One Day at a Time

It's finally getting warm enough for me to ride my bike to work in the mornings again. I'm not nearly as hard-core as some of my friends are about biking and alternative transit, so I tend to wuss out on 20+ degree mornings on the bike.

And then there was the last time I rode my bike to work, on Wednesday, April 27. I'm going up the last hill before I get to work, and my shifter stops working. Fortunately, the gear it ended in was not a terrible gear (if you only get one), so I was able to take the bike to the shop in Dinkytown that afternoon.

"Your shifter is going bad," the guy says, "and the only options you have are to live with it or replace it."

"I'll replace it. I have a tour coming up on the 7th of May. Can you have it repaired by then?"

"As long as we have the parts. Let's see...yes, we have a shifter that will work."

"Great. Will this repair affect the brakes at all?"

"Hmm. It appears that your shifter and brake levers are integrated. That means we'll also have to put on new levers. But we don't normally stock cantilever brake levers."

So, I take the bike, go home, and get on the phone. First store I try, same thing. Have the shifters, not the levers. I get lucky on the second attempt; they have the levers, but not the shifters.

"Great. Can you hold them for me?"

"If you can get in this evening, they're yours."

Grab the husband and head to uptown at rush hour to pick up the levers. Three guys in the shop helping one customer, and not paying attention to the fact that there is someone else in the shop. When they do get to me, I'm obviously not talking to the same guy as on the phone, because he can't find the levers.

Ultimately, yes, the story ends well. Got the levers, headed back to the first shop that had the shifters. Not only does everything work, but they even have the bike done the next evening, Thursday, April 28. Plan to take it for a spin over the weekend to get used to the new set-up and make sure everything is fine before the 60-mile tour on the 7th.

Which leads back to the beginning of my story. It's finally warm enough to ride my bike. Everything's good, everything works, and it's beautiful riding weather now. 'Swonderful!