Stuff: New bicycle!
Friday, March 21st, 2008Update: The foldable IKEA bike I mention here is not the one IKEA now sells in their stores. As I say below it was a gift to the UK IKEA employees. The bike available for purchase is most likely of higher quality, at least that was my impression when I saw it myself.
As my really old bike was, well, really old, I got a new one off of eBay about a year ago. A folding bike IKEA gave its employees in the UK for free, as a Christmas gift. It has been quite fun to ride, but the gears are so close to the ground that they collect dirt really easy. This has caused the arm that stretches the chain so it wont skip over the sprockets to stop working, making it hard to switch gears or use any power to battle uphills, as the chain will just skip around on the gears. Really annoying.
This got me, yet again, to consider a new bike. When the back tire produced large bulbous bubbles ripping through its side… there was no question about it. I got the folding bike so cheap it would be fairly pointless to repair, I’ll give it to someone who likes fixing things instead.
At the beginning of this week it finally arrived, my Electra Stream Ride Rat Rod Cruiser! Thank you so much Ridelow.co.uk! In contrast to the folding bike it has a back pedaling breaking system, internal hub gears and a wicked design! \( ^___^ )/
I had to piece it together, but it wasn’t too hard, and the gears were already calibrated, so it went fairly smoothly.
I’ve been riding it to work for a couple of days now, and after a few adjustments to the handlebar and saddle it rides like a dream. It sure is different to ride a bike that differs so much in weight, size and handling compared to my old one, but it’s a very welcome change. <3
