Mechanical Update

Last night, in the small amount of time between work and having to pick up my daughter from daycare, I shoved Mike into my trunk and brought him over to the good people in the service department at Revolution Cycle. I pointed out the broken spoke and gave the service guy an overview of the issues, and asked how much it might cost to give ol' Mike a tune-up. The service guy noticed a few issues with Mike that I hadn't: the crank shaft wiggles, the chain has become so loose that it's worn down the entire drive chain to the point that everything will need to be replaced, and the bike is generally dirty and loose and needs a major tune-up. This is on top of fixing the broken spoke and fixing those rear brakes that I so industriously put on all by myself - upside down. He estimated that the whole procedure would end up costing somewhere around how much I paid for the bike in the first place - in the range of $250. I wasn't willing to spend that much on a dying bike, so I asked them to fix the brakes and the broken spoke for $40 and then I'd just hope that Mike would survive til the end of the summer, when I can start walk-commuting instead of bike-commuting.

Mike was ready to pick up today after work, but I already had my daughter (who tends to keep me pretty busy) and I wasn't able to make it there today, so I'll have to pick it up tomorrow. That means I've only bike-commuted one day all week. Then I've got next week - which, by the way, is supposed to be mostly rainy again - and then I'm on vacation for two weeks. Then three weeks of work, then I'm done! Wow. Almost a year has gone by already.

I want to finish out the year with Mike, then retire him and let his creaky, used-up body rest in peace. Maybe I'll donate him to the Edmonton Bike Commuters Society, or keep him around as a beater winter bike. I don't know what I'll do. I just know that July is shaping up to be a remarkably bike-less month. Oh well. I guess there's always August.