Well, DARN

After getting some actual revenue-generating work done yesterday, it was time to build a couple of commuter bikes. I toyed around with some of the accessories (the locks, taillights and hooks mentioned in my last post), then started unpacking Jenn's new bike.

Boy, is it purty!

I teased her a bit with some cell-phone pictures as I put stuff together. She arrived shortly after closing time so that she could see it first hand.

One of the things I like about her bike is that the internal gear hub (IGH) is silent. Coupled with the Gates belt drive, it will be a nice quiet bike. Jenn likes that she won't feel it necessary to tie back her pant legs (at least most of the time).

Jenn also likes that this bike is rock-solid stable, unlike her Peugeot had been. That old bike had never been but so stable.

Once I got hers together, I started on my new Vienna. The color was the shade I was expecting--sort of a tan-gray mud color. Most of the bolt-on stuff already on the bike was black. When I added the fenders, bottle cage, disc lock and rack to it, the black accessories turned out looking pretty good.

Then I tried to install the front wheel. Wait a minute--the wheel isn't going into the fork correctly. Drat--the fork end got bent in shipping! Can it be straightened? Probably not--it's a pretty bad bend, but let's try levering it out a bit with this prybar SNAP!

A call to Specialized's warranty department yielded that they had no spare forks, only complete bikes from which to scavenge parts. So, on Monday they will ship me another bike, and I can either pull the fork from it and install it on my bike or build it and repackage the bike with the broken fork. I think it will be easier to swap forks at this point--besides, I got to spend a little time last night installing more of the accessories on the bike I already have on hand. I should get to ride the bike Tuesday. I was hoping to ride it some this weekend, but I have no real desire to have the front wheel come off the fork while I'm riding. I've seen pictures of what happens, and it isn't pretty.

I am going to like this bike, though. It looks good, despite that the color is kind of drab. I'm thinking about going to a sign store and having them print a panel of reflective vinyl roughly the color of the bike, so that I can make some reflective bits for it that will blend in in daylight but show up when struck by headlights at night. Just because I can.