[867V309]

Spandex pants and a goonball hat.

[LibWhacker]

Don't know a thing about it, myself, though I do own an old Schwinn that's been collecting dust in the garage for the last 25 years and needs refurbishing. But... I looked on Google and check it out! Tons of useful info. I hope some of it is useful for you. Looking through some of those websites, I think they'll definitely help me fix up my bike. Good luck.

[Berlin_Freeper]

Bicycle

[Veggie Todd]

Bicycle bicycle bicycle
I want to ride my bicycle bicycle bicycle
I want to ride my bicycle
I want to ride my bike
I want to ride my bicycle
I want to ride it where I like.
--Freddie Mercury

Oh wait....

[raybbr]

Good for you. Don’t let anti bike zombies here on FR get to you.

[Fai Mao]

Enjoy it and ride often.
That said, as the resident FR bike snob

You’ll need to spend more on that bike than you think
I bet you’ll also need new cables, chain, freewheel/cassette bar tape, brake pads and then need to repack the hubs, bottom Bracket and headset. Then after the must haves you’ll think “Hey that saddle could be replaced.” “How about some lighter wheels?” “Wow I could really use nicer derailleurs”

Just be careful, used bikes don’t have a lot of value and it is easy to invest more in updates than the bike is worth.

You may want to look at one of the online bike shops like Bike Nashbar or Chain Reaction Cycles (I am not affiliated with either of them) If you get a basic tool kit you can do a lot of the maintenance done yourself

If you really get the bug for a nice bike:
http://www.rivbike.com/product-p/f-sam.htm
Is the most comfortable road/light trail bike on Earth.

[sharpee]

Maybe you can ride with Stanley Brodaric. An amazing biker. biked across America not the easy east to west but south to North (See the story below). Since then he biked from Siberia to Nepal. He was hoping to get to the Black Sea but the area was in turmoil. Biked party way around Australia but it was just to hot.

http://peninsulaclarion.com/stories/081902/ala_081902alapm0060001.shtml#.VXVq089VhBc

[Solson]

I’m one of those jerks you see riding all the time. It’s a Salsa Blackborow fatbike and I ride it year ‘round. I’d encourage you, and everyone to wear a helmet. Most folks I know who ride a lot have fallen and cracked at least one. Save your brain.

[Flick Lives]

Also, I am thinking that as ancient as I am, a helmet might not be a bad idea.

A helmet is a good idea. Lots of options out there. Many of the newer helmets are ventilated, lightweight, and pretty comfortable when adjusted to your own noggin. A helmet has helped me many times while mountain biking when I've clipped the bottom of a low hanging tree limbs along a trail.

[Be Free]

Fix it up enough to enjoy riding it, but don’t go crazy. That old a bike frame is likely steel, heavy, and difficult to find modern parts for. You’ll likely find that your bottom bracket, wheel bearings, chain rings & derailleur are all worn - and might not be easy to replace.

Best advice is get it running as smoothly and safely as you can with minimal investment. If you get bitten by the bug (as I did 8 years ago), you’d be better off saving for your next bike. Once you know what proper sizing of the frame is for you, search Craigslist and eBay. It took nearly a year, but I found THE mountain-bike I wanted on eBay, and got it for 1/3 of the new-bike price.

If you ride regularly, you’ll get it great shape in no time. It’s the closest thing to the fountain of youth I’ve found!

[outofsalt]

[hecticskeptic]

I simply never bike on the street without my rear mirror and yes, it has saved my neck on more than one occasion where I've have to get deep on to a road shoulder. I've tried a few and this is by far my favourite. http://www.amazon.com/Cycleaware-Heads-Eyewear-Mounted-Mirror/dp/B000UVCP52 The only thing about it is that sometimes you forget you are wearing it and I've bent over and bumped it and broke the plastic where it mounts on to my glasses. Not big deal...I've probably gone through a dozen over the years. These are simply indispensable and give a great view of what is behind. By tipping your head just a bit, you can expand the field of vision in a way that a mirror fixed on the bike doesn't.

On another note, It's because of my rear view mirror that I've actually got so comfortable riding at night that I prefer it to daytime. I go with two rear tail lights and they are bright.... made by Bontrager. I've had a few headlights over the years and my favourite is made by this company.... http://www.lightandmotion.com/choose-your-light/urban the model I have is 500 lumens and the battery lasts more than 12 hours in low power mode. If I'm going on a serious trek, I'll take a spare light with me as well that is quite small that is about 70 lumens and makes for a great backup.... https://www.serfas.com/products/view/144/referer:products%7Cindex%7Clights%7Cheadlights%7Cpage:2 I sometimes fasten it to my helmet if I want to be able to tilt my head to look at things.

Oh and if you get serious, buy a decent set of padded bike shorts....they are not that expensive and make the ride far more enjoyable if it is any serious length at all.

[ExCTCitizen]

We love biking...wife and I have bike trailers and we go camping with our bikes. Nice time with the kids biking...

[IamConservative]

I would recommend getting the wheels trued and the derailluer adjusted at a bike shop.

[Carthego delenda est]

As a few posters have mentioned, some sort of flat proofing is a great idea. In my area there is a low growing vining plant called referred to as Goat Heads or Puncture Vine. It tends to be incredibly invasive. Anybody who lives in an area where it grows is very familiar with it because they’ll have had many flats on any small inflatable wheels they own. As others have suggested, you could buy specially made liners to try and cut down on flats, but after having repaired dozens and dozens of flats due to Goat Heads I’ve come up with a standard procedure I use for ALL my small inflatable tires. Rather than buying a liner, I use an old innertube made for the size wheel I am working on. Using a pair of scissors, I cut the inner two thirds of the old innertube away, so I am left with a piece that fits around the outer circumference of the new tube. After installing the liner and new tube, I use a product called “Slime”, adding the recommended amount into the new tube. With the combination of the home made liner and the green slime, rarely do I ever get another flat on that wheel. At worst, it may develop a very slow leak requiring a bit of added air every few months. The website for the green slime is www.slime.com BTW, I’ve found that my homemade liners actually tend to work better than the expensive Kevlar ones for some reason.

[samtheman]

When you say rural, is it wide-open, wide-road rural, with lots of visibility for you and the occasional vehicle, or is it hilly, curvy, wooded, narrow-laned, no-shouldered?

If the later, please be careful.

[hecticskeptic]

Incidentally, in the interest of ‘being green’, a lot of communities have put money into ‘recycle cycle’ and ‘bicycle resource’ shops where people can bring in their bikes and fix them there free of charge. Quite often, these are places where bikes are donated and then fixed up by volunteers as a community service. I’ve used the local one to me quite often as they have a great supply of hard to find parts for old bikes but I’ve also looked at some of the used bikes they have for sale. They usually are dirt cheap with the understanding that you will eventually just give it back to them when you are done with it. If you don’t want to spend much money, these are an option until you get cycling enough again that you know what you want if you want to spend some money.

One piece of advice I have which was gained after years of experience and it basically is this…. never repair spokes in a wheel unless it is an emergency somewhere and you don’t have access to a new wheel. Spokes fail because of fatigue and once the first one goes, it is a sign that the next ones are soon to fail also. The best thing to do when the first one fails is always just replace the wheel and throw the old one out. Essentially, when the first one fails it is at the leading edge of the bell curve….. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Normal_distribution