{"id":168,"date":"2012-06-19T22:42:47","date_gmt":"2012-06-19T12:42:47","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/burblechaz.com\/blog\/?p=168"},"modified":"2012-06-19T23:58:48","modified_gmt":"2012-06-19T13:58:48","slug":"scenes-from-a-local-bike-shop","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/burblechaz.com\/blog\/2012\/06\/scenes-from-a-local-bike-shop\/","title":{"rendered":"Scenes from a Local Bike Shop"},"content":{"rendered":"

Well, after my last post<\/a> this was inevitable. I have a shiny new road bike. I’m not allowed the shiny Lycra pants to go with it, though. That seems to be a Very Strict Rule.<\/p>\n

Since we moved to The Best House Ever, I’ve had access to some fantastic paved routes. These are populated by a selection of riders, many of whom happen to be faster than I am. Clearly this cannot be due to any physical weakness on my part, so it has to be down to equipment. That’s logic, right there. And while I may have chortled at the Fluorescent Spandex Set on occasion, that has always been a matter of aesthetics – not of engineering.<\/p>\n

Here’s how it went:<\/p>\n

<Me on Phone><\/strong> Can you service my mountain bike? It only needs some new brake pads and maybe a new chain. Nothing much wrong with it.
\n<Local Bike Shop (LBS)><\/strong>We can do it tomorrow! Bring it over.
\n(Ten Minutes Later)<\/strong>
\n<LBS Dude><\/strong> (Viewing mud-caked oil-encrusted hard-used bike) That’s a new chain, new cassette, maybe a new chainring, complete strip-down and rebuild. We can do it next week. And we’re not touching it until you’ve cleaned it. Properly.
\n<Me><\/strong> You said you could do it tomorrow.
\n<LBS Dude><\/strong> And you said there was nothing much wrong with it.<\/p>\n

Well, he did have a point. I’ve done about 2,000kms on trails since the last service.<\/p>\n

While we were there, we asked about road bikes. Admired their featherlight engineering. Drooled, to no little extent.<\/p>\n

<Me><\/strong> (Having actually done a remarkable amount of research) Tell me about this one.
\n<LBS Dude><\/strong> {technical bike description too tedious to relate}
\n<Me><\/strong>Drool.
\n<Incredibly Astute Wife><\/strong>{Points at another bike}Why is that one $700 cheaper?
\n<LBS Dude><\/strong>{stunned look} I’ll go and find out.
\n<LBS Dude><\/strong>{returned from consultation with shop owner} It’s because the frame is so small we’ll never find anyone to buy it.
\n<Me><\/strong>And here’s me with my short little legs.<\/p>\n

And that is how I acquired a 2012 Giant Defy Composite 3 for a 50% discount.<\/p>\n

\"Road<\/a>

It’s all downhill from here<\/p><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Well, after my last post this was inevitable. I have a shiny new road bike. I’m not allowed the shiny Lycra pants to go with it, though. That seems to be a Very Strict Rule. Since we moved to The … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5,3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-168","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-bikes","category-pictures"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/burblechaz.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/168","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/burblechaz.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/burblechaz.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/burblechaz.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/burblechaz.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=168"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/burblechaz.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/168\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/burblechaz.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=168"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/burblechaz.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=168"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/burblechaz.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=168"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}