Disillusioned with the local bike shop

I got my wife an old bike at  a garage sale over the weekend, a 15 speed Murray mountain bike built back in 95. Sure, it has the cheap type of construction on the frame, but it looked like the frame was in great shape. $15 seemed reasonable, of course, I had to buy new tubes and brakes, adjust the rear derailleur, and tighten the kick stand. I did a few test rides on it to make sure it all rides ok, and it is a smooth ride. Much smoother than I expected. Smooth enough that if I didn't have dangley  bits, I would be happy to ride that thing around town.

Next to my mtn bike, in the 'garage'

The only 'problem' I have with the bike is the rear brakes. They don't seem to have the grip that I like, but I can't figure out if I am just being paranoid, or if there is some issue I am overlooking in the 7 or 8 times I have tried to adjust them over the last few days.

I have a theory, in that the rear brake cable is coming from the bottom, instead of the top.

Right now, that is my only idea on why I can't get the brakes as tight as I want them.  My wife thinks they are fine, but I am not convinced she could stop on an incline using the rear brakes. Oh, the front brakes are nice, but the rear ones are driving me insane.

I decided to take it up to the local bike shop, and at least see if they could tell me if I was being paranoid, or if there was a glaring error that I just kept missing, like perhaps the damn wire is in wrong. The only thing they would tell me was that could do a full adjustment to the rear brake, for somewhere between $10 and $15 bucks depending on what it needs done, and it would be ready in a few days. I decided to take it home and keep fiddling with it. The problem with leaving it was two-fold. 1, I hadn't messed with it enough to get frustrated enough that I thought 15 bucks and a few days at the shop was worth it yet. 2, it seemed pretty likely that the only answer I would get in a few days was 'they needed adjusted' and that sure as hell wouldn't help me understand what I was missing. (Unless the cable came back reversed, and then I would be miffed that they couldn't just say, "hey, your cable is upside down" (it was like that when I got it, but then again, it didn't seem to have been ridden much)

Look, I understand that part of the function of the Bike Shop is to make money. This year, it has made its fair share from me. I had my mountain bike serviced this spring, when I got new tires, tubes, pedals, and had them double check the gear settings. It cost me nearly $100, mostly because of the gears, which were ok, but they charged me $40 to check that. (I really think they screwed me there, but I guess I should have been more specific when telling them what I wanted regarding that.) I  also picked up another set of pedals for my hybrid bike (not quite skinny tires, but not mountain bike tires either.) but this time I installed them myself.

I don't expect the bike shop to bend over backwards and move my problems ahead of the line. I really don't. But I do expect them to at least say 'yeah, the brakes don't seem right' or 'they seem ok, but we can double check them' without having to pay ten bucks and wait a few days. I am not asking to have a wheel trued. I just want a second opinion on if the brakes seem ok, because they seem weak to me.  (Being fair, my two bikes have a different brake system, and that alone might be why they seem odd to me.)

I might try this week to reverse the entry point of the brake cable, and see if that works better, otherwise...  I might just take it to an out of town bike shop. I'm still a little ticked at the local one.

ditched

My wife's department was wiped out a few weeks ago, and she has been looking for a new job. No luck so far, but it could be worse. I think. We went to Youngs Dairy Barn yesterday to meet up with her grandma with the kids, which is about an hour away. They picked it because there were other things to do there beside just talking. We get there a few minutes ahead of them, and are waiting when they call and ask us where we are, because they are in the restaurant and can't find us. See, they didn't want to meet us as the food place at Youngs Dairy Barn, they meant the Golden Jersey Inn (at Youngs Dairy) which was a decent walk (in the rain) where we ate, then walked back to the original building, had some ice cream, and then they left. We had no money to play any games, like the large minigolf course.  Even if we had the money, we'd have to have someone occupy Enzo. And the only option there 'had to get going' because they didn't have any spare time. They made us drive an hour to meet them to ditch us at a place that would be fun for the kids if we had money, knowing my wife was no longer working, and they ditched us. Well fuck. I could handle them bringing my wife and the kids souvenirs from their trip to FL, I didn't get anything, but I am used to that crap. Ditching us after making us drive an hour? That's crossing the line.

The day wasn't a total loss, I did get in an 18 mile bike ride, I rode to Troy, then around a subdivision to look at some statues that I saw during the Troy Strawberry Festival Bike Tour this year. (I was able to finish the map with the data from yesterday's ride, hard to recreate with subdivisions, as compared to country roads) There are some really wicked wood carvings on Skylark Drive that made the trip really worth it, especially since most of the ride was during the rain. Still worth it.

I did begin to dig out one of my old bikes, a Huffy. I am thinking of getting a touring bike for next year, something a bit nicer than my Schwinn. Now, I am poor. Not to mention cheap. I thought maybe I could rebuild the huffy into a new, bionic bike. Sadly, I think it only has 20" wheels. Sure, they are the skinny ass wheels, but the body suggested that the dry-rotted tires were mere 20's. Well crap. There goes the 'cheap way' (which actually would have included buying every part except the frame, handlebars, and the fork.) If I buy a new frame and build one from scratch, it will set me back almost 200 just for the frame and fork. Well crap. And new wheels.... holy shit in can, those are expensive!  I just checked two places online, and it would be more than my current bike for the damn wheels.   I just found the sort by price button, but the difference wasn't that much help. I could buy a new Schwinn, the road bikes for 2010 start at $700. Not much of an option, I guess. Perhaps an older model year would be better, but still far out of my range. Well crap. (My current bike is actually rather nice, its a 21 speed Schwinn Voyageur 2007 model. Sure, I have gotten it to over 25mph on flat roads, and crossed 32 on a hill, and I know I can beat both those, but there is a dark part of every rider that screams for speed. The part that smiles when a car can't easily pass you because you are already at the posted speed limit. (And its twice as nice when there isn't a hill involved, and the driver of the car is just confused. I passed a car that was in the middle of the road talking to someone once while I was near 25mph, and you they were shocked. At least, they were for that part of a second I could hear them.)

Still, I know I can go faster. Perhaps if I didn't weight over 230#...... But it does help on the down hill. Perhaps when I get the older bike down to a cost per mile of under 25 cents.... perhaps never. Maybe next year will be a good year. Maybe I will have the money. Maybe pigs will fly, and the hair on my head will just grow back. Yeah, good luck with that one, eh?