He's "just" a bike mechanic?

As I have mentioned before, to any one who would listen, I love, love LOVE my Trek 820! It's been a good bike and I don't know that I can bring myself to part with her but I needed a change. The problem is, you see, that my wife got herself a new bike. A hybrid. She dusts me now. I can't keep up on a bike that weighs as much as the 820 with wheels as small as the 820 and towing 40-50 pounds of child and trailer behind me (she claims that I deserve he handicap). To be fair, there were a couple of thins on my "wish list" for the 820, the most significant of them being a rigid fork. I have long said that if any thing ever happened to my 820 I would replace it with a bottom-line Trek hybrid. When a 2011 Trek 7.2fx popped up on my local Craigslist for pretty cheep money and in "very good condition" I had to go take a look at it. What started out as a bike purchase soon became a bike rescue.

It was clear that this thing had sen better days.It was scuffed up for sure and needed a tune-up but it seemed to be mechanically sound so I forked over the dough and took her home. I decided that, since I have more time than money right now, I would do the tune-up myself. It's not going well. I have been at this, off and on, for days now and it sill isn't right. What I need to do is get all new cables and housings for it. I had to bring the back wheel in and have a spoke replaced and trued though, and the set me back a few dollars that I didn't want to spend. Now, I can't get the front wheel to spin freely. It stops in the same place each time, indicating to me that the front wheel is also out of true. OR I adjusted the breaks wrong. I haven't even started on the shifting problems yet! It's been a lot or trial and error so far and I am "this close" from throwing in the towel and punting it to a professional. I suppose it's easy if you do it every day but despite the simplicity of a bicycle it's a delicate process getting it "just right".

I am eager to give this thing a real ride and see if it's every thing that the 820 was but, you know, faster! I guess I can head down to the LBS and get the cables and stuff but I'm afraid that some of the components might just be worn out and that I can adjust to my heart's content and never get it right and never figure out if it's me or the bike that's out of sorts. If I start throwing more money at this thing I might as well just buy a brand new one. Oh, and it wasn't a 2011. It was a 2007. Kind of a different  beast. Maybe I'll just put it back on CL and get the new one after all.

Signed,

Frustrated In The Tween Space.

Not Blak Fridaying

If I were, I would be hitting this!

I actually have plans for such a thing. Sadly they include taking it on very infrequent kayak Trips and for some inter-modal commuting that would take well over twice as long as simply driving there. So, theres not  lot of actual need for such a thing and since I haven't been working due to a broken foot, there is little money for one of these things. Oh sure, there is the "wicked neat" factor. Of course to "fit in" in the greater boston blogosphere I need a Brompton. Like this one.

Now I have a soft spot for French Bikes, but these things start at eight hundred and fifty Pounds so, they are significantly more pricy than the Origami Cricket pictured above the above. Perhaps if I suck up to a local custom frame builder I can make my own. Make my own folding bike huh? I can't make my own pancakes with 100% certainty. I think home-made folding bikes are out!

Folding bikes.

Love them.
Want one.
Dreaming up reasons why I "need" one.
Can't afford one (even a cheepie).
Am not capable of manufacturing one of my own.
Accepting donations!

Dead Blogs

As I sit here recovering from my "incident" I have a lot of time on my hands. I have been catching up on a lot of the blogs that I had subscribed to when i first started to enjoy the pastime of Cycling and realized that most of them are dead! There is one particular fellow in Boston who I was convinced had or contributed to a Blog and it was him particularly that I was seeking out. I had the opportunity to sell him a frame for a project that he was thinking of a while ago but it didn't work out. I wish that it had! He is definitely the kind of guy the I would like to know better IRL, but since that opportunity has passed, I wanted to stalk his intern self. Nothing, There are a lot, like 10, of those old blogs that I found interesting that have one or two posts in the last year or none at all! Get Bloging people! 

What a pretentious twat!

I don't know why I keep reading her. It's like a train wreck. I can't look away. I value her opinion (sort of). I care about her, I have a crush on her at the same time I want to punch her right in her hipster nose.

My foot hurts something awful. It's broken. My body is breaking. I need to ride or die, but ride I can not! Hope that I can hold off on the dying for a month or so!

First day of Slavery for the Marthon

Hooked the old Raleigh up to the trainer today. Sad times.

My Ross Bryce Canyon

Since I broke my damn foot I am OOS when it comes to cycling these days so all I can do is dream.... Today I am dreaming about my "camp bike" that I leave up at my in-laws' place in case I wanna ride when I am up there. I actually bought the bike to strip for parts to fix a Trek 820 that I had but the bike was in too nice of a condition to chop and, after I looked into it some, I realized that I had a pretty nice and unique ride indeed. Apparently, although the only bike I ever remembered from them was the Apollo 5-speed (you know I had one of those!). I didn't realize that they were a founding force in the Big Name mountianbike scene back in the day or that they once made, here in the USA, competitive MTBs. This one isn't top of the line, by any stretch but I think that it is at least as well specked out as any thing form the other Big Players of the era. It doesn't get ridden nearly enough but I think that it rides pretty nice. I am a little leery of taking it on real rigged trails as it is a little too big for me but for the dirt roads and back streets near FIL and MIL, It's the bomb!