Trek 820

I recently added a bike to my collection. The intent was to get ahold of a "winter beater" that I could ride around and trash with relative abandon. I had tried several times of course. I got the three speed because of the IGH and fenders and chain guard but, alas, I feel in love with it and couldn't see "ruining" by riding it around in foul weather on salty roads. So then I got my first Trek 820. It was a 1999 model and aluminum. It was too small for me didn't work right anyway. It caused a pretty good wipe-out that has me very apprehensive about "hammering" on a used bike since, up to the point of the crash on my first "real" ride, the bike had performed flawlessly on multiple test rides. Then came the latest, a 2006, steel framed Trek 820 in the 19.5 inch size.

Brand new these bikes are Trek's CHEAPEST adult bicycles at $329.99. I paid considerably less for mine.I have to rave about it. It fits me perfectly. It is smooth riding and quick shifting. It did NOT have a component failure that caused me to crash. It has trigger shifters, which I prefer to grip shifters. The seat is reasonably comfortable. The bike rides very smoothly and comfortably and even felt sturdy after taking it off of a few small drops to try it out. Amazingly, especially at this price-point, the fork is supple and not overwhelmed by my 220 pound weight! I have to highly recommend this bike as an around-town fun bike. I have taken it on neither long-distance rides or any off road rides but I think that it's weight would hinder it in either venue. Combine the out-door fun that I am having with this bike and the in-door fitness that I am having with the Cycle-ops trainer and I would have to say that this was a very well spent sixty bucks.

New Junk

I have, for some time now, desired to transition from one who gathers together old, used , low end bicycles to one who gathers together functional bicycle equipment I have, sort of, succeeded. On Thursday I purchased another Trek 820 (steel), of all things. This was to replace the Trek 820 (aluminum) that fell apart under me and is to serve as my "winter beater" when I need that multi-geared bike and the Three Speed isn't going to get me there. So, I now have seven bicycles, three bicycle frames and a bunch of spare parts. With the steel 820 though came... THINGS! I got a set of green Nashbar panniers, a spare wheel with a MTB slick tire on it (rear only please) and a Cycleops trainer!!! WOOT! Add this haul to the Wald basket that I got and installed on the Triumph and I am starting to usefulunate some of these things.I got the trainer set up to work with the PRN and I got her brake cables and bar tape straightened out. Tomorrow morning I RIDE baby!

Getting a UO-8 and I think I like it.....

As you may or may not know, I am currently in possession of a late 70's Peugeot PRN that is two sizes too small. I was surprised to find that it was mostly original and for that reason and because it was a gift, it has a special place in my heart. Plus: it's French. In researching it I realized that French is to bike as KLR is to motorcycle or Apple is to computers and I AM a dedicated Mac guy! So I like them because they are quirky. I also respect the history of the things that I have collected and hold my father's old camera in very high regard as I do my father in law's Raleigh Marathon that he passed along to me recently. I use them, but carefully. I have been searching for a larger PRN or PX to come up for reasonable money locally, but it has not been the case. Even the UO level Peugeots that have come up have been "big bucks". Then, one day I found a bike on Craigslist for cheep enough money and sent an inquiry for a picture. I got a very long and detailed reply from a nice gentleman who bought the bike new and had ridden it ever since, making some practical modifications along the way. We made a "deal" in the sense that I didn't haggle at all and he agreed to hold it for me for a couple of weeks until I can get some other things straightened away.

I know tha this is a low-level bike-boom bike. I know that it's going to need some work to make it road-worthy. I know that the guy is asking a little more than it's worth. I know it won't be as nice as either the PRN or the Raleigh. What it will be is a 10-speed bike that fits me and that I can feel completely free and comfortable riding in all circumstances because that is what the man who owned it since new want's for it and has always done with it! And it's French. I'm as giddy as a school girl. Seriously. I can't wait until next week to get it!

Thank you for listening. I just wanted to share.

I heart my babysitter

She came over and watched The Bruce for an hour so that I could go ride. Since she was "going out of her way" I felt compelled to cycle for exercise and not just to be wandering around on a bike. The too-small-for-me-anyway Peugeot is OOS with disconnected break levers and the Precious Sorrento is OOS because I rode it into the ground and now I can't make it shift right. That left the Raleigh Marathon. So out she came. I gotta tell ya, I like this bike. I got a chance to adjust some things over the winter but haven't ridden it since my Father In Law gave it to me. I really like this bike. It's smooth riding and shifting. The riding position is sporty enough to get me out of the wind but relaxed enough that I did not feel at all uncomfortable. The bars have a larger diameter than the Peugeot's bars do and I liked the bend of them better and the cushynes of the old-school foam bar-wraps was very comfortable. The reach to the brake levers is much, much less than on the PRN. Of course, it did not feel as fast or as "lively" as the Peugeot. It doesn't speak french. It is WAY easier to get up hills with it than with the Triumph three speed though. It's a shame that I get so emotionally attached to these things. This is really a great, all around bike but it's an irreplaceable heirloom and if any thing ever happened to it...... I am supposed to be picking up a nice UO-8 in a week or two. I am hoping that that bike will combine the best features of the two bikes for me in a package that is designed and supposed to be RIDDEN not cherished or admired.

