• Sell it to some fellow in Iowa who purportedly had a dream to ride it across Iowa during RAGBRAI, after converting it to a fixie, or
• Keep it, and eventually convert it to a fixie myself.

After a test-ride and some soul-searching, I opted to sell the bike to the guy from Iowa. His story was that he had the same frame, had done the conversion, then had the bicycle stolen. His “only hope” to complete his goal was me and my Centurion. So I agreed to send it to him. We came to terms on price and shipping, and I billed the man via PayPal. I went to my LBS to get a bike box, and I disassembled the bike for shipment. I tucked it into the box, sealed same, and slapped on the shipping label. Not wanting to delay the separation, or to spend the next few days tripping over a bike box in the front hallway, I arranged for pickup, and put the box on porch. That was three weeks ago.

Can you tell where this is going yet?

He’s now had the bicycle in his posession for over two weeks, and has yet to pay for same. He no longer answers emails and he does not answer the phone. A creative internet property search for the Cedar Rapids area revealed that the house I shipped to was rented, and when I contacted the owner I found that the renter was vacating said premises as of the end of April. “Good Luck” he said.

Chock-full of goodwill and compassion after having seen the Dalai Lama during his visit to Seattle, I trusted this man and believed his story. There was no way he would steal my bike after having his own bike stolen, right? Wrong.

I’m out a 33 year old bike, which if you depreciate the likely cost of a lower-end 10 speed in 1975 over the life of the asset, isn’t much. I’m out $50 for shipping, plus my time to pack the bike. Count in part of a gallon of gas to get a shipping box from the LBS. I think what bothers me most is that the “nobler purpose” I figured I was accomplishing by selling the bicycle was a complete illusion. I would have been better advised to give the bike to Bikeworks for the Bikes to Ghana project.

I’m sad, but not angry. I will not call down the wrath of my readers to waste time sending emails that will go unread, nor to make phone calls that will go unanswered. Then you will have wasted time on a fruitless pursuit, as I have.

However, if you happened to be riding RAGBRAI this year and you see this person riding my bicycle, you might want to mention to him the value in doing good deeds vs. bad.

More fool me.

The sentimentalist in me wants to convert the frame into a fixed-gear bike. I’ve had one person tell me “it can’t be done”, and several others tell me that for a few hundred bucks or so, I’d be in fixie-heaven.

The pragmatist in me remembers my brief tour in the street in front of the house, and just how strange the bike felt compared to my other machines. The seat is kind of an ass-hatchet (a problem that can be easily fixed by throwing dollar bills at it), and the frame seems huge. The fit would be critical for the bike and I to have an ongoing relationship (“if the bike don’t fit, you won’t ride it”).

Yesterday I was contacted by Matt (a young fellow from Iowa) about this bike. He had inherited the very same frame from someone, and had sunk a few bucks into converting it to a fixie. His stated goal was to ride the bike across Iowa in this year’s edition of RAGBRAI. Until his Centurion was stolen, that is. Now the only apparent path toward his goal of riding that bike across Iowa this summer runs through my garage in Auburn.

Dilemma time. Do I:

• resume my short-lived effort to convert my 33 year old bicycle into a cool old root-beer colored fixie, or
• sell the frame to the fellow in Iowa, who apparently will put the bike to very good use.

As of last night, I decided not to decide for the moment. My course of action will be to:

• pump up the damn tires and take the bike for a ride greater than 100 yards,
• get 2 opinions on cost/components for conversion,
• decide, before the week is out.

Your votes on the matter are hereby solicited, via the comments section.

In other news, the local meteorologists promise that it will stop snowing/hailing/raining/blowing for a few days, so I can actually ride a bicycle. After several days of that sort of weather, this will be a welcome change. Temps today are supposed to be about 10 degrees warmer… we may top 50! I’ve only gotten in one ride in eight days, so I am very much looking forward to getting out tonight for our usual Tuesday night romp.

Molly turns 8 today. Happy Birthday, young lady. I’d bake you a cake, but you should be on a diet. With me.