John's Old Ride

John was a very conscientious rider -- when he bought a new bike, he gave the old one to Bernie. Great idea, that. Bernie knows how to do lots of things to fix up a bike, and the frame was about the right size. So, after thanking him, and getting his tools and cleaning supplies and so on, Bernie set about tinkering with the bike.
He took off part after part from John's old bike and his own old one. I came by and found bike bits everywhere on the lawn, neatly sorted. It's always a bit of a mystery for me to see how many parts a bicycle really has. I don't think of the bearings, eh? Or all the links of the chain.
It turns out John's old bike was REALLY worn out. Like really. As in You Can't Get There From Here. As in, the bearings were worn out, the pedals were worn out, everything was worn out, as in even the welds were cracked so the frame was no longer useable.
The upshot of the matter was, Bernie kept a pile of usable parts and took both bike frames and the worn-out parts to Recyclistas. That bike shop not only uses such things to service bikes, they make art from the stuff that's no longer serviceable.
Awesome to know that John WORE OUT a bike seven ways from Sunday. And now it'll be art.