When you say Steel Wheels, the Stones lukewarm 21st studio album released in 1989 comes to mind for a split second. I spend a great deal more time thinking about bombing down a hill on an old bike in the rain rocking 27 inch (630 bsd) steel wheels with no hope of stopping at the red light intersection at the bottom of the hill because my brake pads are 46 years old and my rims are steel so I deploy various Flinstone foot techniques to slow down a bit.
This bike has been on a rack at UW for weeks and weeks. After the bike vultures plucked the brake calipers it has been left alone. This speaks to its level of shittiness. Any bike that still looks like a bike after 24 hours unattended in the 98195 must be a piece of shit. If I was sorting through a dumpster of bike donations at Bike Works, this bike, with its cottered cranks and steel wheels, would go straight from donation to re-donation or heaved into the scrap metal bin.
Someday some facilities dude will tag it as abandoned, then wait a few days and grind off the u-lock. But we might reach herd immunity before then.
The coolest thing about this bike is the presta valve tube oozing out of the schrader-sized hole in the front wheel.
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