Walk or wait. . . What to do?

[Duck on Wheels]

bikeless in WI "OK. Thought I'd found a road bike on Craigslist that I could use here after. But it was already sold. Oh well. I'll keep looking."

a rule of thumb is "don't make major changes to the bike before a big ride" although I certainly violated that by getting my bike less than a month before ALC 3.

But I'm not sure we want to look for a whole new bike at this point. Also Craigs list? Not always the best place for bikes mostly because it takes effort to not only find the right bike (which is never easy to do) but avoid the bad karma of buying a "hot" bike.

How tall are you? 5'9-5'10? Stay tuned.

Looooove new avatar.

Well, thing is, either I have to take the bike back home with me as checked luggage Mar 26 (costs $80 and involves finding a box and packing it) or rent another bike here for May & June (costs about $150-200 and is likely to be another knobby-tired "urban jeep" type bike) or ... what? I can sell the one that's in Sonoma now, either here or there, or leave it at Mom's for recreational use on later visits. It's got good gears and fits nice, but I prob'ly won't ship it home come July. I already have a bike back home that's just as good. With slightly narrower tires. And a full diamond frame. So better. But if I come across a road or touring model for 100 or so then that would do for my last 2 months here, including a ride or two. Right? Then the Giant could stay at Mom's for training on later visits.

'Course, they do rent out old clunker road models here for I think $30 a year at Budget Bike. I could sign up for one'a those. I've seen 'em around. You can imagine. But I guess they roll. People use 'em. But yeah, I'm 5'9". The bike you've seen has a 19" frame, the one back home has a 20". I was looking for 19" when I bought it, but they said try it out anyway and it fit pretty well. So, thereabouts.

As for the avatar. Shall I stay with the Munch original version or switch to the Warhol version? I've finally got that one formatted so it should work. Colors are sharper. As a graphic artist, whaddaya think?

[Trek420]

Munch original version gets my vote

[tjodit]

Even though I'm still pretty new to cycling I've never had to stop on the small hills we have around here (road). I don't think my pride would let me walk up the hill though. I'd be too embarrassed as drivers went by. I'd probably just fiddle with my bike like something was wrong while I caught my breath. Am I the only one that would admit to that? humm Mtn. biking is a different story though. I've seen the pros pushing their bikes up the hills so I have no qualms doing that when I need to.

[Duck on Wheels]

Even though I'm still pretty new to cycling I've never had to stop on the small hills we have around here (road). I don't think my pride would let me walk up the hill though. I'd be too embarrassed as drivers went by. I'd probably just fiddle with my bike like something was wrong while I caught my breath. Am I the only one that would admit to that? humm Mtn. biking is a different story though. I've seen the pros pushing their bikes up the hills so I have no qualms doing that when I need to.

I'm too old to worry about image any more. Once your hair starts showing grey, who cares. Anybody seeing me push a bike up a hill may be thinking that's pretty good for an old lady just to be out there coasting down again. And hey, if they think otherwise ... I'm a professor. I've got status to spare, and I'm s'posed to be an out-of-shape nerd anyway.