I hate the internet.

But, how can this be? I hate it because it makes me feel bad about my cycling habits. The forums tell you that unless you cycle to work you will never be fit and are destroying the planet. Well, I have researched this until I am blue in the face and there is no way to make my 25 mile, one way commute by cycle, transit or combination of the two in anything less than an hour and 45 minuets. Well over two hours if the bus plays ANY part in the trip. Contrast this to the TWENTY minuets that it takes to drive and, well, there it is. The twenty minuet ride (each way) to drop my daughter off at school becomes and hour and 15 minuets. So I drive my car.

I drive a used car in good repair that meets the states emission standards. I picked a car out of the current fleet. Not a single additional resource was used to "put me in my car". Because I love and maintain it it will not become scrap or waste and no part of it will be polluting the environment and no energy will be used in recycling any of it's components. No parts of Canada were strip-mined to produce this car. It required zero energy to ship to this country when new because it was MADE in this country.

I don't really run "errands" so I'm not a good eco-cyclist there either. And the errands that I DO run are typically done on the way to or from work or school. I'm not out spending money willy-nilly on lots of consumer goods that are made in carbon-belching factories, transported in trains and trucks, break in a few months and get pitched into a land fill. I buy a few things that are important to me, of as high a quality as I can practically afford and make them last. Dam it Green Police: I AM doing my part!!!

I love my bikes and I cycle for fun and fitness. That's all. If my situation were different then I would certainly be inclined to cycle for transportation and my hat is off to those of you who can and do. I just wish you could STOP being so damn proud of yourselves in public and making me feel bad.

Bikes are cooler when they WORK.

Right now I have SIX of my own bikes. On;y one, the oldest by far, actually works and is rideable. I have an old Cannondale M500 frame that I am building up for fun as an around town bike. I have my trusty Diamondback Sorrento that won't shift right, a Trek 820 with a bad hub and a cracked Grip-shift, a Peugeot PRN-10e that is awaiting a brake cable replacement and bar-wrap, a Raleigh Marathon that belonged to my Father -in-law (so even though it technically works, I can't ride it in foul weather) and a Triumph three-speed from back in the day. THAT is the one that works! So, if I want to cycle, I ride up-right and slow. Not very sporting and hard to keep a target heart rate with only three gears but I'll tell you what: I LOVE that bike. It's so much fund and oh-so proper to ride. I pretend I am a Merchant-Ivory character as I ride about town on it. I had a great success with it today as I mounted a kick-stand to it! I needed the "win".

A few days ago my Sorrento gave up the ghost and would shift only into the low gears, not out of them. As you can imagine, this made riding rather difficult. I found that the metal of the barel adjuster had been torn open and decided that that was the cause of the problem. So I went out and bought another one and installed it and the bike STILL wouldn't shift back down. I messed with that bike for hours today and still it only works kinda right. The 820, despite three different test-rides crapped out on me the first time that I used it. THe hub spun while I was hammering up a hill, causing me to stop and cracking the grip=shift. I have a set of 7-speed trigger shifters that I could swap out but my two spare wheels are both 8-speeders!! So I can fix the hub problem OR the shifter problem but, of course, not both! This bums me out because this is the bike that I bought to "save" the Sorrento which is also now on the D.L. too. Grrr..... I neede that kick-stand install to save my day, mechanically speaking.

Sorrento: ownership OR posession.

Remember Christine? No, not your high school sweat-heat, the killer car dreamed up by a certain novelist from Maine. Well I never saw the movie or read the book but I understand that the car was possessed. My bike must be made from scraps from that car.
This winter I have brought three different “winter beater” bikes into my home and each one has fallen apart. The cranks fell off the Cannondale. The cranks won’t come off the Trek, but pieces of the front derailure did! Now, enter the Trek 820. I tried it out before I bought it. I tried it out after I adjusted it. I tried it out after I put the fenders and stuff on it. Then I went to fide it and, low and behold! It didn’t work! I know, hard to believe. The pedals spun but the back wheel did not. Hey great! I brought the thing in and readjusted some things and took it out for a spin. Great1 It works and the bike feels just like my BMX bike did when I was a kid (the frame is a little small for me technically). I was having fun. I went out around the block and was hammering up the hill when all of a sudden the whole drive-train got slack and…… I crashed. Wow. How fun. Now I’m on the street trying to figure out what the hell is wrong with this bike. I pick it up and it works perfectly. Grrr…. Half a block later and it’s slack-time again. It turns out that the grip-shifter housing is cracked. For real? Yep. I am convinced that that Sorrento of mine is cursing every other bike that I bring into this house. Why she wants to be subjected to the salt crud and grime or a New England winter I can’t tell. Maybe she loves me. Maybe she’s a masochist. Well, what should I do? Should I give into the demands of my psychotic, possessed bicycle that is able to effect the mechanical well being of the other bikes in the house or should I forge ahead, secure in my knowledge that I am sentient and my choices are right?