It's been about 10 years since I last put any serious miles on my road bike. I have a Trek 1400 with pre STI (shifters in the brake levers) Shimano 105 components. Cleaning out the storage shed a few weeks ago I ran across it. The bike was in awful shape, rusty cables and chain, flat tires, really sad. It needed to be repaired and used.

There is a bike shop in Kaysville that recently moved to a new, big store. I've been watching the construction and decided to take my bike there. They offer a $40 full tune-up. That didn't seem unreasonable. That was three weeks and over $500 ago. How did this happen?

First there was the tune-up ($40). The tires ($30 each) and tubes ($8 apiece) were in bad shape. Oh, and the seat was old. The new style ($40) is more, um, friendly to us guys. I made that decision right there in the bike shop that first day. The repairs took a while. On the Thursday that the work was scheduled a nice young man called. The chain ($12) was too rusty to salvage and the cables ($3 each) could stand to be replaced, too. Oh, and as long as we were at it the tape ($12) on the handle bars was damaged. "Okay, go ahead", was my innocent reply. I should have said, "I'll be right down to get my bike, don't touch a thing."

The day arrived to pick up the bike. The restoration was done. Leaving the shop I realized that my pump was lost. The nice older gentleman at the counter said that he had a nice pump ($15) that would work well. I also needed some riding gloves ($20) and a repair kit ($3.50), repair tools ($5) and some electrolyte replacement mix ($6). The total bill came to just over $200. I was just getting started.

A few days later, on a ride, I was once again drawn to the bike shop. There are so many cool new things for bikes. I had to get that Camelbak hydration system ($85) and the Sigma Systems computer ($28). I past on the installation. I could do that myself.

On my rides this week I put on 55 miles. I know this because of my neat new computer. The bike was running a little rough. I was getting some chain jump from my rear derailler. And my right knee has been bugging me. There has been some weird stress and it seems to be getting worse. So I stopped by another bike shop on my way home Wednesday night. Amazingly, for only $30 they would do a complete fitting to make sure the bike was set up properly. I made an appointment for Saturday morning.

So this morning I went for the fitting. First we checked my shoes. I have clipless pedals and an old pair of Nike road shoes. How old? They have laces. You can't find lace bike shoes any more. It's all velcro and straps. The shoes were tweaked. And there were some parts missing. No chance of finding these parts now. They are ancient.

So I needed new shoes ($70) to get the right set up. And, of course, there were no adapters for my existing pedals, so I had to get a set of Shimano 520s ($60). The bike was pretty good, otherwise. I did like the Specialized Phat Wrap ($30) with it's gel system and cool padded look. It appealed to me. My hands start to ache after about 10 miles. And that chain/derailler jump was bugging me. I had them work on the rear derailler ($10) and while the mechanic was looking this over it was obvious that a link needed to be removed from my new chain ($5). That bill was $201. Good think I got the 10% discount on all this stuff.

On the way out I noticed my handle bar had slipped. As we discussed this problem, I was apprised of the fact that the bars were a couple of inches below the seat level. The bike is old, so the only way to address this is to order a new stem ($40) and a new handle bar ($35). That will arrive toward the end of next week. The only thing left to do is add a new pump ($25) and perhaps some Tiagra STI shifters ($120). If I go that route I will have over $700 into the bike. I could have purchased a new one for about $1000. And it would have all the latest, cool technology.

This afternoon I went for an extra long ride. I put on 22.5 miles. That lactic acid really burned. It's good to be back on the bike............
10:08:26 PM    comment []