This Space for Rent

Too clever by far

When I was offered a contracting job this summer, I took the opportunity to order some bikey things from REI (a pair of tires, three more chains – the MLCM flexes chains enough so that they start to become iffy after not more than 1500 miles; the chain I’ve got on it now has about 1400 miles and it’s starting to chainhop at the slightest provocation – and a cable lock so I can lock the thing up when I stop at controls and feel insecure about leaving the bicycle unattended.) Well, I got the mail from REI this morning saying that the stuff was ready to pick up, so I cleverly realized that if I was going to pick up a lock, there wasn’t any reason to carry a lock on my bicycle before I went up to pick the new one up.

I should never ever try to make clever decisions like this before I’ve had a cup of tea in the morning. I was thinking that I could just pop up to REI at lunchtime (it’s only ~2 miles away from where I’m working) and grab the parts, but if I can’t actually lock the bicycle up it’s pretty much leaving a “yoo hoo, thieves! Nice lugged frame for you to ride away on!” card when I walk into the store.

So instead I’ll just ride home later (in the 90+°F heat) to grab my lock, then turn around and ride back downtown to get the locks and chains and tires ohmy! I’d rather ride out to Boring and back, but I neeeeeeeeeed those parts, and 15 miles to home, downtown, and home is 15 miles afterall.