The Bike of Doom

So far, the daily commute on the Bike of Doom (SuperCycle 18-speed Mountain Bike) has been really good.� My typical daily route is a 22 Km round trip.� On days when I need to get to work quickly, I cut it to about 16.� If I’m in a hurry to get to work, and to get home, I can reduce it to about 7 Km.� � The BOD has revealed no serious signs of wear or tear, despite a couple of falls on ice early on.

Wheels appear to be true, drive train operating as one would expect.� I’m noticing a little bit of squeakiness coming from the chain but this coming weekend will be the bike’s 500 Km inspection and I’ll address it then, along with a general inspection of every part I can easily reach.� Remember, I am not a bike mechanic and do not have the equipment on hand to do anything but basic maintenance on the bike… no more than anybody with typical household tools could do… although I did buy a spoke wrench for $4.65.

Riding the BOD, I get frustrated occasionally by how shoddily its shifting mechanisms work… both the derailers and the shifters themselves, but they continue to work as they did when the bike was new.� I’m spoiled, I guess, by my better bikes, with their rapidfire shifters that move the derailers swiftly and surely from one ring to the next.� On a more personal level, I have been experiencing moments of annoyance when commuter cyclists on skinny tires, usually more expensive metros or flat-handled road bikes, zoom past me.� It really highlights how inefficient the Bike of Doom is… or rather, how inefficient any Mountain Bike is for commuting.

Still, the BOD is reliable, and is getting me where I need to go every day.� More than that, I don’t worry about it.� I’ve got a nice flat-handled road bike, but you couldn’t pay me to ride it to work and leave it in the open.

Related posts:

Another Budget Bicycling experiment

End of the road for the Bike of Doom?

Repair limit for a Department Store Bike