Wednesday, May 14, 2014

The Great Bike Clean Up

The weather is finally turning around and I am thinking more and more about biking to work again. The only problem is my bike currently looks like this:


Disgusting.

My building has a problem with dirt in the garage, apparently due to the construction in the neighbourhood. The bike racks are right by the entrance to the garage so they unfortunately get the brunt of it!! I think my bike might actually be cleaner if I kept it outside all winter. Also, the tires were very flat.

First things first, I washed this sucker down with some warm, soapy water. Yay a normal looking bike! My wash job wasn't perfect, but at least you can tell the bike is black and white again.


Then I went to install the rear rack I bought last month. However the instructions were probably the most laughably confusing ones I have ever seen. I gave it my best shot, I swear, but I had to give up. I think it was designed for a different model of bike or something, but the packaging gave no indication and the rack itself seemed to be missing parts regardless. So that is going back to zee store. By some miracle I still have the receipt.

However I did install the flashing lights that I bought last spring! According to Toronto law, you need working lights on a bike when biking at night. I haven't biked at night, but I thought I would get around to installing these. They were actually fairly simple to install and I got them on in a few minutes. :)



Lastly, I pumped up the tires and took the bike for a spin....aaaaaand it wouldn't shift out of first gear. I had this problem last year and had the gear shifter fixed (under warranty)!!! So I am not a happy camper, especially as my parts warranty is long over. I am going to call a bike servicing centre in Toronto (NOT Canadian Tire, who fixed it last time) and inquire about a tune-up on my gears and having them install a bike rack for me. I got some nice rear bike bags for my birthday and I want to use them, darn it!!

It looks like biking to work is on hold for a bit longer until I sort out these problems. Le sigh. But at least she is clean again!

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