2024-11-19

Man. It's been a good week for bicycles.

Took that fixed-gear out for a spin and it's just ... a lot of fun. Super light weight, not a problem on Ottawa's terrible roads at all, really. Getting used to having pedal straps and slowing down with my feet, but it's nice to learn a new skill. And it's just really, really fun.

I went for lunch with D and we swapped bikes on our way back: he really liked mine (the fixie) and I learned that his was terrible and close to unsafe. It could be fixed, but at the end of the day he has outgrown it and he it's his actual way of getting to and from college, so we bought him a new one. He also learned that defaulting to an MTB isn't great when you don't go off-road, so he's gone for a city-bike. (AFAI can tell, that's a road bike but with flat bars and thicker than usual tires? Or it's an MTB frame with fixed forks and thinner than usual tires?)

Which means I have a new-to-me old bike to build out into something new. I'm thinking pursuit bars and brake levers on a single-speed with 2" tires and 29" wheels. It'd be nice to replace his fork but it's probably more than I want to do right now but replacing the crankset with a 1-by seems reasonable.