After a 9 month wait we took delivery of Reena's new made to measure bicycle last Saturday only to find that the (particularly useless) bike shop hadn't really listened to any of our requirements - the bike paint scheme is wrong, Reena's name isn't painted on the side as agreed and, even if you could live with these two issues, it doesn't fit her very well. They were closed yesterday but I should be getting a phone call today in response to a fairly terse e-mail that I sent on Sunday asking for a refund.
With 3 weeks or so to go this leaves us with a little bit of a problem as her current bike isn't in any state to be used for the trip - the brakes are hopeless, the gears slip and need to be adjusted all the time. Not ideal if your route takes you up or down any hills which I suspect ours might.
Finding a small women-specific bikes that can be fitted with a rack is pretty much impossible and so options now are centered around building a new bike around either her existing frame or a new off the peg frame that I found on the internet. In a way this will be fun - I haven't built a bike before - but at the same time it has added some unnecessary stress to the pre-trip build up.
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I suppose it wouldn't be tactful so suggest children's bikes?
ReplyDeleteWell done you two - I was knocked out to hear your plan and think it's really exciting. I'll be following the blog eagerly. And expecting gruesome honesty!
Good luck with the bike "building"
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