Making Do

My bike is probably about 12 years old. My dad built it for me before I went off to college, and, other than a basic tune-up, it hasn't changed much since then. It's heavy, has racks I don't use, and was designed with basic trips to class carrying heavy books in mind, not commuting or going on 20+ mile trips.

Over the last year or so, I've been throwing around the idea of buying a newer, nicer bike, to try to better fit my current lifestyle. I've talked over options, and came to the realization that I wanted a touring/racing bike (lighter than my current adapted mountain bike), made out of steel (which is more resiliant and not much heavier than aluminum), with drop handle bars (for lots of hand position options), street/not racing tires (for a little extra grip), and mountain bike/not disc brakes (because I don't bike fast enough that disc brakes would be necessary). I found out about Shimano integrated gear shifts, which are basically maintenance free, and am hoping that I can find those too, although they're less common than the standard gearing mechanisms. Some very basic preliminary research suggested that a mid-level bike with those features would be about $500.

I didn't want to spend that kind of money without trying out the features in store, so I spent an afternoon going from shop to shop. It turns out that what I want is not a standard mix of features, and I'll probably have to buy online to get everything all at once. I'm not sure that I want to risk such a large purchase without being able to try it out first, so I started listing out the changes that'd need to be made to my current bike to bring it closer to what I'm looking for:

* new handlebars (which also means new brake mechanisms and possibly a new shifter)
* a new seat
* removing my baskets
* putting a smaller pouch under the seat for keys/phone
* changing out the wheels

Now, if you had to buy those retail, and pay for someone else to do the work, it might be somewhat expensive (I don't know). I'm lucky enough to have a father who has a bit of a bike obsession, and had spare parts for almost all of those changes hanging around (and the know-how to do the change or walk me through it). As of yesterday afternoon, I have a new seat, fixed bell, one basket is off, I have a pouch under the seat, and one of the tires is changed out. The handlebars will take some time, because of the need to change out the brakes and shifter, I still need to take off the other bike rack, and I'll probably need to pay for a tire to fit my front wheel.

Will this make for the perfect, functional bike that's exactly what I want? No. But it allows me to reuse what I already have, get (hopefully) significantly closer to what I'm looking for, and, even if I didn't have a fountain of bike wisdom and access to parts, it would still be quite a bit cheaper than getting a brand new bike. It wasn't my first instinct, but it's worth looking at how you can adapt what you already have to fit your needs, rather than just replacing something. Even if you don't have a friend or family member who knows how to do something, Google can be a powerful tool. I may still end up replacing this bike, but in the meantime, I'll be able to evaluate the changes and see what I like and what I don't, and I'll hopefully be able to make a more informed choice about features and costs if I do decide that I really need to upgrade.