I had this smart “Save Money and do one thing at a time” plan, which included me waiting out the winter before I bought a new bicycle.
That plan was stupid, so I changed it.
Meet Hercules:
Hercules is his brand-name, really, but it seems like a good first name too. He’s a European bike, with a brand new seat and a brand new basket, and some sort of weird gear shift mechanism that I’ve never encountered before.
My gear shift started giving me trouble on the way down the river, resulting in me nearly crashing into traffic and murdering myself.
However, a quick google search and a brief two blocks away, I discovered a great college bike shop named The Hub. There, I met a couple of gentlemen who were super kind, cool, and did a brief workup on Hercules in order to get him into good working shape.
They told me that Hercules here is probably 40-50 years old, and they didn’t charge me anything for looking at the bike.
I’m super excited about that. I think every time a bike get stolen, I’ll just replace it with one that’s at least 10 years older. Also thought I’d give them a shout out for being so kind and helping me out. They explained how to work a hub gear, and fixed it up so I wouldn’t go veering off into traffic again.
Then I was off to noodle around the city for a while. I hit up the Mill City Museum, the Stone Arch Bridge, and tooled around the U of M campus.
On my way back home (and avoiding that horrid hill on Franklin Avenue over 94), I rode down by the river and caught some absolutely gorgeous fall colors.
Then my phone rudely told me that it was full, and would not take any more pictures of the glories around me. I was almost home anyhow.
I’m really excited to live near by all this. It isn’t QUITE the Lake Shore trail, but it is still pretty great. 😉
