In Which Francis Is Ready to be Ridden

Francis is back  and ready for me to ride.

The cost to repair Francis was a bit daunting—over $200, more than half the price of a new Francis. I don’t know the relevant math rules,so it is hard for me to rationally conclude if it was worth it, but Francis is back now.

New seat and new seat post. It's comfy.

The bike was tuned, got a new seat and seat post, new chain and new rear gears. A tune costs $75 and a chain is an almost annual $50 or so expense, so I guess over half the bill would be the annual cost of owning any bike, including a new Francis. So, despite my qualms, it probably was OK to get done.

It certainly would not make sense to ride a bike that is not roadworthy.

I’m a bit under the weather today—had a tummy ache and headache
—so I only rode the bike the mile from the shop to home. How was it?

It was Iowa, or maybe Heaven. Someplace nice—the bike was a dream to ride. I shifted silently and smoothly and the new seat felt like I was riding on a recliner. Francis is pretty nice. Of course, maybe it’s the contrast to The Beast, a bike that has no springs on its narrow, hard seat—but I’m looking forward to some longer rides on my familiar Francis.

The Beast will still be around. It will be a handy winter beater bike, and I’m glad to have it. But even more, I’m glad to have Francis back.

New gears and new chain. 1,000 miles wore out the old, I guess.

In Which I Feel Sorry But Then Recall Europe

Scary looking video from storm, one lucky Dutch biker.

It’s been a lousy biking week, blog pals. On Sunday night, on the way home from playing with the MMU Bell Choir as part of the celebration of Mass, my back tire blew.

That was my bad, as I knew the tire was getting thin and needed replacing. But the front derailleur control also cracked, so I could not shift in front. My brake shoes are also shot.

So, I took Francis in to Northtowne Fitness for repairs. Because the bike needs new pedals too, as well as two new derailleur controls, it will be a pricey fix.

And so I have been driving this week. Horrors.

Then again, we’ve had some rainy days, so I really have only missed two days of biking, at most.

And we need the rain. Also, I can’t feel too bad when Europe has been battered by much worse, deadly weather. My wife has spoken with my daughter in England, by the way, and since the weather was not raised as a topic, we’re assuming all is well, although I wonder if my son-in-law had to resort to a bus commute.

Anyway, check out the video in this New York Times story. Among other things, bike traffic was interrupted in The Netherlands.

Well, I hope Francis is back in shape soon. And I hope the weather in Europe is back to normal and those Dutch are back to biking, too.

Recycling Some Bikes for Final RAGBRAI Rides

Junk bike, courtesy of Ames dumpster.  Yes, I got both wheels fixed and chain back on, so it's sort of ready to ride.

Well, yesterday's wobble was more than I thought.  I missed it when I inspected my bike, but I broke a spoke, again.

So, I took Old Blackie into the shop, which this week feels like my second home because I have been there three times in two days.

Anyway, I’ll be without a bike in the week in which I want to maximize my miles.

But, luckily, I have three other bikes to choose from.  Audrey’s?  Well, I did ride it once before. But I prefer for it to be available to her, even if she doesn't choose to use it much. What other bikes do I have?

Audrey and Ben found an old junk bike in a dumpster in Ames this summer and brought it home.  It had multiple problems, including a weirdly overlong chain.  Jon removed some links, but didn’t have time to put the chain back together before moving to Paraguay.

This week, one of my extra trips to the bike shop was to get spare tubes for my main bike and a tube for the junk bike.  When I went to put the tube on, I found it needed new wheel spoke tape, which was an extra trip to Northtowne.  Anyway, what with one thing and another, in several hours I think I got “New Junkie” ready to ride.  Sort of.  It is supposed to be a 21-speed bike, but the derailers are so out of whack that it’s really just a 3 speed.  Well, I can still use it to get some flat trail miles in, so it’s progress.

Jon's pedals.  Need special shoes.

I also bought two cheap pedals at Target.  I swapped out the pedals on Jon’s bike, which require bike shoes, for the plain pedals.  That was a quick fix, and Jon’s will certainly be a more versatile bike, but I have not figured out how to pump up his tires yet.  (CR Biker hates those precious new dinky valves—give me big old fat old-school valves every time).

Anyway, my plan is to use the junk bike for the most part, but do some hilly rides on Jon’s bike once I figure out how to get air into his tires.  My RAGBRAI bike should be back in less than a week, and I admit I am not too sad that I broke that spoke.  It forces me to get the bike tuned now, which makes sense—I’ll be riding over 400 miles across Iowa on a newly tuned bike.

The new pedals, no special shoes.

Bike is Now in the Shop, and log

Turns out the bike had 4 broken spokes, I had noted only 2. Since I hadn't taken it in for new bike tuneup, the bike shop is being very nice about it and it may not be too costly for me to get it back into shape.

So this week's miles are logged on Ben's bike:

Tuesday: 10 miles

Wednesday: 10 miles

Saturday: 8 miles

Year so far: 226, over 200 miles!

Did not ride Thursday or Friday due to other family needs for a second car on campus (we had a young guest and Audrey was doing a project Thursday--since I had to watch kids Thursday I had to drive Beetle to school so Audrey would have it while I used van to ferry kids, then used Beetle take our young guest to school Friday morning).

Did, however, get some miles in by biking over to Nikayla's Saturday birthday party. And I did try to register for RAGBRAI Friday, we'll see if I get in!