Zora’s bike

This is Zora‘s old bike, modeling in my kitchen (how many bikes can my small place fit!?). We’ll call it the Tour de France. I forgot to mention that in addition to all the other problems, the front derailleur doesn’t work at all. I rode it back from Zora’s today. She’s out of town.

I got a very worried call from Aaron, my old friend and Zora’s roommate. Nellie, the very old landlady wanted the bike off the gate it was locked to. It blocked the driveway. Fine. I was going to take it anyway. But now it was some kind of minor crises, I got from the tone in Aaron’s voice message. Of course the bike was locked there in the first place because Nellie told Zora to put it there because she didn’t want he son or something parking his car there. Oh well.

Despite all the bike’s problems. It rides really well! As my dad says you’re supposed to say after you drink a shot of harsh liquor: “Smooth!” This bike is great to coast with. I don’t know what I was expecting. If it didn’t have all its problems, it would be a great bike! But I guess Zora knows that. That means this new bike had better be good. Because I could have just fixed the old one.

There’s also the question of when I start stripping the old bike. Because that means the new bike had better be ready soon. And when the brake handles come, I gotta have those handlebars. But I would hate for Zora to have to bike while my not too time pressured ass was waiting for some shipment of brake cable stays or something.

I figured out that the old seat post doesn’t fit the new bike. A shame. And another $15. I think (and hope) the new bike’s seat post is 27.2mm. I first thought it was 26.8mm. But then I found an old seatpost I just happened to have (huh?). It was 26.8 and is way too small. It’s kind of hard to measure the seat-post tube diamter because the seat-post tube can be tightened and closed a bit at the top. I’m sure there’s a special tool to measure the diameter inside the tube, but I don’t have one.