05.29.2004 || 02:18

Gary Fisher

So I went out and spent $800-- on a new bike. Unfortunately, you did in fact read that right. Actually, if you work in the price of the rack they're putting on it for my saddlebags (I'm sorry, but I refuse to call them 'paniers'), I spent about $830--.

There's a reason: I decided that I needed something pretty light and aluminium -framed because I live about a million steps above the street level, and on a wicked hill on top of it all. So, the usual Supercycle or CCM wasn't gonna cut it. I figured I'd spend somewhere around $500-- or so. A step up, to be sure, from the $160 that my poor, stolen bike had cost at Canadian Tire...

I had set my sights on a Mikado because they're handmade here in Qu�bec and because they're just super.

Small issue: the ones in my price range didn't fit the bill in certain ways: the handlebars, for instance. I wasn't going to spend a tonne of cash on a bike that looked like grandpa's cycle, and adding on another $40-- for straight handlebars just pissed me off. Final price for a midrange Mikado with a better handlebar setup (but without the rack): $797--. Oh, and the model I liked isn't made small enough for me. So anyway, I went next door to CoffeeHellCo and talked it over with my Manager, who's got a midrange Gary Fisher. He said that if I hung out until he got off his shift, he'd take me to the place on Cherrier where he got his.

So, a lot of $1300-- bikes later, I was getting depressed. Everything was too expensive, not available in my size or had freaking *flames* painted on the sides, though they had some *sweet* rides. They specialise in Gary Fishers and Rocky Mountains. Anyway, I was getting a little down when I saw a bike hanging inn the corner that had a pretty plain grey paintjob and the front suspension I'd wanted. It took the dude about a year to pull it down for me, but When I tried it out, I knew it was the one. I asked how much and the guy said $810-- but brought down to $670-- because it was a 2003.

Plus taxes.

He offered to put on city tyres for nothing more because someone else had just had the tyres swapped off a bike they were buying, so he had them at the store. I figure that I won't be spending much time riding over the mountain, but there *is* the Tour de L'isle coming up, for which road tyres will be ideal.



||Gods save the Queen,
||cf

back || forth

older shite

One last little note... - 09.21.2006

de-stressing, biking and terrorism - 06.06.2006

Mildly stressed... - 05.29.2006

More crime stupidity - 05.28.2006

Scary stuff - 05.25.2006



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