So I spent just about the entire day on my bike.
First I took my bike to the shop that I purchased it at, because I was feeling some movement in the crank (not the arms, but the center). The shop mechanic that was working there said nothing was loose but tightened the crank arms/chain rings up anyways.
About 10 minutes later, the problem was still there while I was on my way downtown, so I decided to stop at another shop in the same chain (Pauls). They took a look at my bike for me, jumped on my crank a few times, and told me one of the cups on the chainring side was loose. He promptly disassembled my crank and tightened it up for me, free of charge! I've decided that aside from getting my free tuneup in a couple of months, I won't be going back to that particular installment of Pauls for work any time soon, even if it IS closer.
Then I had him put a rack on for me. It's an Axiom Disk rack (like the one dynaryder suggested). The guy had a bit of trouble with it. They just got the disc racks in for the first time. But after about 10 minutes of fiddling around, he got it, and it works great.
Then came panniers. They had some nice Jandd ones, but the way they were designed, they wouldn't work with my rack (because of the disc). So I went to a couple of other shops, to look at my options. Some other pack that looked really nice (started with an O) had the same issue. In the end, I found some decent looking ones called "Sakaroo's" that I was able to get on without any troubles. Purchased those, along with a pump that attaches to my water bottle mounts, a water bottle holder, a water bottle and a new lock (NY u-lock).
Now all I need are some lights. THe selectoin seemed kinda limited in all of the shops that I saw. Anyone have any suggestions? I don't ride at night a whole lot (almost never, actually) so i'd like to cheap out and get just some decent ones that will work on the rare occasion that I AM out at night.
EDIT: PICS!
My cat is such an attention *****! She saw I was getting the camera out, and jumped out of the hamper to get in that shot.
Closeup on the panniers. They seem pretty good. After my shopping trip tonight, i'll make a post saying how well they hold up under extreme stress from my tortilla chips and salsa.
Question: For those of you who go grocery shopping with panniers, do you take them off when you go inside? Or do you just leave them on, and trust that nobody will steal them?