Coming Full Circle

Sort of.
The thing is, I've been keeping my eyeballs peeled for another mountain bike.
Preferably a steel mountain bike.
I mean I had a steel mountain bike, the Lanikai Express, which now resides in Kaneohe, and I sort of regretted giving it away.
So when this Rockhopper appeared on the eVilist, I just had to jump on it.
When I went to look at it, it was pretty much sold.
The bicycle was obviously stored indoors, not like most of the bicycles that come up for sale.
The frame was in good condition, despite some spots of rust and the wheels and hubs were mostly free of oxidation:



I don't know about you, but that's pretty good for a bicycle from the seven speed era!
At least for around these parts.
The bicycle was clean!
I test it rode for about thirty seconds, just to make sure the shifters and brakes worked.
So I sort of pointed out to the seller some stuff that was wrong with it; I guess it came out half hearted cause when I offered him, he stood pretty firm.
I did get him to come down a bit, but in the end I suppose I paid a bit too much.
It's okay though, for as I said, I've been looking for another clean steel mountain bike and was happy that this one was a Rockhopper.
So anyways, I spent most of yesterday slowly working it back to ridability.
I changed out all the cables and housings with some extra stuff I had sitting around.
It's got these buttons on the canti brakes that promise to make my life a brake adjusting hell:



The shifters also needed some fiddling around with as all the grease had dried up and they were sticking something bad.
I took off the covers and shot some Triflo in there and kept working them until they started working right:



Interesting in that you can see the different spacing for each shift.
I also like how the "fingers" walk the ratchet back down.
Now I just need to adjust the derailleurs and the brakes and I'll be on the road for a shake down cruise.
Insert Jay Ferguson music here.
Oh wait, I forgot, there's also a broken spoke I gotta replace first.
Anyways, it's sort of funny how I started off on a Rockhopper:



Now here I am back with another one.
Like eight bicycles later.
Oh, and despite what you think, it's not really black and nasty.
You Trevor are going to like this one as it's actually a really dark yeppers! purple!
I guess that means I'll be needing a furple jersey and some furple socks.
Or something.