New Toys for Spring

The weather has been mild and we got a big tax refund. Time to shop!

I’ve spent my time and money lately refurbishing Ann’s older (but very nice) road bike into the ultimate commuter bike. This is the most work I’ve ever done on a bike, by myself, and it was a heck of a learning experience.

Ok, here’s all of the cool improvements I made:
1 – Entirely new handlebars, with all new shifters, brakes and cabling. I did accidentally wire the brakes backwards, but I can fix that later.
2 – You can’t see it, but I installed a sweet LED headlight for evening rides home.
3 – A new bike computer! I need to know how far I ride and how fast! This was the first computer that I have installed and calibrated on my own.
4 – Bike lock, of course.
5 – Seat pack to hold patch kit, spare tube, and multi-tool.
6 – Handy bike pump. Don’t want to be caught with a flat on the other side of town.
7 – New chain. Installing this and then re-adjusting the deraillures was one of the biggest challenges.
8 – New tubes and tires. These have more tread for all-weather conditions.
9 – Changed out the clip-less peddles for platforms so I can ride in flip-flops this summer!

Mark also got to spend a little money, and on Sunday we went out and bought him a nice new grill. He loves it, and it made some darn tasty BBQ pork on Sunday night! With the house, grill and gardening tools we’ve collected over the last few years, we’re nearly back to the amount of stuff we had before we left Indiana. I’m not sure that’s a good thing, but at least we have tasty grillin’ again.