Living Car Free - Picking up a new bike... on a bike

So my much anticipated Surly Cross check is at the bike shop, built, and ready to be ridden home. How do I pick it up?

I'm planning on taking a cab to the shop and then riding it home, but was curious as to what others would do in the same situation. My limitations are that I need to be on the road home no later than 6pm as I don't want my first ride on the bike to be in the dark. None of my regular friends that I can call on for rides are available during this time-frame, that is unless I'm willing to wait until Saturday to pick it up.... but the bike geek in me just won't let a shiny new bike with my name on it sit at the bike shop for 2 days. I thought about riding one of my existing bikes to the shop and then leaving it there until the weekend, but since the Surly will be my daily commuter and is also brand new I don't want it to be my ONLY option for commuting. Having the old commuter as a back up gives me a bit of insurance. Thoughts?

Do you have a rear rack and bungie cords?

The new Cross Check will have a rack once I get it home and install it, but my existing bike is an aluminum road bike with no rack at all.

If you have the rack at home, you can mount it to the road bike (if it has eyelets/braze-ons) and go to the bike shop. Then put the rack on the Surly. Finally, you can fasten the road bike onto the rack (with the wheels removed). Or you have 2 other options. One, take the cab to pick up the bike and buy a cheap headlight and ride home. Or two, wait a couple of days to pick it up. :D

The rack *might* arrive in the mail today, but my road bike is aluminum and carbon so it won't take a rack. I guess the cab option is what I'll do since waiting 2 days to pick it up is like telling a kid on Christmas morning to wait a day to open their present. :)

I'd do the same thing I did last time. Walk to bike shop, pick up bike, walk home. Didn't get to ride it home because He Who Holdeth The Checkbook had to come with *g*. We try to stick to buying bikes from one of the four bike shops within walking distance since it makes life easier if the bike needs repairs.

If the shop is too far away to walk, I'd use a cab or the city bus.

guess i'm lucky, or just well-placed. i can just walk a 5-6 blocks to the LBS.

did you end up doing the cab option?

seems like one other option would be to do it in pieces; e.g. ride to the shop, pick up the frame, shoulder it home. then the wheels, then the rest... it'd take a while but it might be possible

The problem with doing it in pieces is the LBS (which is 9.5 miles away) has already done the build up. I'm contemplating riding one of my old bikes to pick it up and then asking the shop if I can just leave the old bike there until this weekend when a friend can take me back down to pick it up, but I'll likely just take a cab and ride the new bike home.

Thank you all for your input.

http://i29.photobucket.com/albums/c269/AzCowboy/Bike%20stuff/S7300146.jpg

:D

If the bike thing doesn't work, do you have carshare in your city? This is exactly the kind of thing I use carshare for here. If not, you could rent a car/truck for the day and take care of any other errands you need a car for.

That picture is awesome and could only be more awesome if somehow they figured out how to put a second person on the bike being towed. :) I need to look into the carshare option, but since the bike works so well most of the time I haven't. I opted for taking the cab... $35 for a 10 mile ride. :( The Cross Check is awesome and amazingly fun to ride and unless I have a loaded pannier feels nearly as nimble as my road bike. I'll post pics of it when I get a chance. Thanks all for your input.

I would run walk or crawl to pick up a new Cross Check.

Or I might ride my current bike to the LBS, leave it there, and ride the new bike home. Then go back in the next day or two to ride the old bike home.

Taking the old bike and leaving it at the shop really was the best idea, but since the Cross Check is brand new and is also my main form of transportation I wanted to have the old bike at home just on the slight chance that there was a problem with the Cross Check and I had to revert to the old bike. Luckily that hasn't happened (crossing fingers).

This is funny, I'm waiting for my new cross check to be finished at the bike store. And have been considering the very same obstacle. The bike store is probably about 2-3 miles away, and I imagine that I'll be so excited/impatient that if I can't get a ride within just a few hours of it being ready, I'll walk there.

Its always possible to (and I've done this several times before over distances of a mile) ride one handed holding the other bike by the handle bars/stem (you can even track stand quite easily at lights) Doing this with a brand new bike just doesn't sound any fun. (plus both bikes are fixed gears)

I understand your excitement, and it is well placed. I've had my Cross Check since Thurs. and it is easily one of the funnest bikes I have ever ridden. While I had my rack and a trunk bag on I passed a group of road riders on carbon fiber bikes, but then I also was able to ride through some dirt, grass, and hop a curb or two and not feel guilty about it. Awesome bike.

I had the same problem recently, except (sadly) I wasn't picking up a crosscheck (or a lht!). I took a bus, but it felt really weird not having a bike with me. Disorienting!

I've taken my bike on the bus in the past, so as I was sitting on the bus thinking about managing the transfer, my mind immediately went to the image of taking my bike off the bus, and I thought "That's silly. Why would I transfer? I'll just ride my bike... oh, wait." It was *really* weird being downtown without my bike. I felt... naked. :)

I picked up my Schwinn Peloton 2007 (all carbon fiber road bike) with my Schwinn super sport, by the following:

Rode the SS, while guiding the Peloton (with my right-hand)..on my right.

Ride was tricky, I almost lost it one time with traffic behind me!

Know anyone with a tandem? Ride to the bike shop together and then ride your bike home.

When I picked up my Giant OCR back in May i rode my Commuter MTB out to the shop which is a good 15-18 miles. Got the new Roadie and left the MTB so they could do a tune up on it. (it needed it) Then a week later went back and picked up my MTB when I was able. The shop was cool esp since I told them there was no rush on the MTB on getting it back since I wanted to ride the New Roadie.

No pictures...But I once used an old 3 speed that had a rack and put a yakima truck bed mount on it. Just like the pic above is how it works. Idk tho if I would trust hauling a new bike tho, to risky. Great for yardsale deals, but I think a trailer would be great for this.

Its always possible to (and I've done this several times before over distances of a mile) ride one handed holding the other bike by the handle bars/stem (you can even track stand quite easily at lights) Doing this with a brand new bike just doesn't sound any fun.

I have done this before, it works but first few block takes a getting used to navigating though turns.