I've been looking after this for a while...
It's a Columbia Sports 3, this one has a bit of history with me.
A
long time ago, when I was about 13 or 14 years old I had this friend,
well she was an American girl, raised on promises... She lived near the
street where I lived, and often we played together, riding our bikes,
like kids of the early eighties used to do. (is it just me, or do kids
just not go out riding anymore? when I was a kid there was always hoards
of us roaming the streets endlessly on our bikes etc.) Anyhoo, one day at the
beginning of the summer holiday we were playing in the street on our
bikes when her Dad pulled up in his car to take her home. They were
going on holiday, well, vacation as she would say, back to the USA where
they came from to see their family for the duration of the six week
summer holiday. She asked me to look after her bike until she came back
at the end of the summer holiday. OK I said, and put her bike into my
folks garage.
And
that was it... I never saw her again. Her Dad worked for IBM, and while
they were back home they transferred him to a place in the USA near
where they came from, which I guess was fair enough, but I don't think
she ever knew she was going home to stay, otherwise she would've taken
her bike home, it was kind of her pride and joy! She had done a few mods
like flipping the handlebars over, and cutting down the mudgaurds to
make an almost Café Racer style bicycle, and as I remember it rode
pretty well, it has a steel 19" frame.
26"
wheels, that is to say not 26" like a mountain bike, it's
old style 26" wheels, but also has a 3 speed hub (although not Sturmey
Archer).
Look
at that, that's the best part of thirty years of crud on that rear 3
speed hub! I do wonder how it got like that just sitting in the back of
my folks garage since about 1981! Undoubtedly there would've been some
crud on it when it went in, but I don't remember it ever being caked
like this, infact I remember her bike was always spotless! I guess this is testament to what spending thirty years in a leaky old garage can do to a bike!
It
also features a dynamo light set, which as I remember was pretty
bright, however by todays standards it would probably look like a candle
glowing away behind the lens! I always thought that this was a cool
little bike, and like I said I have kept it in my folks garage tucked
underneath my Dads work bench since she
left. I'm guessing that after 30 odd years she's probably not coming back
for it, and to be honest I had forgotten all about it until we were
having a bit of a clear out of my folks garage about a year ago, and
suddenly there it was! Funny thing is, my Dad looked at it completely
surprised and said whos is that? I said, it's Renée's. He said, why is
it here? I said, I'm looking after it for her! There was a long pause
and Dad finally said, when did she leave it? Oh, I said... About 1981?!
I'm guessing she's probably got a new one by now though! So, after
hanging on to it for another year or two since re-discovering it, I have
decided to sell it. I havn't asked her permission, because I've no idea
where she is... It's been 30 odd years, so I'm guessing she's letting me
keep it! I was almost tempted to strip this and make this one into a bike for Mrs
Clint, but it is quite rusty, so I think I'll put it up for grabs in time. But Renée, if you're out there and want your bike
back, be quick and let me know!
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