Not an Epiphany

I've been meaning to do something about my bike "collection" for a long time. It wasn't even intended to become a collection, but it has. The original intent was to resurrect the rescued bikes (a scene just came to mind: in a parody of Life of Brian, when the Roman governor is prepared to "welease" a prisoner, a bicycle mechanic rushes forth and yells out "welease waleigh". I know its weak, but 7:20 of work can addle the brain), and then get rid of them (or keep a nice one or two). It has only worked with one, mainly because it didn't need resurrecting. So Friday afternoon I took a look at the pile, dragged out a likely 'victim' and attended to it. A Giant Rincon mountain bike, an older one, CroMo tubing, 21.5" frame, 1" threaded steer tube with quill type riser stem and straight handle bars. The wheels & tyres were good, I checked the tubes (three pin-prick punctures which I patched). But for the real test, I rode it in to work Saturday. Ow my back pretty-well describes the result, but that is only because my back doesn't like such an upright riding posture. For any other 5'10" to 6'2" person it would be fine. The gears are reasonably smooth (21 speed, indexed rapid-fire). Round 2, Saturday evening I hauled out victim #2. A much smaller MTB (haven't measured it yet), "BRC" make, "Gonzo" model, also 21 speed,but with a BioPace triple crankset. Alas, its tyres' sidewalls are thrashed, but I pumped it up nonetheless for a test ride (whilst air seeped out). OK so far. So I swapped out my Brodie's wheels for further testing. Not too bad, kinda fun. A very road bike like posture required due to the size, but much closer to what I normally do. But by the time I was half way to work I really wanted different bars. All in all a satisfactory performance (1 hr 43 mins ride time). Oh yeah, I did have a boo at a weird old French bike (Vainqueur Type Normandie), quickly repaired the rear brake and contemplated riding it with the Bridgestone's wheelset, but changed my mind. That test will come later.