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This morning, as ![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
scrottie and I were setting out for a bike ride before things got *too* hot, I heard a distinctive "PING! Clunk" while we rode across the Mill Avenue Bridge. Upon stopping, I ascertained that I had just broken a spoke on the Jolly Roger's rear wheel. After a brief consultation, we turned around and rode over to the Bicycle Cellar. I spent some time with a mechanic, going through and pricing different wheel options, and finally concluded that my best bet would be a pair of replacement Apocalypse Wheels. My friend RG, a very experienced bike mechanic, helped me come up with specs for these wheels. They are 26", 36-spoke Mavic XC 717 wheels with Shimano XT hubs. That's a high spoke count, for you non-bicyclely inclined folks. They won't be light (nor are they especially cheap), but they should be incredibly durable, even if I load the bike up with pounds and pounds of things, and jump it off of curbs. I've been pondering this purchase for quite a while, but it feels good to make this decision. It's good to have a trusty steed, even if it's slow.
While I was at the Bike Cellar, I also inquired about wheels for one of my mom's road bikes, which is parked up in Seattle. She has two bikes, but I don't know if she has even ridden either one of them even once in the past year. Meanwhile,scrottie and I have found them quite convenient during our visits up there. They save us the trouble and expense of shipping bicycles back and forth. The downside is that they aren't in the best of shape for longer rides. I rode one of them (I call it the "Blue Devil") around Lake Washington a few years ago, but the front wheel has a large dent in it and the thing just doesn't brake very well. S and I are going to ride up to Sunrise on Mt. Rainier with my dad in a few weeks, so the Blue Devil could use some adjustments in preparation for the ride. As it happened, the Bike Cellar had the appropriate wheels in stock. They're nothing fancy (factory-built aluminum wheels), which is perfect. Now I just need to send them up to Seattle, where I'll spend a day working on that bike before we set out for our Mt. Rainier adventures.
With those errands taken care of, S and I set out once again, just a few hours later than we'd hoped to head out the door. Okay, maybe our 7 am departure time was a tad optimistic. It's kind of warm here today (current temp is 116 degrees), so we had to abort our original mission of riding around Mummy Mountain. Instead, we took care of miscellaneous, small errands, and made our way up to S's house to start tackling some larger chores.
You see, I am thinking about purchasing a vehicle. I've made it 30 perfectly happy years without one, but I can forsee needing/wanting a truck for life in Texas (by the way, it looks like I will be moving to Bryan, Texas at the end of August, to work at Texas A&M University as a postdoc). Ugh, it's not a fun project, people. Time-consuming, and I dislike the uncertainty, expense, and hassle of it all. Car-shopping goes hand-in-hand with figuring out how to move to Texas - what I can bring, and all that. Just, ugh.
scrottie and I were setting out for a bike ride before things got *too* hot, I heard a distinctive "PING! Clunk" while we rode across the Mill Avenue Bridge. Upon stopping, I ascertained that I had just broken a spoke on the Jolly Roger's rear wheel. After a brief consultation, we turned around and rode over to the Bicycle Cellar. I spent some time with a mechanic, going through and pricing different wheel options, and finally concluded that my best bet would be a pair of replacement Apocalypse Wheels. My friend RG, a very experienced bike mechanic, helped me come up with specs for these wheels. They are 26", 36-spoke Mavic XC 717 wheels with Shimano XT hubs. That's a high spoke count, for you non-bicyclely inclined folks. They won't be light (nor are they especially cheap), but they should be incredibly durable, even if I load the bike up with pounds and pounds of things, and jump it off of curbs. I've been pondering this purchase for quite a while, but it feels good to make this decision. It's good to have a trusty steed, even if it's slow.While I was at the Bike Cellar, I also inquired about wheels for one of my mom's road bikes, which is parked up in Seattle. She has two bikes, but I don't know if she has even ridden either one of them even once in the past year. Meanwhile,
scrottie and I have found them quite convenient during our visits up there. They save us the trouble and expense of shipping bicycles back and forth. The downside is that they aren't in the best of shape for longer rides. I rode one of them (I call it the "Blue Devil") around Lake Washington a few years ago, but the front wheel has a large dent in it and the thing just doesn't brake very well. S and I are going to ride up to Sunrise on Mt. Rainier with my dad in a few weeks, so the Blue Devil could use some adjustments in preparation for the ride. As it happened, the Bike Cellar had the appropriate wheels in stock. They're nothing fancy (factory-built aluminum wheels), which is perfect. Now I just need to send them up to Seattle, where I'll spend a day working on that bike before we set out for our Mt. Rainier adventures.With those errands taken care of, S and I set out once again, just a few hours later than we'd hoped to head out the door. Okay, maybe our 7 am departure time was a tad optimistic. It's kind of warm here today (current temp is 116 degrees), so we had to abort our original mission of riding around Mummy Mountain. Instead, we took care of miscellaneous, small errands, and made our way up to S's house to start tackling some larger chores.
You see, I am thinking about purchasing a vehicle. I've made it 30 perfectly happy years without one, but I can forsee needing/wanting a truck for life in Texas (by the way, it looks like I will be moving to Bryan, Texas at the end of August, to work at Texas A&M University as a postdoc). Ugh, it's not a fun project, people. Time-consuming, and I dislike the uncertainty, expense, and hassle of it all. Car-shopping goes hand-in-hand with figuring out how to move to Texas - what I can bring, and all that. Just, ugh.
