Hold that thought...

Please be warned the bicycle has been personified in this post:

Charlie's birthday is on Thursday...
...but he's having hip replacement instead, as it were- rather than the previous goal. I am under the impression that I was much more intelligent (as in knew more facts about things) when I was 17, because back then I would have known about the virtues of aluminum versus steel.

Anyway, Charlie is getting a new front wheel of aluminum with a sealed hub to replace the current steel one. Steel wheel says, "Damn you to hell, high pressure tires!" and has decided anytime the pressure in the tube is higher than 60psi that the tube will then explode. This happened when Charlie was parked outside one day some weeks ago, which I didn't dwell on much b.c I truly had been an imbecile and overinflated my tire that morning.

But on Friday, in the middle of Comm Ave: BOOM! sounds like a gunshot, the tube explodes, I run on the rim for a few feet and tube has exploded the tire right off the rim.... This is the second explosion, so I don't just change the flat out myself, this is going to take knowledge and experience. We go to the shop and we learn things. Learn things as in, steel wheel says "no thanks" at the least to high pressure tires, and in my case a resounding, "HELLS NO!". Aluminum wheel is ordered and we wait in anticipation. (Aluminum wheel also says, "Yes, I don't mind the rain, I will stop properly with these delightful caliper breaks you have.", whereas steel have always said, "Rain, means we don't stop, no how, no sir, not for anymore, even if this means you have to die or be injured." So we're really looking forward to aluminum.) In the meantime had another tube pop on Sunday too, not to mention the bearings on the front wheel are loose, so it feels like the entire front of the bicycle is running on pudding ...

And we're getting a new chain for good measure...

Charlie's band?

So my friend Jenny took this with her iPhone, she thought it looked like we'd make a good band, with Charlie as the mascot. Its funny how much we all have adopted my bicycle as a mascot and refer to it (him?) by name....

Happy birthday?

Next week will be Charlie's first birthday! Well, his first birthday with me, he is a mysterious gentleman with a dark past (read as: he was rescued from a dumpster) and so we really don't know his true age...

Birthdays seems to be a time of weighing in as it were, so in the past year Charlie has gone 3,687 miles, powered by yours truly. (About 1600 of those have been in 2011.)

For his birthday we're going to the land of the flip-flop hub. One side fixed, one side free. And for folks with opinions, no this does not mean Charlie will have multiple personality disorder or be the bicycle equivalent of transgender-Why describe it in those terms? Because cyclists are strange folks and you mention gears or lack thereof or a fixed cog and you're going to get a strong opinion about any of them or all of them....and so it seems a fitting comparison due to the passion these seemingly simple things bring out in their humans...

here we go....