June 21, 2006 (AP)
The first day of summer — the first day of my single speed. My $2 Diamond Back 700c hybrid garage sale find has been transformed. This once mundane metallic maroon lump of a bike is now a mundane black and white single speed commuter.

This ride now sports a custom black and white color scheme, mustache handle bars decked with Shimano aero levers, natural cork bar tape, blinky light and a nice big horn. The drivetrain features Shimano 1980 something Exage 500 CX crank with UN-25 bottom bracket, 40 tooth chain ring and 16 tooth ACS freewheel, Shimano Deore XT 8 speed chain, and some SPD/platform pedals I scored free of charge. Braking is more or less accomplished by some very protruding early 80s cantilevers with rock-hard pads. Accessories complete the package with slick Planet Bike fenders, rear rack, and stylish blue milk crate.

The inaugural voyage of, wait, what is it? Does it have a name??? I shall call it Sterance. Anyway, the first commute for Sterance was today. It started off nice, in the 80s and a clear sky, at quarter to seven this morning. The ride home was overcast, wet and muddy; the fenders are worth their weight in the flimsy black plastic of which they are made. Sterance corners like a bread truck, and brakes like a ocean liner. What more could you ask?

Well, I’ll tell you what more you can ask. How does a Surly Jethro Tule sound? This combo 15mm box wrench and bottle opener is the perfect companion for Sterance. If you have a single speed you should check one of these out.

Eric, Dad and I went to Castlewood for a quick ride on Father’s Day. The ride started of dry, but some rain storms come through and made things very muddy. After getting a good thick coating of mud on everything we found a swollen creek. Guess what? My M2 and Eric’s Pisgah both float! I don’t remember if Dad’s Trek 970 did. Good info to have, I guess. I also discovered that it is very difficult to ride a bike when the handlebars are underwater. I’ll be overhauling the M2 soon, or will I be finishing the single speed instead???

I thought I’d beat the storm today and ride early. I left home about 8:15 AM, planning on riding the same 19.2 mile route I’ve been working on this year. I got to the half way point in 31 minutes, about the same as my last attempt. But, instead of turning around, I continued east. At approximately mile 25 I turned around, a 50 mile ride would be enough. Between mile 40 and 41 I heard a hissing sound. Not a big deal, eh? Well, I thought I’d be clever and ride without a spare tube, patch kit or pump, since it was only going to be a 20 mile ride. The leak was fairly slow, and I made it to the next town, at mile 41.7. Since the storm was coming in (I’m lazy, and didn’t feel like fixing the problem), I caught a ride home from Rachel and Sheltese. (Thanks!) Anyway, the total for today was 41.7 miles, 17.1 MPH average, and 2:26 total time.

Shimano issued a recall on some of their XT, XTR, 105, Ultegra and Dura-Ace skewers. After finding out about the recall, and that my front skewer was recalled, I went to the shop that built my wheels to get the skewer replaced. Shimano would not deal with the shop, since they were not an authorized Shimano dealer. Ok, so I go to another shop in town that is an authorized dealer. This shop was not interested in helping because they didn’t build the wheels. Nice, I should also mention that we have purchased a bike (recently) from this shop, and have been going there for almost 10 years. We’ll, if that’s how they treat their customers then I’m not interested. After calling Shimano directly, which is what they suggested to get me out the door, I was told that I could not get the part replaced because I did not have an “account number”. I suppose only people with “account numbers” need safe equipment. As for the rest of us?

I went back to the shop that built my wheels and scored a set of Salsa flip-offs and trashed the Shimano skewer. I’ve never had to deal with Shimano before, and now that I have, I am not impressed. I am also very disappointed with the other shop in town passing the buck and not helping. Guess where I won’t be going anymore?

Footnote: I finally got the replacement window regulator for the Acura. The dealer that shipped the wrong part shipped the correct part and refunded my return shipping. The $9.02 they refunded for the shipping did not cost them much, but kept a customer. Something a certain bike shop I know of might learn from. Oh, and installing a Accord/CL window regulator is simple and quick. The window works again, and I saved quite a bit on labor. I give the other regulator another year, max.