Saturday, December 22, 2007

A Minor Loss

Last night I said goodbye to an old friend, sooner than I would have liked. My faithful Fuji bicycle, my partner in commuting for the last three years, was stolen while I was at the library. She was locked up securely, but not securely enough I guess.

Together we'd criss-crossed over 13,000 miles of Los Angeles pavement on my route from Hollywood to Santa Monica.

I hadn't put any money into maintaining it recently, so most of the components were worn to the ground. By the time I walked home from the library, I was already at peace about the loss. Nevertheless, I was also hoping that whoever yanked it would land on their head when they changed my worn out gears.

This morning I picked out another bike online, since it's the main way I get around. This time I wanted a no-frills, ultra minimal bike to beat up that won't be as enticing to thieves. I settled on this generic fixie that flips to be a freewheel, and includes two brakes.

I like the orange I ordered. But if I have two weeks that I don't need to ride it, I found a nice forum that describes in step-by step detail how to repaint a bike with a custom color.

3 comments:

  1. Sound like you've got yourself some VIOLATORS out there in LA> You need Ellen and I to come out and school 'em. Sally

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  2. Getting stuff stolen stinks! When we got back from LA to our house in Charlotte after Thanksgiving, my guitar was missing! Nothing else in the house had been touched, but we think someone came in through an unlocked window. Thankfully I had all my camera gear and my laptop with me! We never had a single thing stolen while we lived in LA. So much for the safety of the suburbs.

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  3. yo, Getting the MOTO! I like it... it still looks like a hot bike! you could do what I do, put a plastic bag with duct take on the seat, just to make it look more ghetto...

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