Firstly, i hit up both City Bikes and the City Bikes Annex. They seemed pretty cool, lots of used bike parts, a small selection of bike, but with cool old (yet interesting and valuable) parts in the various bins. I spotted a few really rad Old-School bike shoes, from every era. Even the ones where you have the groove at the back of the shoe and you have to tighten the toe strap down to lock the foot in. No quick clipping out on those bad-boys. if you need to stop, you reach down, untighten the strap, and then step down. Also spotted was a beat up Suntour Mountain Tech deraileur. This derailleur was a big part of why suntour went out of business. Anyhow, they are pretty rare, and really intteresting from a historical point of view. Needless to say, i didn't bus anything, since i just can't carry it with me.
Then i went downtown, hung out with Damian and Briana, had a "King" sandwich of fried bannana and peanut butter. We played some pinball at "ground kontrol" around the corner, and then i continued my search for bike shops.
I hit up VeloShop, which is the most Cyclo-Cross oiented shop in town and i was really really impressed wit hte stuff they had in stock. Most notably the Dugast, FMB, etc handmade tubualars that most people have never even heard of, never mind seen in person. Most cross racers need to order this stuff of the internet, often used (because finding this stuf new is incredibly expensive and usually impossible). Well, these guys had tons of this stuf in stock, just lying around. crazy. Oh, and Spooky Carbon Cantilevers....who the hell has those IN-Stock? No-one. Incredible. I Talked to the owner Molly for a hot second, and asked a lot of questions. The question whether or not the shop had noticed anything relating to the supposed recession was definitly shirked. Seemed a little odd.
I headed down the street to Bike Central, and overhead the guy building the wheels bitchin' about velocity. i chimed in and struck up a conversation. They seemed really knowledgable, and i was impressed with how friendly the woman was. Not scared to answer questions, honest, very nice. They were straighforward and i liked them. Perhaps a little retro-grouchy, and the wheelbuilder was definitly a little burned out.
Next up i went past some other shop on NW 20th or 21st that was another cookie cutter too clean specialiazed shop. i passed through quickly. I was looking for the shop that specialized in mountian bikes, but couldn't remember the name or street. Eventually i called damian and he sorted me out. Fat Tire Farm. They were pretty clean and cookie cutter-esque, but they had a lot of stuff, nicer high end stuff, and a few less common parts. I talked to one of their people and they seemed to know what was up, but said that it would be hard to get any good mountian biking in if you didn't have a car. This annoyed me.
...
My sendoff was as the Shanghai Tunnel, which has a huge underground bar, which serves some mighty fine food. We got black bean and rice burgers, suprisingly good, and hella cheap. Four dollars gets you a great burger, with fries. I will have to try my hand at this at some point in the future.
Beers and stories. A couple other messengers showed up who i'd seen before and i felt a little more accepted, was pretty nice. I got drunk, and was amazingly offered a ride in a car to the airport! Which was great, except i left my beloved jacket in the car. I'm promised it will be sent on to me at some point in Boston, or New York.
I got to my flight, was drunk during check in, the plane took off at maybe 1opm, and i didn't get any sleep at all until the next afternoon, in boston.
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