The Old Guy Bicycle Blog

When Your Wheels Spin Out: Dealing with a Bike Mechanic Mess-Up I am lucky. I have a great bike shop that always does everything it can to make my rides a little better. I have had one issue in 17 years when I went in for a tune up and found out on my ride that the bike was "not right" after my first ride. I returned to the shop and talked to the mechanic and he looked at it and corrected the issue that day. He seemed to appreciate that I came back to talk to him and let him fix the issue without resorting to bad reviews or going to another shop. That is what this post is about. What should you do if you have a similar issue that I did. We trust our local bike shop with our beloved steeds, expecting them to work their magic and send them back purring like well-oiled machines. But what happens when the tune-up turns into a nightmare, and the mechanic's magic touch leaves you with a clunking, grinding, derailed disaster? Fear not, fellow pedal pushers, for there are ways to

Breaking Free from the Spokes of Self-Doubt: Overcoming Imposed Cycling Limits The wind whips through my hair, sun warms my face, and my tires hum a lullaby against the asphalt. Cycling is freedom, a symphony of rhythm and motion. Yet, sometimes, the melody is marred by a jarring dissonance – the discordant strum of self-imposed limitations. There it was, yesterday, on the familiar hill climb. My legs, traitorous twins, seemed leaden weights, refusing to propel me further. Doubt, a familiar serpent, coiled in my gut, hissing whispers of "not today, " "too steep, " "too far. " How often had I surrendered to its venomous pleas, turning back, the summit a tantalizingly unkissed peak in the distance? But yesterday, something shifted. Perhaps it was the defiant glint of sunlight off a fellow cyclist's handlebars, her resolute ascent a silent rebuke to my hesitance. Or maybe it was the memory of past victories, the sweet burn of co