This entry is a 3.7 on the Ritcher scale of multipart series (if Murphy’s Law has anything to do with it) on upgrading an old Schwinn Collegiate to a practical and pleasing daily bicycle for transportation.

It never fails to amaze us how quickly a bike can be disassembled.  What probably took meticulous hours to carefully construct (well, if we were building it), is reduced to a heap of parts in around half-an-hour. And in this particular case of working with a 30+ year-old Schwinn, nary a problem … not even a frozen bolt in need of penetrating oil.  Amazingly routine really.  Splendidly simple.

The most significant revelation was that we should nickname all of our projects with some sort of negative connotation. Since The Murphy’s Law Project has been anything but a folly of misfortune, we will hither forth use an ironic naming convention to ward off the evil gremlins that can bog down an otherwise enjoyable project.

A short list of future project names:

• Bad News Bear
• Stepped in It (or Steeped in It)
• Funny Bone
• Blackhawk Down
• Crying Shame
• Lightning Strikes Twice
• What Have I Done to Deserve This?
• Root Canal

And a personal favorite:

• I Was Drunk the Day My Mother Got Out of Prison

Anywho … the only distraction in the whole demolition process was hunting around for the proper kickstand removal tool.   No dice, so we’ll use the ole “cut pipe & clamp” trick.  Otherwise the whole process went off without a hitch.

The good news is: We’ve organized and Ziplocked all of the old parts (not that there was all that much to keep track of, but it nice to have everything in one place.)  The bad news is: We need to move on to the less environmentally friendly segment of this whole rejuventaion process, the “Chemical Peel and Paint” section.

We’ll cover this in our next thrilling installment titled, The Murphy’s Law Project — Part [Clever Title].