REALLY. it is better than a huffy.

Ok. Picture the scene…. the high of the day is a mere 10 degrees F. It’s the 4th or 5th cold spell of similiar temperatures this winter. The cats are all sitting on the other human in the house, who happens to be warmer and less squirmy than you, so you’ve got the laptop warming your lap, and you’re dreaming of spring. while shopping on eBay. You see a shiney bike that seems to be an incredible deal, and a teammate’s husband has introduced you to sniping. So.. you bid. 2 weeks later, you get a bike for a sweet deal… that will hopefully… oh please oh please fit well enough.

This seems to be the way I end up with most my rides. Having obtained my first real road bike (Bridgestone RB-2) from a drunken grad student who was storing his bike in my basement… there is no other way. So… after doing my first group ride of the year, i wander off to get the bike running… shorter stem, wheel trued, minor rear derailleur adjustment…. easy… right? HA HA HA. no. turns out my handlebars, which were measured at 31.8mm are a little smaller than 31.8, and only fit well on the too long for me space age looking carbon stem… after having 3 people say… WTF? and searching the Q’s knowledge base on this… we found the one stem that was short enough for me, and tightened down enough on the handlebars… so that it worked.

As the home mechanic, who is frequently seen in skulking around mpls bike shops near closing time with a botched home repair… having the mechanic say… ‘seriously. dude. what did you do to this?’… i’m relatively grateful, i witnessed several mechanics, saying.. ‘HUH. that’s weird.’ for a seemingly simple matter.

at the same time, as an owner for a spendy ass new road bike, from a spanish bike maker with a decent reputation, the weird sized part thing… makes me think i bought a flippin’ huffy/magna/wal-mart bike. and that’s annoying. Here’s to hoping that it stays nice, so I can take the new bike out. and new bike… prove me wrong. until then. your name is Huffy.

This fabulous post was written by one of our awesome bella volunteers ~ Sabine is the cofounder of Velo Bella and if you like this report, you can thank her with brownies and beer.