Sunday, August 24, 2008
OF BIKES AND BIRDS............
When I bought my loverly new bike I must have ticked the box that said "Would you like to receive extra dramas at no extra cost?"
After receiving the call last week with an offer of a new bike I told the dude at the shop that I will come in on Saturday and discuss the issue with him.
Two days later I get a phone call from the same dude telling me that for whatever reason they managed to get the shifter cable back into my bike frame.
Amazing what you can achieve when you have a crack at it.
So that Friday ( a week ago ) I drove to the bike shop after work and picked up the yellow two wheeled equivalent of a melodramatic diva.
That weekend I picked up Snorkmaiden's cold and didn't really get a chance to take the bike for a test ride.
Monday night we're having dinner when an almighty bang disrupted our meal. For all intents and purposes I honestly thought someone had thrown a concrete block at our door.
My second thought was that it was the schizophrenic man who lives across from us as he has been known to slam doors in the middle of the night.
It wasn't until the next morning when I found my bike with a flat rear tyre that it dawned on me.
The inner tube had exploded popping the tyre off the rim.
90 pounds per square inch makes a lot of bang let me tell you.
Wednesday I dropped the dysfunctional machine off at the bike shop to get a new tube fitted as it was obviously defective.
Today I took it for the first real proper run, a 42 km round trip to the bay and back with Snorkmaiden on Ruby, her redilicious road bike.
The bike went well. Nothing went wrong with it. It did everything exactly like it was supposed to.
About 300m from our destination I discovered that my bike possessed some form of telepathic communication ability with our fine feathered avian friends.
Coming into a roundabout I noticed some seagulls taking to the air and one particular one catching an updraft in a sweeping arc, it's flight path about to intersect my line.
It was all too late when I noticed that this bird was wearing goggles, leather helmet and a scarf flapping in the breeze.
Last thing I remember was hearing "Bombs away!" and seeing something getting closer and closer, it's shape indistinguishable and then splat.
Right in the middle of the handlebar was a fat baby chuck green and liquid white seagull shit, well most of it anyway.
The rest had ricocheted onto my left knee.
I was pretty lucky really, had I been a fraction of a second quicker I would have been munching on bird turd.
Thankfully the trip home was a lot less dramatic, although it did take it out of me. A couple of times my legs went to jelly and I was forced to get right down to the lowest gear on one hill.
Can't wait to see what the next outing will bring.....
.
After receiving the call last week with an offer of a new bike I told the dude at the shop that I will come in on Saturday and discuss the issue with him.
Two days later I get a phone call from the same dude telling me that for whatever reason they managed to get the shifter cable back into my bike frame.
Amazing what you can achieve when you have a crack at it.
So that Friday ( a week ago ) I drove to the bike shop after work and picked up the yellow two wheeled equivalent of a melodramatic diva.
That weekend I picked up Snorkmaiden's cold and didn't really get a chance to take the bike for a test ride.
Monday night we're having dinner when an almighty bang disrupted our meal. For all intents and purposes I honestly thought someone had thrown a concrete block at our door.
My second thought was that it was the schizophrenic man who lives across from us as he has been known to slam doors in the middle of the night.
It wasn't until the next morning when I found my bike with a flat rear tyre that it dawned on me.
The inner tube had exploded popping the tyre off the rim.
90 pounds per square inch makes a lot of bang let me tell you.
Wednesday I dropped the dysfunctional machine off at the bike shop to get a new tube fitted as it was obviously defective.
Today I took it for the first real proper run, a 42 km round trip to the bay and back with Snorkmaiden on Ruby, her redilicious road bike.
The bike went well. Nothing went wrong with it. It did everything exactly like it was supposed to.
About 300m from our destination I discovered that my bike possessed some form of telepathic communication ability with our fine feathered avian friends.
Coming into a roundabout I noticed some seagulls taking to the air and one particular one catching an updraft in a sweeping arc, it's flight path about to intersect my line.
It was all too late when I noticed that this bird was wearing goggles, leather helmet and a scarf flapping in the breeze.
