The Bravo crew went bike shopping a few days ago.
You may recall that we took our fancy folding bikes, custom made "Bike Friday" cuties home from Mexico last year. They were just too precious to adapt to this cruising lifestyle....frequent trips in the dinghy to shore, common salt spray showers, etc. Ouchhhh... As much as we've always loved biking, we figured when we arrived at a spot where we wanted bikes, we'd pick up a couple of, well, "not carbon" beasties.
Here in Bahia, it seems that everyone is on bikes. So we set out on a mission, one that brought us to a great little streetside recycling "shop". A guy here takes discarded bikes and mixes and matches parts to put "useable" steeds together. Even gives them a paint job with the color of your choice. "New" rubber, and brakes that sort of work, at least when you're not going down a hill !!! All for about $50 per bike!!! Perfect!!! Carbon fiber, highly over rated!!!
 |
| Rusty rims get silver paint...."good as new"!!! |
The shop itself is a bit primitive by US standards. Mostly it's called "the sidewalk". But inside the shop is a pile of raw materials, old rides that have long been abandoned, in a field, on a beach, in the jungle, wherever. The shop's bike maestro orchestrates the scrounging of a complete bike out of the heap for you. "Come back in two days".
 |
| Cindi admires Adam's original selection in the "showroom". |
Bingo. The bikes are ready (almost). Had to swap Adam's ride
for another, as he couldn't find tires that fit. Too bad, as the original model had a very cool rack WELDED onto the back, made of REBAR!!! I think the extra weight over the rear wheel must've given great traction!!!
One of the 4 wheels was flat the first morning, will be fixed today. All good!!!
 |
| Great crowd celebrates Team Barcelona's soccer victory. For el "Idol de Ecuador", the celebration continues! |
And we'll have to see about a yellow jersey!!! Should be a few available after the Team Barcelona festivities die down!!!
Here in Bahia, it seems that everyone is on bikes. So we set out on a mission, one that brought us to a great little streetside recycling "shop". A guy here takes discarded bikes and mixes and matches parts to put "useable" steeds together. Even gives them a paint job with the color of your choice. "New" rubber, and brakes that sort of work, at least when you're not going down a hill !!! All for about $50 per bike!!! Perfect!!! Carbon fiber, highly over rated!!!
No comments:
Post a Comment