My LBS understands me!

Flossie is in the capable hands of Recycled Cycles www.recycledcycles.com getting some new bits and pieces. The guys recognized her, and gathered around to ooh and ahh a bit. It tugged at my heartstrings to leave her there, and as I went out the door I asked one of the guys if he would pat her every night and tell her a bedtime story. He said he'd make sure the mechanics treated her right...

They didn't laugh at me.
They understand bike love... :p

(now, what kind of cookies should I bring them when I go to pick her up? Or should I bring a six-pack of beer instead?)

You definitely know how to cultivate a relationship.
I'd vote for the cookies, they can eat them while they work.

Glad you found a shop you like! I vote for cookies also!

I brought them a six-pack last time they worked on Flossie, so I guess I should bring cookies this time.

Vegan gluten-free chocolate chunk? (my favorite)
Vegan g-f Snickerdoodle?
Box-o-Cookies from the store?

Girl Scouts if you can still find 'em. Our construction guys loved them.

<quiet voice> For political reasons I no longer buy GS cookies nor BS popcorn.

We were pretty active in scouting (when I was a kid, and when SKnot was little) but the banning of 10&#37; of the population from scouting (both parents and kids) and the scouts' refusal to allow SKnot's activities in a *Unitarian* church to count for a religeon badge cut us off.

I'll probably bake the guys something g-f, so I can have some, too!;)

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Originally Posted by KnottedYet

<quiet voice> For political reasons I no longer buy GS cookies nor BS popcorn.

We were pretty active in scouting (when I was a kid, and when SKnot was little) but the banning of 10% of the population from scouting (both parents and kids) and the scouts' refusal to allow SKnot's activities in a *Unitarian* church to count for a religion badge cut us off.

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Knott, I think the GS don't have that policy.

I get GS cookies, especially thin mints, and Tom, one of my best friends at work has a daughter in GS who I can't say no to (his kids are so cuuuute), and it's so important that girls have activities/sports and all, and....

From the "Scouting for All" website:

Lord Baden Powell the founder of the world scouting movement in 1907, intended scouting to be for all youth not just some youth. In fact where scouting was founded, in England, Girls, Atheists / Freethinkers, and Gays are accepted into the program.

I can't believe they denied SKnott a badge based on being another church, that's sad and discriminatory but buy those GS cookies!!

So march right up to the table of those little pushers at the store door, don't be the one to say "oh, maybe on my way out" Do your civic duty to support the next generation of TE'ers. :) :) heck, I'd probably get the popcorn too, I think the points being made, alternatives are now out there and even individual troops are more tolerant.

Back above the line and back to the LBS, sorry for the thread hijack.

:D I vote for your peanut butter choco chip cookies, yum :D

Limp as "don't ask, don't tell;" but fine, I'll buy Girl Scout cookies. If I find any.
http://www.glbtq.com/social-sciences/girl_scouts.html

But I'm NOT buying BSA popcorn.

Yeah but your pb & choco chip are the best.

and...don't want girl scouts, send the kids here

www.girlsrockcamp.org

Picked up Flossie last night. Again with the ooohs and aaahs from the assembled crowd.

I didn't have time to make cookies or buy the guys beer. Damm.

I brought fudge (made it myself: bag of chocolate chips and can of sweetened condensed milk. Nuke 3 minutes. Stir. Pour in greased pan on top of slivered almonds. Wait for it to cool.) Unfortunately it was the same day Trek had brought tons of candy.
One of those days this week somebody came in with a 12 pack of Sam Adams and some organic snacks and said (probably with a wink and a nod), "This was out there, sitting on the stoop!" and put it behidn the counter. I have no idea the rest of that story but it has something to do with leaving offerings for the good hermits at their shrines, I think... (but this is the shop where the fondly remembered Fritz asked "can I see your helmet?" and then brought it back to me with a pigsnout on it...)

One of the new cables didn't get capped and crimped, so I think I'll ride in with a bag of cookies and ask them to finish the cable end and give 'em cookies to thank them for their work.

Better late than never?:o

Rode Flossie for my work commute today. New headset and stem!

Headset: didn't even notice it (that's a good thing!) Bike steered like butter.

Stem: Wow! I can use the drops! I almost feel too close to the bars when I'm up on the hoods, but I figure that's a good thing as I really prefer to be in the drops. Was nice to be able to use both, and my back and neck felt very different. No problem steering, so the shorter reach really didn't change the function, just the fit. Very happy with the new stem.

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Originally Posted by KnottedYet

Rode Flossie for my work commute today. New headset and stem!

Headset: didn't even notice it (that's a good thing!) Bike steered like butter.

