Tune Me Up, Buttercup

After more than a week of waiting, I finally picked up my bike from Bicycle Therapy yesterday, fresh off his first ever tune-up:

I know. If you're an experienced cyclist, you probably know that I waited too long to get this done. It's been needed for probably about the last 6 months, maybe longer.

The thing is, a bike isn't all that different than a car in some respects. After you've spent some time with it, you get a real feel for how it rides best and adapt your style as it wears and changes. I also made an innumerable amount of small fixes here and there (including upgrading the tires and replacing brake pads, among other things) to keep him running as smoothly as possible for far longer than recommended. Hell, I was getting close to logging 5,000 miles on most of the factory-installed parts and still think I could have gotten another 1,000 out of them.

That said, I made the right decision. I knew it needed, well, pretty much everything. They replaced my entire drive train, including a new cassette with improved gear ratios, so my first gear is no longer useless:

I also needed new pedals and a crank, not to mention a new chain:

All this with new cables and housing to boot. The $250 investment has been worth every penny, even though all I've done is ride to and back from work thus far. I'm gonna try to sneak in a small adventure before this weekend (I'll be busy this weekend doing non-biking activities).

And hey, just for fun, here's some maintenance math since this guy's birth date:

• $250 tune-up including replacing entire drive train, cables, and housing
• $32 new brake pads
• $60 new tires
• ~$60 replacement tubes (I haven't had to replace one since upgrading the tires)

I'll build in an additional $50 for something I might have forgotten. That's roughly $450 in maintenance over 2 years, and even if you include the accessories I've purchased for the bike (one-time purchases, natch), the total is far less than I've spent on gas and maintenance on my car in the same span. I'm not even going to bother trying to calculate that. I love my car, but I love my bike more.

All he needs now is a new set of grips and he'll be just like new:

Yeesh! Next pay, that might have to happen. So here's to new beginnings, and the start of another 5,000 miles...