Yesterday I moved my bike from one bicycle shop a few miles to another shop. I happen to live on-top of a bicycle shop. I brought my new trekking bicycle in for some customization. Which was fine except they didn't have a handlebar swept back enough. The guy was like: You don't really want a cruiser handlebar on this bike. He was busy so we didn't have time to discuss it much. Even though I was willing to pay all the costs, even just for testing it out.
I got a new seat (which was properly adjusted), mirror and bell. Then I rode it a few miles to where I bought the bike. To see what they had to say. A guy there explained a bunch of stuff including handling and control and then sold me the same handlebar the other shop was offering. Which is slightly curved back but not as much as I was willing to test.
Later this morning I am going to pick it from the shop but today is my MIL 93rd Birthday so we will be celebrating that with her. Maybe some tool adjustments and then I should be all set.
Thanks for joining us!
Yesterday I moved my bike from one bicycle shop a few miles to another shopHere is a picture of my new bicycle with the second bicycle shop on the right. Place used to be a slaughterhouse. It's an old landmark so they had to restore the original structure to use it.
Inside, what I call Bicycle Heaven (picture shows half the place):
https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/48439933787_9d07f34461_b.jpg
I reinstalled the STRAVA app. I was using a German developed app because it sounds a beep and tells stats every mile like distance, pace, calories burned. But does not stamp stats to a picture taken like STRAVA does. Using both drains the camera battery.
It's like nothing can be perfect.
There is an area a mile away that is sanctioned for graffiti. I often go out of my way to ride by and see what's new. Graffiti there gets painted over in a matter of days by new graffiti. Yesterday when moving my bike to the second shop, I rode to the area and took this picture for STRAVA stats. Problem is the app got glitched so the stats are not correct. It lost GPS and remained on a long time after I was done. But it is still a good thing, first problem I had with it.
https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/48440298216_cfd4174f33_b.jpg
I added the name and date with another app. My name isn't really Thomas Christmas. Years ago my daughter asked what my name is so I told her Thomas Christmas. I don't know why I lied but she really liked it so I kept it.
You certainly look handy on your Freeper page. I had one of my bicycles modified as you described 15 years ago by having "North Road" handlebars installed on my Trek 7200. This worked very well and was much more ergonomic for me than the flat handlebars it originally came with. After that I added triathlon bars to it so that I could crouch down and be more aerodynamic in a headwind by supporting myself on my elbows. It's an odd combination but it works suprisingly well.
Since then I have slowly started doing more of my own maintenance until now I enjoy restoring older European (mostly English, Dutch, and German) bicycles and recumbent bicycles. I now find bicycle maintenance an enjoyable pursuit on its own but it allows me to own and ride a much wider variety of bicycles than I would previously have been able to afford.