Stem: Wow! I can use the drops! I almost feel too close to the bars when I'm up on the hoods, but I figure that's a good thing as I really prefer to be in the drops. Was nice to be able to use both, and my back and neck felt very different. No problem steering, so the shorter reach really didn't change the function, just the fit. Very happy with the new stem.

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That's GREAT, Knot! Isn't it wonderful when a change on your bike make things better? :) :) Your bike is SO BEAUTIFUL and WONDERFUL....so incredibly special. It's so good that you appreciate it so well. Lock that baby up good- she's a "drooler". ;)

My Ramouillet came with a 9mm stem (we had asked for a 7, but they forgot and it's a 5 hour drive to get there and back). That stem I rode for a couple of months and I just could not get my weight back off my hands and balanced no matter what we did. So we positioned my saddle mid-rail again and put a 5mm stem on it. My weight was suddenly totally balanced, weight off my hands, I could suddenly use the drops (like you are now experiencing) and life was great. I rode another few months. As my core muscles improved, I found the "cockpit" statred seeming more cramped to me. Weird. Also, I began to stand up hills more often and my knees were bumping into the bar-end shifters. As I became a better rider I began to notice it was harder to hold a straight line- lots of extraneous correcting that I hadn't noticed with the old 9 stem.
So this past week we changed yet again, this time to a compromise 7mm stem. Hoped to improve steering stability, eliminate knee bumping into shifters, and hopefully not have too long a reach that it would put weight onto my hands again.
It worked! The 7mm stem seems just right. Steering is better, more room for my knees when standing, no feeling of reach being too long, no feeling of being unbalanced. YAY! I hope this is what you are now feeling too. :p
The only little adjustment now is that while I ride, I keep feeling I need to scoot back on the back edge of my saddle...so I am going to move my saddle from its current mid-rail position to a 1/2 cm back, to give me that room my body seems to want to adjust its center of gravity.

Now all that's left is retaping, twining, and shellacking that side of the bars again. I'll ride for another week or two first to make SURE I don't need to do any more tweaking.

The first little bit of riding I also felt like I needed to scoot back on the saddle. I'm going to ride a little more and see if I still feel that way (I only rode 8 miles yesterday). Did have to keep reminding myself to fix my back posture, which changed the way my saddle position felt so it felt good again; so I won't move the saddle yet.

Yes I know just what you mean. And yes it's good to not make adjustments until after riding for a week or two. It's part bike adjustment- and part body adjustment! And our bodies sometimes take a few weeks to adjust to new postion and/or balance.

Bike shops like this and all of your talk about Seattle make me want to move... Anyone know of any cheap apartments?

Apts here in the north end are cheaper (but nothing is cheap). I'm trying to rent out one of my bedrooms (master with full bathroom) to help cover my rent.

Apartments in the south end are cheaper too!

Like any big city, the closer in you are the more it costs to live there, but we certainly have some advantages.

I lived in West Seattle and while it's overpriced, you can find things that aren't too terrible. I loved West Seattle...also for a while I had a 3 bedroom house in Normandy Park. I paid $700/month but the house was a bit, how do I say this, antiquated. And the cats caught a rat once. So on second thought, $700 houses in Normandy Park are not so good.

Speaking as someone who moved here not that long ago in the scheme of things, Seattle is great!

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Originally Posted by KnottedYet

Apts here in the north end are cheaper (but nothing is cheap). I'm trying to rent out one of my bedrooms (master with full bathroom) to help cover my rent.

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how much?:D

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Originally Posted by KnottedYet

Flossie is in the capable hands of Recycled Cycles www.recycledcycles.com getting some new bits and pieces. The guys recognized her, and gathered around to ooh and ahh a bit. It tugged at my heartstrings to leave her there, and as I went out the door I asked one of the guys if he would pat her every night and tell her a bedtime story. He said he'd make sure the mechanics treated her right...

They didn't laugh at me.
They understand bike love... :p

(now, what kind of cookies should I bring them when I go to pick her up? Or should I bring a six-pack of beer instead?)

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Knotted: Today I had a similar experience! I moved all the parts from my Jamis to my Burley Sahalie. A month long project. I couldn't get the derailleurs just right, so I finally gave up, tried a new lbs about 40 miles away in Jefferson City, MO (I stopped in last week and was impressed by their friendliness). http://www.hartsburgcycledepot.com/ He dropped what he was doing, spent about 15 minutes looking it over and he explained to me where I went wrong, what he could do, assured me that I did a good job moving the parts, and told me that I had a LOVELY bike!!! Ooh, I knew that, I just wanted someone else to see how lovely she was! He even knew the history of Burley and that they no longer make bikes. He seemed genuinely pleased to be getting my business even if I didn't buy my bike from him. I left the shop feeling pretty good about the whole thing! Yup, he didn't laugh at me either when I was sooooooo worried about my Burley....