Good to hear about your friends. Death by fire is one of my worst nightmares.

The Mission, near Dolores Park. The loft bed was made by my now-ex-roommate's master carpenter friend. It's pretty damn sweet.

Nice. I don't even want to ask about your rent.

Today worked out my budget for a new frame and it turns out I miscalculated my earnings and now I have $50 more towards it. Puts me at $450, though I will likely still save more. I want to make a big jump this time.

Where in SF do you live redpear? I'm scouting out prices in different areas, I want to move up next year.

Today, I received my SE Draft Coaster, only to find out the fork is defective and will need to be replaced. The left dropout was either made wrong or damaged prior to painting to the point where the wheel axle won't fit at all. Overall, the bike quality is pretty crappy, so maybe I'll just return the whole thing. Certainly not worth the $279 I paid for it. I emailed CityGrounds, and am waiting to hear back from them. Their phone line just said "all agents are busy, leave a message."

I live in parkside. It was the cheapest I could find next to bayview, and I promised myself I wouldn't live out there.

This made me chuckle. I promise RG will never have "agents".

This is my first purchase from CityGrounds. Shipping was prompt, but the customer service for problems ain't going too well so far. Also, I can see why you and others are so down on the SE Draft. Some parts like the stamped steel stem make Walmart bikes look high end.

Is Bayview just a not a good place to live?

It's far from everything, it's inconvenient, and it's got 'history.'

Do you think it would be ok for someone who just wanted a bike to ride casually? My girlfriend wants to get into fixed after riding mine a bit, and she found a Draft Lite on Road Bike Outlet for $240

Not TT, but I grabbed a $99 Draft Lite from Bonktown a couple months ago and I think it'd a perfectly adequate bike for beginner casual riding. I'd keep an eye on bonktown, they've had them up for $144 a few times in the past couple weeks.

I saw one there like twice, and never since then. She kinda fell in love with the purple one. Hope they have it on Bonktown.

I got the purple one from bonktown. They have it for $199 at realcyclist and citygrounds.

have 3 citygrounds orders in total
leader fork: no problem
brooks saddle: came in scuffed. told them. they told me I could send it back for a refund, but not an exchange (I got it during their first $75 sale). they gave me this thing about brooks being leather and all of them being different and unique and to expect that, but this was a scuff about 1.5 inches long, almost totally white.
gloves: sent me the wrong ones, took a week to send me a return label. then I got the right ones.

Most of their "sale" prices are above normal shops anyway. I'll only shop their now if the price is just too good (see: brooks)

some other guy made an order from them in Canada and was sent the wrong bike, just like... the totally wrong frame and everything. He had a problem getting in touch with CS too

Dude. Huge help. Thanks a lot man!

Before you jump the gun on that, I'd find out how much they charge for shipping. Also, that bike has the same cheap frame that I got, and you might get one that's a dud with a bad fork or some other critical defect.

Finally getting some snow and ice. Was riding back from class and was slippin all over the place. I need new tires with tread. my 4 year old no tread gat skins aint cuttin it

today I sold my deda track bars with the brooks tape on them to pay for another set of compact drops. after the guy gave me the money he told me he was really only interested in the tape. I wish I had offered to buy the bars back from him for $20

You going with the FSA wing pros?

I went with 3T Ergonova Pros

And today I got even worse news that I don't really care to elaborate on over the internet. Like, really heavy. Sh*tty couple of days and a terrible start to the year.

If it makes you feel any better, my girlfriend and I broke up last week, after having been together for 8 years. :|

Well I finally received an email from City Grounds with the reply:

"The following is SE Bikes’ Policy on factory issues such as yours: For an immediate action, please visit your local professional bike shop to inspect and straighten the fork."

Thing is, I told them that the problem is not a bent fork, but a defective dropout casting, which for sure is not repairable in any safe way and no reputable bike shop would attempt this. I even sent photos, which clearly show the badly malformed dropout casting. As far as SE suggesting fork repair instead of replacement, shows a very low level of business ethics with that company. Anyway I emailed back that this was not an acceptable solution. Stay tuned.

^when I told SRAM about the GXP in one of my omniums being a POS they wanted me to have two shops verify the problem and call them to tell them. I opted to just sell them on craigslist. I really hate when companies make their warranty so difficult that it's not worth troubling with. In reality, since you JUST received it, it seems that citygrounds should take it back and worry about that stuff themself.