So I've been looking for a backup bike, one I don't have to put much money into but that would work when my Tall Pale Hooker is in the shop. That I could use to tow a trashboat, put it on the boat and not have a stroke if the worst happened and it sank in the river. That I could throw the snow tires on in November and when it looks icy, take the bike with the studs already on it instead of trying to talk myself into changing tires for a day or two.
I guess I was looking in all the wrong places. I kept looking on Craigslist for Surly stuff, for steel frame cyclocross bikes etc. My friend David nailed it, searched 'hybrid' and came up with this Giant Ferrago, a steel frame bike from the 90s in excellent working order, in my size. Cost me all of $90. It's a lot like the Diamondback I started out with back in 2009, except it's in much better repair. I put my old Bontrager saddle on it and moved the pedals off my Surly onto it because, well, pink.
There was nothing wrong with the big grippy pedals I had on the Long Haul Trucker, just that these pink pedals are just as big and grippy and they're freaking pink. So I moved my boring pedals over to the Giant and got the pink ones for my daily driver. Matches the pink fenders, pink bar tape, and pink helmet mohawk.
Took my new old bike out for a spin, gonna have to do some work on it. In just eight miles I had numb fingers, an aching back and a crick in my neck. But it looks like for about another $100 I can get an extension for the stem, new cables and such to reach and get the bars up where I can live with it. It'll be the best shitty bike ever.
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