19oct2002

(Did I mention this is the best bike in the world?)

I am really attached to my heavy old Trek 800 that I got used from Second Gear (on Hampshire St. near Prospect, Cambridge, Mass) around Halloween of uhhh 1999? after my Specialized Hard Rock from them got stolen. About two years after I got it, everything started to go - I ended up replacing the freewheel and chainwheel and pulleys, against the advice of elders. The bottom bracket bearings needed attention for about a year - how embarrassing - I had a sort of mental block on that repair - but are now replaced (Hacksaw took it to the shop for me for a birthday present ... something down there is squeaky already - I hope it's the pedal bearings or something).

About once or twice a year, a freewheel-side rear wheel spoke breaks, a good excuse to acquire the technology to deal (well, also there was a going out of business sale at Bikeway Cyclery on the Minuteman Trail. About once a year (more, lately), I have a flat - the last one I had was ...invigorating. This is not an easy bike to carry. The next flat was oddly similar, only during a Nor'easter. (Between the two, I had to do a chain link-replace repair during a serious windstorm with my eyes closed. Story when writ.)

The Trek has some useful additions.

• gunrack
• pannier-rack standoffs

There's not much real estate left on the handlebars - it's got bar ends, which in conjunction with the gun rack make great 6-point-buck -type antlers - I just bought it a cyclometer (and set the second tire size to MoxieMoron's).

It has a way-too-short rear fender - but I skunked about half a flared one to epoxy onto the end - and a front down-tube-mounted crap-catcher.

I can't decide whether to leave the nalgene-size bottle cage on the seat tube, where it can kinda sorta hold a coffee mug, or on the down tube, where it could hold the (tall) 1.5L bottle in my purple Israeli insulatey bottle-cozy. Usually what's wanted is a bike bottle, though, and where it's wanted is the down tube...

The bike has tremendously slackful handling and is just made for riding no-hands for miles. It has just ruined me for other bikes.

1nov2002

The other day my friend V had had a frustrating afternoon shopping for a bike, and rode this one around for a while and kinda dug it, certainly better than any of the rest of the day's rides... She asked for make and model and measurements, and I said Here you go, but "Don't get your hopes up - this is after all the best bike in the world." Best of luck finding second-best, though.

22nov2002

Too many flats in quick succession. Got new tires, Continentals. (And as usual, WW sold me too-small tubes and I didn't notice till I got home.)

14jan2003

Let me expand on "tremendously slackful handling." Let me go on and on ad nauseam (hey, that almost rhymes).

I can't tell you how happy I am that I've repaired and maintained this bike instead of replacing it. It was just out of habit, make it do or do without, donchaknow - and then, a few months after the really big repairs, I realized the frame has handling dreams are made of. I had no idea what a difference frame geometry can make until I started riding Other People's Bikes - especially green bike, which has this twitchy, awful handling you have to micromanage.

This bike is the opposite. It's like the sort of horse that will get you home (or at least to the stable) even if you fall asleep on it on the way back from the tavern.

19jan2003

At 300.1 miles, mid-December, the odometer base from Muddler died - the wires broke. Replaced it with the newer one off MoxieMoron, sigh, and now I'm getting POINTS again, CREDIT. Whatever.

08mar2003

Gah, another freewheel-side rear spoke gone. And in front, a slow leak from a skunked tube, now repaired. Tried to stick out the winter before replacing the chain, burned out my freewheel's high gear. Two a year isn't doing it.

And I have more trouble with cyclometer mounts - the lock-in tab on the new one has broken off - every time I hit a bump or brake hard, it gets spat out ballistically.

25mar2003

Cyclometer woes - also maybe something's corroded, since it doesn't seem to like to make good electrical contact - or else the counter is drifting away from the magnet.

Noticed the rear brakes were missing the port-side bolt. Only 1/4" thing around was a 4" eyebolt, with a nut to make it act short.

06may2003

Cyclometer is back in the saddle. It just didn't like winter??

Zero flats since the Continentals.

I picked up an xtracycle on eBay, due here in a few days. Should it go on this one?

I took a good hard look at the old Trek 800 that looks more or less like mine and parks at Porter Square sometimes. My bike is so sweet that I've been thinking about picking up a backup, maybe making an offer on this one in case of future emergency. I've been doing web searches on "Trek 800" but those new-fangled ones don't look familiar...

Anyway, this one. Its top tube is a little more angled, but not like a step-through. Upon inspection, I realize it says "Antelope" on the top tube, in a little mountain-range graphic. Turns out mine probably used to, too. It's almost completely worn off, but I can see the bottoms of the letters and the tops of the mountains. Then I look over on the right side of my bike, where I've Never Been, and it says it right there.

This is kind of funny, because last Halloween I was thinking about dressing the bike up for SCUL Hellonwheels ride as some kind of horned or antlered beast - with a pair of brush guards (I mean two bikes' worth) coming out of the bar ends, and maybe barnds and stems and stuff stuck up and down forking all over them. I always called the bar ends I put on "antlers"...

20may2003

Scored a bell at a local-ish junk swap, the weekend before last. Very little handlebar real estate, so it's installed upside down (the cables were damping it). Maybe could've put it on one of the bar ends.

Flat a week ago. Cyclometer's launching on bunny hops. Sigh.

Put off fixing the flat - figured I'd go after the broken spoke, too. Flat's all set but I can not get the freewheel off! Tried all my weight, tried liquid wrench, tried hitting the Park tool with a hatchet.

04jun2003

As usual, forgot how to do it again, was doing it wrong. Got it right, came right off - and stripped lots of hub threads, too, 'cause the FR-1 or whatever it is was still axle-nutted on. Oy. Paid $1 for 5 min of bench time at Broadway, and $1 in the tip jar. Just took it home loosened - still haven't touched the spoke.

Misadventure #2 was trying to build this into an xtrabike with the xtracycle I picked up on eBay.

So I took all the right bits off - rear rack, rear brakes, rear derailer - until I got to the kickstand. The kickstand, I only manage to remove the head of its bolt, with a socket wrench. Oops. Made a half-hearted attempt at drilling it out, but it'd be a shame to zorch a perfectly good kickstand.

Funny thing is, it's just as well the rear wheel's off, since I need that to go get the rearwheelless Giant Sparky's offered to lend me for the purpose. Tonight. Assuming I didn't kill it. And I still need to replace that spoke...

The dropouts of this bike never really liked the xtracycle anyway.

15jun2003

Ahhhhh.

Finally got a barrel adjuster inlined with the rear shifting cable.

It's tuned and tunable for the first time.

Swee-eet.

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