The promise of a warm spell a week ago came to pass, bringing with it a widespread melt that left streets and sidewalks full of water. Water isn’t a problem, but morning temperatures are still in the -12 to -17 degree range, which means those seas of water become either sheets of black ice […]
As promised, I visited Canadian Tire today to order a replacement shifter for the Bike of Doom. I came armed with the bike part number, as well as my emails from Canadian Tire head office. None of that seemed to make a difference.
The guy manning the Bike Department said he couldn’t order a […]
It’s a year to the day that I bought the SuperCycle 1800 18 Speed Mountain Bike from Canadian Tire. I wrote the first post in this blog on March 14 last year, took the bike on the road for the first time on March 16. My expectations for the bike were low. […]
It’s funny how my understanding of “complete” and “road worthy” have changed since buying the SuperCycle SC1800 Bike of Doom. I won’t touch the subject of whether the Bike of Doom could ever be called road worthy; that’s another argument waiting to happen. I will say that I have slowly moved away from a need […]
Much has been written about the many tools required to keep a bike in good running condition. The average cyclist could be forgiven for believing he needs to spend more on tools than he did on his bike! Granted, with a Department Store Bike that’s fairly easy to do, since the cost of […]
The cold has been tough on the Bike of Doom. There have been numerous sub -40 days in the past few weeks. Environment Canada warned of -45 temps this morning with extreme windchill. Trying to switch gears the other day I broke the shifter for the rear derailer. The Dude at […]
This is the 15 minute weekly Bike of Doom maintenance plan. Do it every week and you’ll keep even the crappiest department store bike running smoothly for longer than you really want it to. I remember the moment I finally understood this, and the sinking feeling I felt in my guts as the […]
I took a week of holiday last week and didn’t ride a single kilometer other than a Sunday ride with Mike. Back to commuting this week, though, in colder temperatures, ice on the ground, all of that.
The SC1800 is running just fine, no problems to report. A cleaning of the drive train […]
The SC1800 has turned into a boringly reliable ride. I’m putting on 70 Km per week commuting, and another 70 to 100 Km per week in recreational rides, and the thing keeps rolling along. It’s been over 1,000 Km since I had to do a repair worth noting. Bi-weekly lubrication and cleaning […]
It is Thanksgiving weekend (Canadian style), and the last time the blue bike received any TLC was at 2,000 Km. It has provided a mostly trouble-free ride since then. You can see by the pictures that it has been ridden hard and put away wet. I’ve noticed a few things that require […]
