Sunday, December 21, 2014

One bottom bracket later

Those of you who follow my blog (current count = zero) will remember that my last entry was a bit of a cliff hanger. Near the end of my last ride something felt wrong with my bottom bracket - my chainring was wobbly and the bike was making scary cracking sounds. The last time I broke my bottom bracket I ended up in the hospital and buying a new bike. I took the bike to Redlands Cyclery and waited for the news.

As my bike has Campagnola components I assumed the bottom bracket would be at least $200 and that I'd probably be looking at a $250 bill. Two days later I went in to see how my baby was doing. Wouldn't it be great if the repair department of the bike store was set up like a ward in a hospital with visiting hours, a gift shop, etc? Come to think of it, the entire bike store is a gift shop for your bicycle.

Jason, the mechanic, told me there were no complications and installed the new bottom bracket while I waited. I couldn't bear to watch my baby being operated on so I wandered around the gift shop looking for something nice to get her. I noticed that NiteRider now has a two watt tail light that looks identical to the Cygolite. I smell a lawsuit.

Fifteen minutes later my bike was all fixed up and the bill was only $60 - that's pretty impressive. I thanked them and took my baby home to get cleaned up. That last ride went through quite a bit of mud and water.

Friday night I rode my monthly Lucky Greek permanent populaire (100k) and on the way back ticked over 10,000 miles for the year. The bottom bracket worked perfectly. I'll be heading back over to the bike store to give them all a Christmas present.

Tonight Amber and I will be riding to Beachwood BBQ and back.

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