Last thing I remember was hearing "Bombs away!" and seeing something getting closer and closer, it's shape indistinguishable and then splat.
Right in the middle of the handlebar was a fat baby chuck green and liquid white seagull shit, well most of it anyway.
The rest had ricocheted onto my left knee.
I was pretty lucky really, had I been a fraction of a second quicker I would have been munching on bird turd.
Thankfully the trip home was a lot less dramatic, although it did take it out of me. A couple of times my legs went to jelly and I was forced to get right down to the lowest gear on one hill.
Can't wait to see what the next outing will bring.....
.
Thursday, August 14, 2008
CAKES AND BIKES..........
As promised, a couple of shots from the engagement party oooh, about a month ago now.
Note the original bubble gum machine engagement ring.
Since then, I have started my photography course. It's good to get back into that environment where I am surrounded by other people with similar passions / interests who feel strongly enough to pursue them at a tertiary level. In the last few weeks I have learnt new things which I am trying to employ in my photography. All in all it seems like I chose a good institution to study at, that being the Photographic Studies College, which has been operating for 36 years now and is one of the better educational centres in the country.
The bicycle saga continues:
After spending some time one Saturday in a bike shop I had test ridden about 4 styles of bikes and finally settled on one which I thought would best suit my needs and would be the easiest to live with.
I placed and order and spent the next few days giddy as a schoolboy with anticipation of taking delivery of my newest toy. I was looking forward to starting riding to work and for recreational purposes. I was confident I'd made the right choice in bike style that I could look forward to months and years of content panting atop the two wheeled contraption.
First thing that happened was that I received a phone call which informed me that the frame in my size was not available in yellow as ordered but only black. Upon enquiring as to the availability of a yellow frame I was informed I would be facing a wait until February. Boo for that I say. So, reluctantly I settled for a black one.
The next day I was told that the box containing my bike had arrived and surprisingly contained a yellow bike. I thought I got lucky.
On the Wednesday I hurried to the shop after work and picked up the new bike.
There it was all gleaming and new, she was an absolute picture!
I rode it home and on the way noticed that that top gear felt a bit clunky, almost like it wanted to jump out.
Along with the bike I'd ordered a bunch of accessories to tailor it to my wants. I figured the gear issue was just a matter of cable adjustment when I get the other bits fitted on the following Saturday.
On top of that one side of the axle moved forward and the the chain came off. Later we worked out that it was when the bike was detached from the wind trainer in the shop that one side of the axle loosened.
That Saturday I left the bike at the shop for a while, caught a movie, picked up the bike and rode home.
Top gear issue was now rectified, but I had a funny clunking in 7th and 8th of the 9 gears.
Not being bothered to turn around I figured I'll return the next Saturday to have it adjusted.
A week later I returned and asked to have the gears looked at again. I took off for a hot chocolate and returned to the bike shop. I was told the gears were adjusted and I went for a short ride around the block to check for myself. Indeed the 7th & 8th gears were now smoother but 4th, 5th & 6th were now clunky. On return I insisted the mechanic take it for a spin and my suspicions were confirmed when he walked back in with a rather concerned / confused look on his face. I once again left the shop and a short time later received a call. Apparently there was a little brass piece missing from the selector cable mount and it would require an inspection by the distributor. And so another week would have to go by before I could come back to the shop. I was given a loan bike and returned a week later.
Last Saturday I rode back to the shop and was presented with a completely new gear hub, cable and shifter. All good except that the old cable was neatly run through the frame from crank to head stem and the new one was tied with black cable ties along the frame. The beautiful clean lines of the yellow machine now resembled a rather unsightly wasp like creature. I pointed out my dissatisfaction with the repairs and asked that the cable be run through the frame again.
Today I received a call which explained that the reason for my having a new hub / cable/ shifter assembly fitted was that the cable cannot be detached and refitted. I was then told a new bike would be offered, but like the Ford Model T it could be any colour as long as it's black as there are definitely no more small frame yellow ones left now. Or I could go for the 8 speed model instead of the 9 speed one.
