The Weekend That Was

So I was standing on Swan Street at 10am Saturday morning - in the fullest, warmest, brightest sunlight of the past six months - surrounded by people in coloured scarves.

Some kind of sporting event I guess...

One the the small clutch of shops stuck like barnacles to the underside of Swan Street's Richmond Station is Abbotsford Cycles; a fine store if you're one of those rational people more interested in maintaining a bike than throwing it away to buy a new one.

Also good if you're one of those people who's broke.

It was to AC that I had travelled to replace a broken spoke on my rear wheel... aaaaand the rear hub axle. Turns out mine was snapped clean in half.

Good thing I didn't break the $50 before leaving the house.

"The problem with an aluminium frame like that" explained John the Mechanic, "is that there's no flex in it - it doesn't absorb any of the impact". He asked if I had hit a pothole, and took my hesitant shrug as uncertainty. Probably for the best - given a few more seconds I might have pressed index finger to digit after digit and recounted them like rides at the fair - without so much as a conscious thought I manage to sample them all before a day is done.

Anyway, the whole thing came to $40 - including a free derailleur hanger straightening. Funny that I never had a problem with it until BSC's spanner monkeys repaired a flat for me.

"Heh heh, your new tube, like, exploded, so like, now we have to upsell you to a new tire, heh heh, plus we kinda don't have it in the 700x32c you're after, so we hope you don't notice that we gave you a 28 instead, and like, we totally bent your hanger and left your bike in its highest gear. That'll be, like, $75!"

John also tells me I'll need a new bottom bracket soon, as I've mangled the current semi non-sealed one. Apparently I'm "cutting grooves in the cups", which, despite the lyric quality of the phrase, is not a euphemism for krunk DJing.

A Shimano UN-54 will set me back $35.

I ran my plan to buy a Cross-Check* past John, which was met with slow and steady nod of the head.

"A steel-framed cyclocross bike is a very good idea if you want both speed and durability".

Why doesn't everyone ride one again?

Simondo out.

P.S. Saw the Mummy 3 on Sunday with some free tix Jen scored from work. Up until that point I thought the two hours I spent inhaling RP-7 fumes while cleaning my drivetrain was the biggest hit my IQ could take before the weekend was out. Geeez. I mean, you've heard of wait 'til DVD? This is more like wait 'til drunken skeet shooting. End credit design was nice tho.

*This isn't throwing a bike away and replacing it so much as it is removing one from an abusive relationship.

BSC opens new store at QV on Russell - Service may still suck

Apparently, Brunswick Street Cycles has opened the city's biggest bicycle store in the QV on Russell St.

I'm all for it, so long as the service is better than that provided at the eponymous festering heart of their evil brake mis-aligning empire.

Also, it'd be nice if the operators at Vodafone 123 didn't treat me like a total bonehead when I ask for Brunswick Street Cycles in the CBD.*

*I have some painful conversations with those folks (yes, The Westgarth is a Palace Cinema, but nobody calls it that!).

2009 Ranges Abound

Including this awesome offering from Bianchi, who have re-introduced good old steel to their line-up for the coming year.

Check the webpages of your favourite brands for an idea of what's headed to your LBS.

Warning: Some brands *cough*Avanti*cough*, have opted for basic colour and top tube curvature changes only (as well as a really annoying and badly compressed flash dude on the bottom left of the main page).

Annoying...

I rolled out through the front gate this morning just in time to see the garbos hoist a complete bike into the back of the truck, and then compact it.

If you have a bike you have no use for, you can donate it to these guys, these guys, these guys or these guys, and help keep the entry level for new cyclists cheap and environmentally friendly.

Re-use rocks.

Holy Chic

(the above image remains the property of the people who shot it, in this case, Knog)

So, Knog is a bicycle accessories company that has just opened a store on Chapel St.

If you don't think bicycles have crossed the threshold into the world of 'designer accessory', think again.

That's all well and good mind you - Crumpler have been weird for years now, and fashion bikes are still bikes so long as someone rides them - but my question is this; do you really want to buy a bike no one else in the country sells (Swobo), from a store that doesn't appear to have a mechanic? How can you have a relationship with your bike store if your only interaction with them is to buy new accessories? Eventually, you're gonna have them all, and then what?

Having said all that, Knog Lights are very, very nice.