Today my new pink C7 pink bike from Public Bikes arrived. I put on the video from their web site about the few things it take to finish assembly and was assured that it would take me five to ten minutes. I am perhaps a klutz. It took me 20 minutes. I am not unhappy about this.
They advertise that it rides like butter. It rides like butter. It is the best riding bike I have been on, and I have ridden bikes that cost twice as much as this one.
There isn't anything I don't like about it. Honestly.
I took it out for three short rides today and discovered something important. I am really out of shape. I could really feel it in my thighs.
Getting the bike today is part of a continuing journey about bicycling. I bought a Townie about a year ago. I don't like the angle my arms must assume to ride that bike, given it's construction. It also is very long. It feels like riding in an old Cadillac. I am not sure if I will sell it or keep it, and that decision can wait for awhile.
In the last couple weeks I had a trailer hitch installed on my Honda Fit so I can could put a bike rack on it. When I bought the Fit I imagined I could get a bike in it without taking off the front wheel. I had seen ads that showed a bike being walked into the back seat area with the back seats folded up. I actually bought that car so I could walk a bike in there like that. It must have been a child's bike, because an adult sized bike will not fit. (No pun intended.) I can jam a bike in there if I push the front passenger's seat all the way forward and collapse both back seats. Doing that is a pain in the you know what, so I decided to have a trailer hitch installed so I could have a bike rack. (The design of my Honda Fit in back precludes putting a bike rack without a trailer hitch.)
I called Honda of Serramonte where I got my Fit and asked them about installing a trailer hitch. At first they said it couldn't be done, and then defaulted into saying it is an "after market" item and they don't have trailer hitches. I called Summit Bikes in Burlingame, and they said to call U-Haul in Belmont.
I tried calling U-Hauls that were closer, and every one of them told me to call U-Haul in Belmont.
I called U-Haul in Belmont.
They put on my trailer hitch, which had to be special ordered for the Fit, about a week ago. If you go there to have a trailer hitch put on for a bike or anything else, given my experience I would say: WATCH THEM LIKE A HAWK. When I went to pay for the trailer hitch the guys behind the counter were having a difficult time processing my credit card. There was nothing wrong with my credit card. "We're having problems with our system. It's us." they said. Finally tehy asked me to sign on the screen and since they had run my credit card at least five times I asked if I was going to be charged more than once. "Oh no, it didn't go through those other times, it just went through once," I was told.
I believed them. They were wrong. They charged my credit card five times. (It took me an hour on the phone with B of A to straighten that out.)
Anyway, I went out to look at the trailer hitch. I have seen trailer hitches before and there was clearly a piece missing. I went back in and up to the counter and said, "There's a piece missing." The two guys at the counter denied there was a piece missing. But a third employee off to the side said there was a piece missing, and that he would go and get it.
The first two guys acted like they had no idea what he was talking about.
He came back with the missing piece, which the other two guys suddenly recognized as being in existence, and they proclaimed "She hasn't paid for that piece." The other guy said. "It's part of the kit. She paid for the kit. Therefore it belongs to her."
They gave me the missing piece without charging me extra for it. Thank you guy that works at U-Haul in Belmont who was honest and actually helpful. As for the other two guys: watch out for their shenanigans.
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