$91 to fix the Tank

I just got back from the repair shop where I picked up my Tank. the Tank is what I refer to my Royce Union bike as, because it is just so dang heavy. I am tempted to actually weigh it, but I wouldn't be completely surprised if it weighed in at twice the weight of my Schwinn.

$91 it cost me today.

Last Tuesday, I put the trailer on it and rode out to the mall, and then around the bike loop, netting 10 miles. It was only the second time Enzo has ridden in the trailer, and by far the longest ride Mark has been on. I found out a few things on that ride.

The Good:

The trailer fits over the spillway bridge! (Yes, I was quite worried about that, as well as how the hell to turn around the trailer on the narrow bike path without dumping someone into the spillway canal. {Trivia: the hydrolic canal the path follows there it all that remains of the canal that used to run a mere 20 or so feet from our house, though filled in, the bridge is still able to be seen out our windows.}

Mark thinks stopping at Rally's to get fries is a great way to end a ride. It helps that it is near French Park, and a few blocks from home.

The Bad:

Mark gets bored riding in the trailer after about 3 miles.

The water fountains are not on yet, no free drink of water at Roadside park yet.

The Ugly:

I saw that the back tire was worn out. It was so bald, it had hair again. Being that the hair was the fiber stuff that is the core of the tire, and should not be able to be seen from the outside, it was a really bad thing.

I see this new problem at the worst part of the trail, at Roadside Park, a few miles either way I could go from being home.


I knew that a new tire would be about $20, and I figured, better do both at the same time. Then I decided to get new pedals. Another $20. I had been thinking of getting new pedals for a while, seemed as good a time as any. Of course, the labor of having the gears readjusted was the killer, the labor took it to 85, then another 5 for tax, and rounding hides the rest of the way to $91.

Now, a lot of that should have been able to be done myself. I am sure my dad would spin in his grave over how I never got down how to change a damn bike tube. He showed me a half dozen times, and I have tried many times, and failed each one. Being able to change my own tires and tubes would have saved about $15, and I probably could have figured out the pedals myself, but that was meager enough in labor. The real labor was in getting the gears checked out. The didn't seem quite right, and I would rather have had them checked professionally than to have kept worrying about them. Granted, I would probably have tried to ignore the gears longer, but I had to take the bike in anyways.

Ruthie wasn't too happy about the cost. Fair enough, since I was shocked at the total, and a bit annoyed. Oddly, I only think about the worst it will cost when dealing with car repairs, bike repairs however....

She made two points, I have to begrudgingly admit are valid.

1. That was almost as much as her last car repair. (About 70% of it actually!)
2. I could have bought her a cheap bike for that much. (Well, a Huffy or a WM edition Schwinn.)

Now, to be fair, the bike is a good bike. The frame is in excellent shape, the front gear-set has been replaced, and I swear it is built like a tank. I can't figure out when it was originally made, but I found out that Huffy got control of the company in '97. My first good bike was a Huffy, my 3 worst bikes were also Huffy. A shame some bike companies have two lines of bikes, the crap ones, and the good ones. It's like the difference between a Ford and a Lincoln, if they just called them both Fords, and the only way to know if it was the great line or the crap line was to know what dealership sold it. Huffy from bike shop good, Huffy from Wal-mart bad. Huffy had some bad years, and looking at their current website, seem to have left the good bike business far behind. Then again, maybe I just found the crap page. Schwinn had a crap and excellent page though it looks like they merged them together. The ones they have at Target and Walmart are not the same as what they have in Bike Shops. )

I did find a listing online that has the same model bike for sale, at $185. But at least I know I will probably be able to keep riding that bike until I get to old to be able to lift it out the door and take it down the 4 steps or so to the sidewalk. Damn that thing is heavy.