Raleigh C30 - My First Fixer-Upper

This awesome Raleigh C30 bike was left on a curb near my son's elementary school. Wrong. Just wrong. With new tubes and tires and a more comfy seat, this bike harkens back to its badass days in the early Mariah Carey years. New it was listed at $260.

The owners weren't bad people. Their hands were tied. After several years of serious commuter riding and the occasional trip to Valley Forge, Bob had to make some hard decisions. It was 1997, and their family was growing. They had no idea how much stuff they'd have to acquire just to keep their three kids, Bandit, Brandy and Bonnie in sports equipment. Bob and Bobbi decided to build a shed out back, stored the C30, and... and. They forgot about it, except on the occasional trip to the shed to look for hedge clippers. There it was, peeking out from behind the WorkMate work bench and the forgotten Scarecrow on a Stick fall yard decorations.

Then one day, the shed purge came. With the kids out of the house and no longer doing yardwork, Bobbi got tired of the push mower and got herself a nice red riding mower. It took up too much room in the garage though. Bob needed it to be a big dust-free space to build and varnish his canoe. So one day while Bob was at a counted cross-stich convention in Roanoake, Bobbi did the only thing that made sense to her. She cleaned out the shed and the C30 was just part of the collateral damage. It's soft parts were all disintegrated, of course. But it still had good structure, just a little rust, and it twinkled at me just a little. Of course, it was raining. And I couldn't get it in my car. And I couldn't ride it. We had a nice walk. And thanks to this C30, who's wheel nuts were rusted solid, I bought my first bike-specific tool, a 3 Wrencho Tire Tool from Portland Design Works.

And that's how it all began. The C30 became a family bike, but the kid who claimed it is MUCH taller now. No need for it to get lost in the back of MY garage.