High-Mileage Bicycle

There were at least 500,000 miles on this machine before it was lost:

A mid-80's Schwinn mountain bike, totally rebuilt multiple times.  A good bike, bought new and owned by the same person all this time.  Three cranksets worn out in the years I worked on it, also dozens of tires, four saddles, three forks, three wheel sets, many chains and freewheels and brake pads, etc. etc.  I think not a single component was original to the bike.  This rig survived numerous accidents, in weather of all types, on- and off-road, and was stolen and recovered at least once.  The owner found a number of local "bike shops" who refused to work on it, who only wanted to sell him a new bike.  "Too old," they said, "not worth the repair," they said, "can't get parts for it," they said.  "Bull," I say.  It's too bad, that kind of snobbery which is one of the things driving customers out of bike shops and onto the web.  Or in some cases out of cycling entirely.