So a little backtracking is in order for me to begin stage two of God only know how many upcoming rides.
I mentioned before that Rosa was interested in riding too. So when I finally found the frame/bike I wanted to use to replace the Soma I decided it was a good time to get Rosa’s bike as well. I mean why not, Competitive Cyclist in SLC had them at a smoking’ good price (a complete bike…albeit single speed). When Rosa’s arrived I had my absolute favorite LBS (local bike shop) build a rear wheel around a Nuvinci 360 hub. I chose this for her because she has limited, very limited, cycling experience and I didn’t wan’t her to go through any of the issues I had experienced on my earlier Mexico trip.
I surprised her with it after our birthday dinner at my favorite restuarant in Las Vegas; Embers. They were wonderful in helping me surprise her. Needless to say it was a great time and her smiles told it all.
So now she has this killer bike all set up and ready to begin touring…now what about me? Well, mine was a slightly different story since I wanted a Rohloff Speedhub. I had the bike shipped to Cycle Monkey in El Cerrito, CA. Neil and his crew are one of the most knowledgeable about this German art of engineering.
The bike had been delivered to Neil while we spent a week in Mexico. Upon our return I had to delay the start of my trip by a day due to a case of Montezuma’s revenge. Wasn’t terrible, but I had no desire to start my trip feeling that way. Besides, it was only a day more.
I took off for Oakland early friday morning. Thankfully Rosa was able to drop me off at the airport. It was tough to leave. For the first time in nearly four years of being together we had finally become friendly and more patient towards each other…I suddenly didn’t feel a big pressure to get the hell out of Dodge.
The trip to Oakland was uneventful enough save for one small item. It was a fairly full flight so I chose an aisle seat next to a couple. It didn’t take long to realize these two had been together for a while and they really dug each other’s company. It was really fun to see. Then she started dogging him about how perfect he was…I couldn’t resist and let her know how lucky she was that she had the opportunity to sit between two perfect men. Well, he didn’t miss a beat and the rest of the flight was full of good humored back and forth banter. They are my current relationship role-models.
Thankfully I had looked into the easiest way to get to the shop in El Cerrito which involved taking a shuttle from the airport to the BART (Bay Area Rapid Trasit) station nearby. A well spent $3 got me onto the shuttle and being the nice guy I am I made way for a young lady to sit down on the crowded bus next to me…she promptly took a nap. It took some doing to wrestle all my gear in these two huge bags up to the train platform, but it wasn’t long before I found the place and wouldn’t you know it, the same girl was waiting for the train. We started talking and it turns out she (Michelle) is a Dermotologist working in L.A. She was on her way to a friend’s wedding in the Napa Valley. She was fun to talk to and thankfully kept me from getting on the wrong train.
I finally got on my train and about 20 minutes later was off the train near my destination. I knew the shop wasn’t too far away, but I really didn’t feel like lugging the two friggin’ bags up and down the street. I got a cab. I told the guy the address and about 500 feet later we were there…we both had a chuckle over it.
When I walked in the shop I learned that Neil, the owner whom I had been dealing with up to this point, wasn’t in so I dealt with Stefan his mechanic. Stefan is a good German kid and wouldn’t you know it…a bit of a perfectionist! He had completely gone through the set-up of the bike regardless of the fact that Competitive Cycles claim their bikes are “ready to ride” out of the box. “Nonesense” was Stefan’s comment. He was quite unhappy with the way they had set up the Avid BB7 disc brakes. Funny enough he and I didn’t hit it off too well, he was feeling pressured by my arrival and I could tell. He shoo’d me off to get a cup of coffee and I walked away without saying anything although I had a few choice thoughts I wanted to share.
I went to Macaroni Grill and decided to get a bite to eat and I’m glad I did because my frustration was able to be redirected to the pin-headed waiter I got stuck with. Now mind you, I walked through their doors at 11am…they open at 11am. I was the first customer of the day. The waiter got my order (soup and pasta), and people started to make their way in. These same people got their orders prior to mine. The waiter came by and lamely said that mine should be out shortly…the kitchen got slammed??? Are you friggin’ kid din’ me? Who was your first customer? Needless to say my order came promptly out. What a bonehead to tell me something like that…just tell me I forgot to place your order, I can live with that.
The point is, I vented and when I got back to the shop I found that Stefan and I made our apologies to each other and we hit things off splendidly. I got the bike ready to roll and was finally out of their shop around 4:30. I cycled my way up the street to a cheap motel and got checked in. I realized on the ride that I should have mounted my panniers on the front instead of the rear and rode back to the shop for the proper fittings that were slated to be mailed back to Vegas. Thankfully Stefan was still there and I grabbed what I needed and cycled back towards the motel.
I didn’t quite make it because a tavern offering happy hour prices on pitchers of beer caught my parched throat’s attention. I only dallied for a pitcher before heading off to the motel. I got everything ready and called it a fairly early night.
BrokenSpoken 