Wednesday, February 08, 2023

Leaving on a jet plane


My Aunt, who I stayed with twice last year for two three week periods flew me out to Chicago to dog sit for her while she went on vacation. There was no way I was going to go out there and not ride so I started looking for a bike bag. A buddy of mine had a bag but he was leaving the weekend I was returning so that wasn't going to work. Someone offered me a bag for free which I gladly drove up state to pick up. I brought him a couple of four packs of his favorite beer from Counterweight to say thank you.


Meanwhile, my aunt reached out to our family in the Chicago area and asked if anyone had a bike I could borrow but I had already went through this process. My uncle had a bike I could borrow but it was too small. My cousin's husband had a mountain bike and he's a taller guy but it was a medium and wouldn't really be conducive to my style of riding and it would suck on the trainer. 


A friend of mine that lives in the Western Suburbs had a friend with a bike that I could borrow and he had a Bluetooth trainer that I could borrow as well, provided I raced for him the following weekend but my Aunt didn't want me driving that far away to borrow the bike.  


I disassembled my Jamis and put most of my riding kit into the bag and ended up bringing my own bike. 


When I got to the airport and weighed it, it was exactly 50 lbs!
If it was over I was ready to take something out and stick it in my suitcase that weighed 35 pounds.


The next morning I reassembled my bike


Last November I mounted a bike rack and stand on her wall and it was perfect for the rebuild


I had also left a set of hex wrenches at her place just for this purpose


Reassembling the bike took an hour


The only thing that didn't work for me was the Topeak Road pump that I brough. I ended up getting an inexpensive small floor pump from Amazon that afternoon. Can you believe they have same day service? I had to spend over $50 to get it delivered that day so I bought a new holder for my phone for riding indoors.

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