Buying a bicycle

I bought a bicycle.

I don't know much about bikes, but I do know a lot about myself. And I know I am neurotic about gear shifting. I'm one of those people who has to shift gears all the time because "maybe this isn't the absolute perfect gear for this moment". And I hate, HATE it when gears don't shift properly, or make that little rattling noise against the chain. Drives me crazy. So I spent some extra money to make sure I got a bike with better shifters. (On a scale of 1-10, mine are still just a 3 instead of a 2).

Well they don't work.

I'm sure it's just a calibration issue, but I think that when you buy a brand new bike, it should be in perfect working condition leaving the store. I've had bike "experts" tell me "well, shifting gears can be tricky. You just need to get used to them." No. I ain't buying it. These aren't the same gears we had on our 10-speeds growing up. For all practical purposes, you shift with buttons. You press one button to go up a gear, you press another button to go down. Imagine stepping into an elevator to go to the 10th floor but it doesn't work, and the building manager tells you, "oh, it's just a little tricky." Would you tolerate that? No.

I'll get the gears re-adjusted, but it's just very frustrating to have to deal with this. I don't think I'm asking too much to expect these things to be working when the bike is brand new.

There is one component of my bike which is working flawlessly: I got a killer whale squeeky horn.



Click to hear the horn in action.

Oh yeah baby, you are jealous.