Ever Changing, Yet Always Me

BAD NEWS:  my beloved old bike was stolen on Thursday from outside a hair salon on Nicollet. It was locked, but not particularly securely - they left the seat behind, chained to an iron bar. I'm not sure why anyone would steal a battered 30-year-old bike that they couldn't even ride away. The bike luggage was certainly more valuable than the bike and would have been easier to steal without the bike attached to it. Hell, the SEAT (which I had just replaced a year ago) was more valuable than the bike, and they left that behind.

Here's a picture of good old Esmeralda from 2021 (without the pricey new bike luggage). She was the first new bike I ever bought and the difference between just riding any old bike that came my way and a bike that actually FIT me was a revelation! I bought her at Erik's Bike Shop, which back in 1995 still carried a variety of bike brands, including Univega. This one was the only one in the shop that felt right. I bought another bike in 2007, because even then I could see that Esmerelda was getting a little weak in the knees, but I kept coming back to her. 



GOOD NEWS.  Now I get to buy a new bike! Poor old Esmerelda was really past her prime, but I didn't have the heart to get rid of her, and didn't really have room for more bikes in the shed. So I spent the next two days doing pretty much nothing but bike shopping. As I feared, this has gotten a lot harder in the last 18 years. A lot of bike shops have closed their doors (tragically, including the magnificent worker-owned Hub Bikes on the West Bank). Most of the ones that are left have narrowed their focus to one or two brands, and half of those are e-bikes (looking at you, Erik's). Smaller bike shops mostly do repairs and sell a few kid's bikes, mountain bikes and "comfort cruisers" to the neighborhood. Some of them don't even know what a hybrid bike is (follow the link if you don't know, but are curious). Most of the major brands still carry one hybrid model, but finding even ONE in my size that was actually in a shop available for a test ride was a real challenge.

I spent a lot of time online trying to learn the new terminology and looking for leads. ChatGPT turned out to be surprisingly helpful. If there's anything ChatGPT loves, it is shopping! The guy at Freewheel Richfield was as helpful as he could be without having a single size Medium hybrid bike in stock. Little Tangletown Cycle turned out to have an impressive range of brands along with another friendly and helpful salesperson. But I didn't find quite what I was looking for until ChatGPT sent me off to Mendota Heights to an all-Trek shop I had never heard of (One Ten Cycles).  By that time I suspected that my best option was probably one of the bewilderingly variable Trek FX models if I could just find one in my size to try out. And sure enough - a match was made! minnehaha was right - sometimes you just know.

The Trek Verve had some interesting features, but was too upright with big mushy tires, and just felt cumbersome.  The Rolls was a helluva bike for $900, but felt a little too much like I was riding a restive stallion that just wanted to run. The Jamis was okay, but a little too traditional - by that time I was on board with the idea of the new disc brakes and simplified gearing system. But the medium Trek FX just felt balanced and compact and nimble, even with those terrible straight handlebars on it. It's still a Trek, and Trek isn't really happy unless their riders are leaning into their ride, but I feel confident that with an adjustable stem and back-swept handlebar, this little honey will be perfect. The guy at One Ten (David) spent at least 45 minutes combing through product listings on his computer to find me the right combination of stem and handlebar, which they will install when the parts arrive. So I don't have a picture of the final bike, but it should look something like the picture below.