wheels

"a lot has changed since" i guess ... mainly that i now have a bike and ride it everywhere i can. i picked up the frame ("everyone admires my long head tube" 26" fuji "turn of the century" road frame) in early march, then went out to trexlertown with kurt, who helped me navigate the treacherous waters of bike part swap meets and picked up the parts he didn't just have kicking around his garage. it's a single-speed w freewheel, because i tried the fixed thing and don't like it.

bike fun roundup, to date:
--initial dirt hypochondria followed by glee at each rainstorm that leaves mud fucking everywhere.
--angst over wheels (old 27" arayas from the garage stash) ... patched it by getting good tires, but am still considering just popping for some wheels. guess we'll see, maybe in the spring.
--fell over the handlebars onto my chin. this is technically part of the previous chapter of bike capers, the silver '77 schwinn varsity that was too small for me and weighed 80 lbs, but i'm throwing it in here to add color. my sunglasses stayed on my head, (ergo i do not have a concussion, obvi) and no they're not those geeky nascar/bikeguy aeros.
--chainring size angst. we started out with the 39t (from the handmedown shimano 105 shit) on the front, which on a 26" frame looks like a cassette tape motor wheel thing... i stuck it out til i could consistently spin it out, then got an incredibly cheap 47t. all around better, tho starting from standing now feels sluggish. oddly enough, find bridges easier with this set-up... oh and it's 16t in the back.
-- ensuing angst over amount of bite rear quick-release had on dropouts leads to replacement for bolt-on axle, leads to realization old axle was bent. haven't pulled the wheel
--got doored by a taxi in exactly (exactly) the way K said i'd get doored if i kept going round their right side. flew across sidewalk of 5th av and 49th st, some woman shrieked, but i was fine and the bike just had a slighly wibbly front wheel, some taxi paint on the fork.
--ensuing slow-boiling worry about the left prong of fork being bent about 1/1000th of an inch back. i -will- take that trip out to the store in ass end of queens where they have them fancy machine that can measure it & tell me to shut up.
--noise somewhere in drive train started out sounding like icecream truck melody, and by the time i dragged K around 20 stores replacing first the pedals, then the bottom bracket, then the cog, sounded like the beat to "the beautiful people." it turns out it was -probably- the cog. amusing side note, metro bikes took the botttom bracket apart to find out what size it was to find out if they had it in stock (they didn't) ... without asking.