This one stayed in the family!
Emma is good people. She’s a close friend, the bassist in the band I play in, and literally everyone I know loves her. At band practice last week I mentioned I had a couple items that weren’t getting a lot of attention, namely my projector and my movie theater seats. Emma’s ears perked right up. “I have a bike I’ve been trying to sell,” she said. Bikes are great! Always in high demand and, while I’m not at all an expert on them, I know them well enough to have a general idea about condition and quality of bike. I was interested.
Being the thorough, awesome person she is, Emma sent me the bike’s whole backstory. And it’s a good one!
We have a group email for the First and Last Chance Scooter Club. Last August an email came through from a guy named Barry who was looking into getting a scoot and wanted to see if one would fit down his side path into his backyard. The name looked familiar, so I offered to ride over and see if my scoot would fit. Turns out I already knew Barry. After realizing it won’t fit, we had some nice refreshing water in his apartment and I commented on one of his bikes, he sold it to me the next day.
Barry used to run Changing Gears Community Bike Shop out on the Alameda Navel Base next to the Food Bank. The building got sold a few years ago and the bike shop got shut down. When I was in high school I would volunteer at the bike shop and use my hours to buy parts to modify my commute bike for school. Lovely bike until I got hit by a car (thank god for helmets). At the shop, Barry had access to all of these bike parts from donated bikes and could build whatever he wanted from them. He decided to build a 1990s dream crossover bike, before fat bikes or gravel bikes were all the rage. At full tire pressure, this thing rides street like butter, and at lowered tire pressure it bounces along potholes, gravel, rocks, tree trunks, etc, with a nice cushion. Smooth shifting and reliable brakes. Barry told me he used to ride the bike to the train station, train down to the south bay, let out some pressure and hit the mountain bike trails. It’s a super fun bike to ride. Looks like a cruiser but can handle some serious terrain.
She also included all the details I needed, including all the extra parts this thing was coming with. Pump, undersaddle bag, spare tube, patch kit, multitool (with chain tool included)… the works.
And Emma had seen the projector work in person! No need for a test drive, because she’s been over for movie nights before and enjoyed the wall-sized experience it offers. We shook on it, even though we’re not supposed to. Washed our hands right away, then cooked some ramen together and chilled for a bit.
I’m so happy with this trade, if a little nostalgic for that projector. It accompanied many beautiful date nights, snuggly evenings, friends gatherings, and solo horrorshows. It was quietly a consistent presence in my life for a long time. That part of my life is over now, though, and I’m so glad a good friend will be enjoying this reliable machine.
Onward. Forward. Changes aplenty.
Digital movie projector line:
Original item value: $250
Number of trades to date: 1
Latest trade: Digital movie projector ($250) for 1994 Specialized Stumpjumper Chromo Steel Mountain Bike ($450)
Total line value dollar increase: $200
Total line value percent increase: 80%
#traded 