The Yang
My youngest brother is on the phone with me, explaining the trade off in the size of the rear sprocket and the corresponding speed or power. I have no idea what he’s talking about. I’m taking notes, I’m looking at diagrams, but all pictures of chains look the same to me, and no matter how intuitive this is supposed to be, I’m not that mechanically-oriented. If it were an algebra problem or an excel formula I’d be all over it, but I haven’t yet wrapped my mind around the abacus of the bicycle. I will be slow and intimidated until I do.
I suppose this is the “honeymoon phase” of bike ownership. I committed on Saturday, for better or for worse, to last year’s model of the Trek 1500. My friend Marcus got me a good deal on it–a huge relief, since at that point my biggest fear was the financial consequence of buying a new light-weight road bike. I’m happy with the purchase but I’m wondering now if I EVER knew how to shift properly. It seems like I had to; I used to ride a bike in college and to work. Yet my awkward interactions with the Shimano Total Integration system yesterday would suggest otherwise. I hope we can overcome this petty misunderstanding and start working as a team in short order.
for the record:
I decided to get a bike after Jen Nuckols suggested a cross-country road trip and it sounded way more appealing than a 2-month-kiss-your-job-goodbye scheme should sound.
Everyone has his opinion; gather enough (from totally different groups) and you start to collect a valid and useful sample.
It’s very important to people to know you’ve thought of everything, even when thinking of everything has absolutely no impact on your decision.
“Skirt month” is an unfortunate month to coincide with “research and buy a bike month.”
My friend Jessica suggested naming the bike “The Yang” and after dozens of worse ideas, I really liked it. So far, we are the only ones who think it’s a good name.
