Well...

Picked up the bike. It looks awesome. I'll do pics on Thursday (my day off).

My wife came to my place of employment w/ the bike rack in the trunk. I loaded up and we went to the bike shop.

After I loaded the bike onto the trunk rack (alongside my Trek), I immediately backed into another car. Neither car was damaged. The Fuji cushioned the blow.



I didn't even get a chance to ride it before I fsocked it up.

Thankfully, there was no damage to the car I backed into. It was very, very low speed.

Thankfully, the frame/fork was fine. The only damage was to the front wheel. The bike shop owner trued it up as best he could. It's not quite perfect. I'll wind up replacing the wheel, but it should work for now.

I went off on one of his employees. I was furious with myself and with the person that ignored all the empty parking slots to park where she shouldn't be parking in the first place. When I went inside one of the guys who works there asked the owner what had happened. I said "I backed into another car". He immediately started laughing.

"Oh, that's funny to you? I spend $XXX here, don't even get a chance to ride the bike, mess up my front wheel and you think that's funny? How about I beat the ever lovin' stuffin' out of your bike and we'll see how funny you think that is?" (I cleaned that up a bit for the forum)

I took it out for an inaugural ride and it tracks well. There's no wobble to it. Everything works great. The Fuji feels much faster than I'm used to. I don't know if I'm actually any faster on it, but it sure felt that way. The bar end shifters are going to take a little getting used to. The last time I rode a bike w/ drops I had turkey levers and I used them alot. The newer style brake levers are going to take a bit of getting used to.

I have to do some adjusting. I have to move the seat back and raise the handlebars a bit.

Unfortunately I can't find my metric allen wrenches, so I'll muddle through until I get to work tomorrow. I have a tub of them there, I think. I'm pretty sure I do, anyway.

Still can't believe I backed into that car. I've not done anything that dumb in a long, long time. That's what I get for not paying attention, I guess.

Anybody have a 27" front wheel that's in good shape that they're looking to unload? I'm in the market. Can't do anything about it until the end of next week, but I'll definitely be looking for one when I get paid again.

Thanks.

I can't tell if you're in a bad spot or not, based on that post. I hope all is well w/ you. Seriously.

I'm not too keen on buying stuff, but it is fun to spend a little dough on oneself every once in a while.

My child support just ended a couple of months ago. That makes a huge difference. Things were really, really, really tight for a long while.