Wednesday, June 25, 2008

Bike Toys



Ann, don't read this.

On Sunday, I rode my bike downtown to the Bike Gallery and got their help to install my bike computer. The dirty little secret of this story is that Ann and Gina gave me this computer for Christmas (!) and it's taken me this long to get it installed and working. (That's why I don't want them to read about this.) And, in fact, right at the beginning, Ann suggested I just take it to a bike store and have them install it. But, oh no, we had to do it ourselves. Grady was sure he could install the apparatus on the wheel and I worked on the set up of the computer itself. But, it didn't work. Over time, we had various people, including our son and our almost-son - both avid bicyclists - look at the installation and declare it to be done correctly. But, still no readings on the computer. To make a long story short, over the long stretch of crummy weather, I didn't have a huge interest in riding the bike somewhere to get help and there was always something else to do. Eventually, I called the store that it came from in Seattle to ask if they knew what local Portland bike stores sell the same brand and they suggested the Bike Gallery. And, I finally found a time to call the store here, they were available to help and it was a nice day to ride downtown.

Turns out the computer itself was the problem. When the bike mechanic couldn't get the system working, he started trading out parts and, as soon as he put in a new computer, it worked like a charm. Luckily, they were willing to let me take home the new one on my bike under the assumption that the warranty on my original one would get them a replacement. I had to pay an installation fee, but it was well worth it.

So, I rode around that day for 8.4 miles, just in case you're interested, including the trip back from the store and then an excursion down the Springwater Trail, a path that heads south along the Willamette River. Today I rode down to the People's Coop for their weekly farmer's market - only 1.2 miles. Ok, I promise not to report on the mileage of every bicycle trip I take. It's just that I do love gadgets and this shows distance, speed, time, temperature and a few other things - could probably get stock market quotes if I were interested.

By the way, I bought cabbage, white onions and shiitake mushrooms at the market. The first two are for making a local version of fish tacos tomorrow night.

5 comments:

Anonymous said...
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Joan said...

Anyone who uses Blogspot know how to delete a comment?

Ann said...

i'm not seeing it on yours, but it may be cuz i'm not the owner of your blog.... but under each comment on my blog is a little trash can that you can make use of. there is a way to "moderate" all comments before they are posted but that seems like work.

kiss priyanka good bye

Ann said...

sorry for the faulty bike computer. but glad you got it going. gina is jealous, she wants one with temperature. and she wants to know if you want a copy of her excel spreadsheet for logging all your miles, like the one i WAS posting weekly. :)

Joan said...

Thank you - I guess the little garbage can icon should have been a give away!
Re the computer: no way for you to have known it had a problem and it was my own fault it took me so long to deal with it. But, now that I have, I love it!
As far as the spreadsheet goes, I don't think I'm into high enough numbers to need Excel just yet. But, thanks to Gina for offering.