A week earlier I had a longer head stem fitted as the bike felt cramped. I'm beginning to think I was fitted to too small a frame to start with.
So the decision now is do I go for a small black frame, go up to a mid frame in yellow or opt for a yellow small framed 8 speed?
This Saturday I'm off to the bike shop again. That will take me up to one month since getting embroiled in this two wheeled debacle.
Who knows what that will bring.
.
Note the original bubble gum machine engagement ring.
Since then, I have started my photography course. It's good to get back into that environment where I am surrounded by other people with similar passions / interests who feel strongly enough to pursue them at a tertiary level. In the last few weeks I have learnt new things which I am trying to employ in my photography. All in all it seems like I chose a good institution to study at, that being the Photographic Studies College, which has been operating for 36 years now and is one of the better educational centres in the country.
The bicycle saga continues:
After spending some time one Saturday in a bike shop I had test ridden about 4 styles of bikes and finally settled on one which I thought would best suit my needs and would be the easiest to live with.
I placed and order and spent the next few days giddy as a schoolboy with anticipation of taking delivery of my newest toy. I was looking forward to starting riding to work and for recreational purposes. I was confident I'd made the right choice in bike style that I could look forward to months and years of content panting atop the two wheeled contraption.
First thing that happened was that I received a phone call which informed me that the frame in my size was not available in yellow as ordered but only black. Upon enquiring as to the availability of a yellow frame I was informed I would be facing a wait until February. Boo for that I say. So, reluctantly I settled for a black one.
The next day I was told that the box containing my bike had arrived and surprisingly contained a yellow bike. I thought I got lucky.
On the Wednesday I hurried to the shop after work and picked up the new bike.
There it was all gleaming and new, she was an absolute picture!
I rode it home and on the way noticed that that top gear felt a bit clunky, almost like it wanted to jump out.
Along with the bike I'd ordered a bunch of accessories to tailor it to my wants. I figured the gear issue was just a matter of cable adjustment when I get the other bits fitted on the following Saturday.
On top of that one side of the axle moved forward and the the chain came off. Later we worked out that it was when the bike was detached from the wind trainer in the shop that one side of the axle loosened.
That Saturday I left the bike at the shop for a while, caught a movie, picked up the bike and rode home.
Top gear issue was now rectified, but I had a funny clunking in 7th and 8th of the 9 gears.
Not being bothered to turn around I figured I'll return the next Saturday to have it adjusted.
A week later I returned and asked to have the gears looked at again. I took off for a hot chocolate and returned to the bike shop. I was told the gears were adjusted and I went for a short ride around the block to check for myself. Indeed the 7th & 8th gears were now smoother but 4th, 5th & 6th were now clunky. On return I insisted the mechanic take it for a spin and my suspicions were confirmed when he walked back in with a rather concerned / confused look on his face. I once again left the shop and a short time later received a call. Apparently there was a little brass piece missing from the selector cable mount and it would require an inspection by the distributor. And so another week would have to go by before I could come back to the shop. I was given a loan bike and returned a week later.
Last Saturday I rode back to the shop and was presented with a completely new gear hub, cable and shifter. All good except that the old cable was neatly run through the frame from crank to head stem and the new one was tied with black cable ties along the frame. The beautiful clean lines of the yellow machine now resembled a rather unsightly wasp like creature. I pointed out my dissatisfaction with the repairs and asked that the cable be run through the frame again.
Today I received a call which explained that the reason for my having a new hub / cable/ shifter assembly fitted was that the cable cannot be detached and refitted. I was then told a new bike would be offered, but like the Ford Model T it could be any colour as long as it's black as there are definitely no more small frame yellow ones left now. Or I could go for the 8 speed model instead of the 9 speed one.
A week earlier I had a longer head stem fitted as the bike felt cramped. I'm beginning to think I was fitted to too small a frame to start with.
So the decision now is do I go for a small black frame, go up to a mid frame in yellow or opt for a yellow small framed 8 speed?
This Saturday I'm off to the bike shop again. That will take me up to one month since getting embroiled in this two wheeled debacle.
Who knows what that will bring.
.
