visit to the bicycle shop.

saturday, may 20th, 2023.

Yesterday was a busy day for us! Got a lot of things I've been meaning to do done.

I have an old 2008 Marin Muirwoods commuter bicycle that I used to commute to work on. It badly needs a rebuild— it's got cosmetic rust spots all over, the cables need to be replaced, and really it just needs a lot of TLC.

So I pulled it out of the storage unit and schlepped it on over to our local bike shop and met a lovely older gentleman named Nick who is clearly running his shop with a deep passion for crafstmanship.

He was excited to get a bicycle to work on that was well-built from the factory. As he described it, the manufacturing quality of bicycles has slumped significantly in the interim period between when I purchased this bicycle and today.

After we had a bit of banter, he excitedly invited me to his workshop in the back to show me some defects that bicycle manufacturers have been putting into bicycles several orders of magnitude more expensive than what I paid so many years ago (a little over $400). One example: the spoke nipples on a $2,400 bicycle came from the factory bent and too large for the spoke. It wasn't immediately obvious, but he said that this wheel was likely to break a spoke after hitting a serious bump or two.

As he put it (paraphrased): "If the manufacturer ships 200 of these bicycles and only hears a complaint from one or two people, then of course they're gonna cut corners and keep selling bikes like these!"

So I guess what I'm saying is that I've left my bicycle in the right hands. He estimated the rebuild to cost somewhere between $400-$500, which is about what I was expecting before I went in. He's going to try to clean out and re-use as many of the original parts (shifters, derailleurs, etc.) as he can. He didn't expect he'd have to replace any of the major components, just the cables, tires, and tubes.

And in about two weeks, I'm going to have a beautifully working and tuned bicycle! I'm so excited, wow. My partner even said I was talking about the bicycle in my sleep. As they put it: "you gave me the happiest smile before falling back asleep. You're dreaming about bikes 🥺"

hanging some posters.

We visited the thrift shop and craft store after eating lunch at a Vietnamese restaurant. Got a bunch of picture frames— some really nice ones from the thrift store for $2-$5 each and some significantly more expensive and less well-made ones from the craft store.

I used some twine and drywall anchors to hang up a few after we got home yesterday evening. It looks so good! We're definitely going to do the maximalist thing and cover our walls in all sorts of bizarre stuff that makes us happy. This is a nice start!

I'll replace the twine with metal wire soon, as it appears that I can only expect that twine to hold the nearly six pounds of picture frame weight for maybe 100 days. Having one of these picture frames spontaneously fall off of the wall and its glass shatter doesn't seem like a fun time. 😅

I suppose that's all for now! Until next time, be well. :)