Your latest bike purchase?

[Steve O]

I have the same one, and it works great. It's very easy to control. I recommend grabbing a second CO2 cartridge when you stop at a bike shop next though and keeping that with you too--at least half the time I end up needing a second cartridge because I lose air doing something stupid, or (like what happened on the dumpling ride to me...) realize I need to deflate and re-seat the tire after inflating it the first time.

And you can always carry your frame pump, too, for double extra back up. I don't even notice mine next to my water bottle cage, but it's there when I need it. Not sure what the advantage of getting rid of it is. I don't think there's much difference in weight or volume between two CO2 cartridges and the tool compared to a mini-pump. And the pump doesn't take up any space in your bag.


(pump has been straightened along the frame and secured better since this photo was taken)

[secstate]

Is that an artisanal leather cover?

Proudly made in Portland, USA

[secstate]

Not sure what the advantage of getting rid of it is.

My frame pump doesn't spark joy

[ChristoB50]

My frame pump doesn't spark joy

Joyless be, set it free.

[LhasaCM]

These should be interesting...



(I love it when a Kickstarter reward ships w/o notification and just "shows up")

[ChristoB50]

Ahhh... I've read about those, and can't wait to hear your experience!

[Lt. Dan]

Added another toolbox on the truck that allows me to have a dedicated "wheel repair" station

Hey, it's bike related!!

[ChristoB50]

Along the same lines as @Lt. Dan with bike-related buys...
I bought a handled nylon-bristle brush; it has longer and slightly softer bristles on the main end (like a pot scrubber), and then pointing in another direction, a cluster of shorter, firmer bristles.
When I bike home, I pass my parked car in the condo garage before reaching the elevators. So I park the bike there, open the hatchback, sit on the bumper, and use the new brush (which I keep there in the hatchback area) to really go over my cleats and shoes, as well as my tires, down tube, etc., after anything but totally dry rides... No more dried mud falling off the next morning when I roll the bike out of my unit! (I'd LOVE to have a bike locker at the condo -- but the one space they provide is entirely inadequate and offers zero dedicated security.)

[secstate]

My friend told me my Schwalbe Marathon Mondials may see me into old age. Wrestling these onto the rims certainly made me feel like an old man.

[ChristoB50]

Latest bike purchase...
2 new tubes, 2 new tires, 2 new sets of brake pads... (and possibly 2 new front/rear strap-on lights, and possibly a new rear rack... oh, and probably a new bike lock...)
Tonight is the night I pick up "my first pedal-bike"... my mint ~1991 Bianchi Advantage 21-speed hybrid!

"My first pedal-bike" in two senses; I bought it new back then, then promptly failed to ride it more than 10 times. Over about the first 2 years, each early spring and early fall -- "its such a pretty day; let's go on a ride!" where I'd end up WAY overdoing it (for my capabilities) and spend the next several days sore, chaffed and cursing the bike and riding in general. I'd be unwilling to try another ride until that post-ride memory of the pain had faded. No chance then, of building any stamina or endurance. Quickly enough, I just stopped riding it, entirely. I distinctly remembered selling it in a yard sale some years later...

Flash forward about 26 bikeless years to last year, and I bought my current pedal-assist ebike in March, 2018; I've been all but glued into that saddle ever since.
So when that ebike had to go into the shop early this month (and it was gonna be a long wait) I figured, "Everyone tells me that {n+1} is an unavoidable thing -- guess it is time to look for a second bike to serve as my backup." Since I don't "count" my early-20's failed attempts at riding, a new bike would in fact be my "first pedal-bike", since I was now (after 6,000 miles and 50 pounds lost, on the ebike) in a far better place to reconsider a pedal-bike...
I spent some hours looking over models and adjusting to sticker prices of the models I liked most... drooling on carbon frames, etc. I left empty-handed, figuring another shop visit or two, plus test rides, were due the following weekend...

In that interim, Columbia Pike flash-flooded terribly, rendering 3 units in my building uninhabitable. I offered my storage locker (unvisited/unused by me for 15 years since my move-in) to one of those displaced neighbors. I went to make sure the locker was empty for him -- and learned that my quite distinct yard-sale-memory was in fact distinctly wrong. Low-and-behold, in the storage locker was that barely-ridden, basically pristine, gorgeously purple object of torture from my 20's... out of sight and utterly out of mind. With dry-rotted tires and hardened brake pads.

So --- pretty damned excited about this evening!!