Hola Amigo

The new bike brand is Scott. It’s a commuter bike sub40. The SUB is speedy urban bike. What 40 means is beyond me.  After not a lot of thought, I named the bike Scott.  My Marin bike I call Marin, my Felt is “The Felt” and my Novara is……….I bet you can guess.

I put the bike together on Monday and for a few different reasons, I didn’t take it out for a long ride till today.  Actually, the long ride had an issue.  When I assembled the bike, I failed to tighten the right pedal.  As I was riding along the pedal, unbeknownst to me, was wobbling.  In time that wobbling stripped the crank and the pedal fell off.  Luckily, wifey was at the Y pretty close by, taking her Zumba class.  Things worked out for me getting the 6 miles back home.

I had gotten rave reviews from a local bike shop and decided to give it a  try. My go to shop is 25 miles away.  It’s the one I used in the town where I worked and bought all my bikes.   This new bike shop is Scotty’s and they deal in Scott bikes.  I have a Scott bike I named Scott and Scotty’s is only 8 miles away.

It took all of two minutes talking to the wrench for me to realize that this was a great shop.  He had a crank set in stock and gave me a price.  When I told him I had the bike shopped from Austin, he gave it a quick glance and asked if I assembled the bike.  I told him it was only putting the wheels, fender and handlebar on.  Nothing to it. “Do you want me to fix those things too?”  Then he described the geometry of the handlebar and brake positions.  He gave me a good price to give the bike a tune up and when I OK’d that, he said he would install the crank without the labor.  A new crank set, adjusting the handle bar and brakes, and giving the bike a once over, ended up less expensive than a simple tune up at “my old” bike shop. I’ll pick up Scott on Tuesday and am confident that the ride will be much better.

On a different note. A few years ago, I cooked breakfast for the local down and out and homeless in New Bedford, Ma.  We set it up like a restaurant where volunteers would seat the clients, take their order and serve them as if they were in a restaurant.  Naturally the atmosphere made for lots of friendly conversations.  I ran into one of the regulars today and we rode together for a bit. Funny thing is, we both have the same name.  “Hola Amigo”