True story...just today, I get home from work, grab my bike, roll it backwards to get out, and the chain just falls apart. Now, it is terribly old, but one would think it would do that as I am riding. So I see that the rod is still there but the flanges are bent. So I bend the flanges back and put the rod back through. It does not quite snap in there being so worn, but I figure, heck with it, it made it this far. So I start out, and as I am going downhill, I feel very little braking going on. Its the front wheel. Not braking at all. I fiddle with it and get brakes back...only to lose them again. Turns out one pad is going under the rim. No idea why that started. Later in the ride the chain falls apart again. I should have known better than to fiddle with the gears too much. But I had the foresight to bring pliers, so I snapped it back together.
Later the bulb cover/ red light filter for the back safety flasher just flopped right off...no apparent reason.
All that and the age, plus not being able to use all the gears, plus a bend front rim, cracks in the rubber on the knobbies...its time to get a new bike.
But then I will have to worry about thieves again and cops. No thief would ever steal this bike and no cop would ever think I stole it. Even so, until today, it was still better than most bikes I see, cause even with one third of the gears down, I had more, plus full tires and a chain not rusty. Oh well. Its been a long run old bike. You are so old, I think a Pharaoh must have ridden you at some point, but you are not made of gold, so time for the gomi.