Tuesday, May 27, 2008

The new steeds

Here he is (you can click on all of the followig pix to make them big):



This bike spews it's aging testosterone. I bought it from a man who is about 6'3", (I'm a mere 5'10"). Here's the crazy part: my inseam is longer than his! He must have a long set of lungs in that stretched torso.

So far it's been about all I could ask for. There is some random ghost shifting, but I haven't cleaned up the drive train yet (just bought a bottle of simply green for the degreasing).


I'm going to try this chain cleaner:




I've tried the Park version and the thing fell apart in one season. Some may be attributed to a rookie trying to use it by moving the chain in the wrong direction a couple of times, but the majority would be due to the silliness of cleaning a series of metal objects with an assembly of plastic ones.

I bought this rack at Home Depot to transform the bike into my grocery/ beer getter.



We got a rack for my wife that is similar to this one, but sturdier last fall (mine is already bent and I've only brought home one 12-pack!). Her rack worked well throughout the school year and she was carrying a LOT (law school).




Here is the Mrs. new/ used bike:


She is using it to commute to work from our apartment (17 miles round trip). She is mostly on the Campbell Creek trail, so she gets a scenic ride to work. And an occasional moose.


I accompanied her on today's ride and we got spooked when we came around the corner to face a young moose (maybe one or two years old) about 10 yards away! He was a lot less concerned for us than we were of him.


Later in the ride the Mrs. spotted a big mama moose across the creek and when we looked closed we saw that she had a newborn hanging out almost under her legs.

2 comments:

Allen said...

The park one is just crap


ever just use an old tooth brush and t-shirt?

red rabbit said...

Yeah, but the Park tool cleaned much better...even if I had to hold it together as I use it.

I'm thinking it's just one of those unfortunate disposable tools that is really cheaply made.