog about broken carbon fiber. I have never planned on owning a carbon fiber frame as I don't race, value utility greatly and expect a relatively long usable life from the products I grudging spend what little money i have on; so chromoly steel is probably the most exotic frame material I'll ever consider. This blog and its pictures/horror stories did not enhance my opinion of the use of carbon in the bicycling industry (I live in Louisiana and need my bike to be able to withstand the rigorous trial of road kill), but they have been exceptionally entertaining. Here's to the need of others to own the latest and greatest and to suffer also fantastically new, never before seen catastrophes. May the wealthy always be so unwise with there money, we poor people need something to laugh at.

The Shreveport Triangle (a Bermuda-esque mystery).

I posted a little earlier about finding a Schwinn Collegiate 3 frame in the trash:

and while its having drop bars was certainly curious it did not spark my interest like finding a sister frame to it has. On Wednesday I found another wheel-less Schwinn women's frame in the trash that someone had done a horrible hack-job of painting on.

Which left me wondering why always Schwinns? Why only women's frames? And why always sans wheels? What cultural phenomenon, what bizarre sexual fetish could account for some pervs hoarding the wheels of women's bicycles and discarding the rest of the bike like so much refuse? Or maybe it's a hobby. Maybe someone is constructing a bicycle based multi-wheel monstrosity of transportation and for some reason only favors the wheels of women's bikes, believing them to have some totem power lacking in those wheels belonging to men's frames.

I also found this anomaly of a bottom bracket in the trash:

I cannot rationalize the need to cut a hanger away like this, as it would leave the rest of the frame almost certainly completely useless. I cannot fathom what the person who did this was thinking. I should probably quit rifling through people's trash for bicycle parts before it schews my view of humanity.

Someone else's trash is this blog's treasure.

I found this Schwinn Collegiate 3 speed frame in the trash last week. I am hoping to find a cruiser or something in another pile to donate wheels to it. The paint is in pretty good shape considering and I dig its skinny little fork legs. I look forward to making it road worthy for use as a loaner bike for friends or gift for somone I know who had her bike stolen recently.