Well, I had worse than a flat as it turned out. I actually bent my "bombproof" Velocity deep V rim. Crappy. I think I was able to more or less fix it by using a crescent closed down to just the rim wall thickness and gently, slowly bending it back out. It wasn't terrible, and I got it pretty straight and lightly sanded out the little bite marks from the wrench. I figure at least I'll ride it until I screw it up again and then perhaps I'll get a new one. Such is life in the city I reckon.
I did get another bike at the beginning of the weekend. It's an '89 Trek 660. Pretty nice bike. It was kind of hodge-podged by the previous owner. Was supposed to have an all Shimano 600/Ultegra group, but a lot of it is Shimano 105 now. It's also got a weird "gripshift" rear derailleur shifter thing mounted on the end of the drop bars, kind of looks like a little mini beer koozy stuck on there. I have been riding it around for the last 4 days. I think I'll probably just ride it for a while and then sell it again after making it prettier/tuned up (it came with flats and kind of ratty bar tape and misaligned front derailleur). I have decided to turn my Paramount back into a normal road bike and then use my single speed wheels on an as-yet-unknown frame that can take a rack and fenders. It's a nice ride though.
I actually had a funny first ride on this bike. I had to literally get home from buying it, throw an unproven set of wheels on it (it came with flats and I had another set I had picked up on the cheap sometime earlier) and head downtown due to my previous day's rim bend on the Paramount.
I was screwing along down Milwaukee Ave. making good time and after a couple of miles, I noticed that the front tire had a curious bulge/bend thing going on. The tire was deforming and I was thinking "this is not going to get me downtown!" Right past Division (going SE), I noticed a window with a bunch of bikes in it. I stopped and walked the bike back down the sidewalk to the front of Ride bike shop. The proprietor, Ron, walked out and took a look at me and my front tire blew up right at that moment with a big "bang!" Pretty good timing. Anyway, he sorted me out with a used front tire for a few bucks and I was back on my way in about 10 minutes. Thanks Ron and Ride!
What I have now is a pretty janky looking bike, but I left for vacation yesterday to Austin, so I'll not be worrying about that for several days. Hooray for vacay!
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