Long story short, her insurance company provided Ian with enough money to get a new bike. Being the kind of guy Ian is, he decided to give Bluegrass Bicycle a chance to help him out with replacing the bike.
Sadly, when we first discussed it, Surly was out of Big Dummy bikes! They had some on the way, but it was going to be late December or some time in January before they could ship the bike to us. When they were getting close to being able to ship, I learned that there were over forty folks watching for the bikes to be available. They released fifteen or twenty bikes, so I made sure I ordered one as soon as I learned they were available.
It arrived at the store today.
That's a lot of bike. The box is 73" long, and weighed about fifty pounds with the bike inside. It's not a complicated assembly, though it does take a while to get all the stuff on there. I got to test-ride it briefly, to be sure Ian would have brakes and accurate shifting, and it's a great ride. The picture shows some details that still needed to be handled before Ian could take it home, but it's road-worthy for being the Soup Express!
Tuesday is soup-cooking day for Ian. Wednesday is his biggest delivery day. He wanted to ride his old bike out to the store and have me move stuff over to the new bike (and, I suppose, take the old one home on the trailer), but it wasn't to be. Still, I had the pleasure of seeing one happy Souper Man!
Now I want one. I don't have any place to keep one, but I want one. *sigh* I don't know what I'd DO with it--I don't have the cargo to haul that I need one, but...maybe one day.
2 comments:
After most of 2010 with a Kona Ute I came to the conclusion that all bike households need a cargo bike. The Ute isn't near the hauler that a Dummy is. It's more of a grocery-getter, but mycyclinglog from '10 said that I took 20 more trips on the Ute than any other bike. I know the Dummy is an even better version. Consider it strongly.
Tim, it's a couple of pegs lower on the list than the next two bikes in the "to buy eventually" list. Next bike on the list is a bike that will accept currently-available studded snow tires. Likely candidate is the Specialized Crosstrail Disc--retail $580 or so (less than a third of the price of a Big Dummy). I would be able to pull a Bikes-at-Work trailer with that puppy, or one of the two trailers I already have.
That said, I could see myself buying a Big Dummy a size small for myself, and have it so that either my wife or I could use it. Again, it would be down the list a bit. She would use it, I think, but there are things to do before I get one.
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