The Workhorse

I'd been intending to take my classic old bike somewhere for maintenance; it was overdue. A flat tire (on the rear, of course) spurred me to take a closer look. That tire was ... done. And if I had been more attentive, I wouldn't have trashed the rear cassette by riding (how many miles?) with a worn-out chain. [I know better.] After 31 years of reliable riding, I really can't complain. (I had already worn out, and replaced, the shifters.)

This bike is a comfortable old friend, well-suited to casual rides. Though my days of bicycle commuting are behind me, I've nonetheless been racking up the miles on my trusty steed.

Too heavy to load into my car, I had pedaled it to a well-regarded family-owned shop for some TLC. A shop with a mechanic that would happily get it into shape, not frown and try to sell me a new bike.

Gone are the chronically misaligned, shrieking brake shoes. Also gone is the mismatched 8-speed rear shifter (it's a 7-speed cassette, but I guess that's all a previous mechanic had on hand when he replaced it).

This mechanic commented that the hubs had absolutely no grease in them. [Hubs are something of a mystery to me, and evidently had been ignored by all those who had serviced this machine, till now.]

Biking it back home seemed effortless. I hadn't had a sense that there was anything wrong about the ride, before; but there certainly was a difference now.

And I knew just where I wanted to stop for the glamour shots my old friend deserved!