Handwringing and Hand-pain

Before I get into my purchase of new products let me fill everyone in on my ongoing Motobceane saga.  Since my bike is completely built up and the box basically got destroyed unpacking - packing up for a return is pretty much out of the question.  After mentioning to Mike over at Bikes Direct that I have a Cycle Spectrum locally - and that I could take the bike in there for exchange on a new non-misspelled bike I was offered a 50 dollar 'discount', or the possibility to exchange.

To be honest 50 bucks is pretty paltry for a royal screw-up like the major decal on the bike being misspelled.  I replied wednesday with a response of 'How do we handle the exchange?'  and 'I dont want to wait forever to ride!' I did tell him that 'Its possible that if the discount was 100 dollars, we could just call it even'  I think a hundred bucks is pretty fair, and certainly less than it will cost for them to re-ship a bike and whatever money they may blow getting this frame fixed and re-clearcoated.  Even though the decal thing isnt a big deal, its one of those things that I will look at forever.  Something like this just solidifies the mystique that Motobecane has of being a one-off brand in some people's minds. I dont think that is the case, but perception is reality, yes?  A hundred bucks would at least be enough for me to consider purchasing from them again. If I were Motobecane/Bikesdirect, I would make damn sure I was as happy as hell and as fast as possible.  If this was one of their 300 dollar bikes I would probably just forget it. However, it is their most expensive aluminum 29er.

I have a whole lot of riding to do this weekend, and I have vacation next week and throughout the coming weeks.  There is no way that I am letting this bike just sit in the garage until I hear something back from Bikes Direct - I didnt ride it all week, and I am itching to get it out on the trial.  Am I risking BD from saying the bike is too 'used' to return?  I suppose I may be. The guys over there seem pretty cool so far, but I havent heard anything back yet - and its friday.

Anyhoo - on to the fun stuff.  I purchased a lizardskin chainstay protector, and some ergon GX-1 grips from Orange Cycle Orlando.

Fancy fancy Ergon GX1 grips.  These weigh in at 129 grams. That is the same weight as their GP-1 superlight carbon grips.









Yes, they were about 15 bucks more than I could find online, but sometimes it feels nice to walk into a store, find something you like, and walk out with it that minute.  Rather than browse, click, buy, wait wait wait - its browse, buy, use.

These are smaller grips than the GP1 grips. I have rather small hands and the GP1s were a) more expensive and b)  pretty big.  They had these GX1 grips in hideous team green on display and luckily the black ones were in the back.  They installed in a few moments.  I pulled off the old grips - then had to move the controls in a little to fit the new grips on.  Once I put the new grips on, I adjusted to a comfortable angle and used an allen key to tighten. viola.  The lizardskin seems to be a little big.  It is the 'SUPER JUMBO' model.  They didnt have a non-super-jumbo model to buy.  I would have used an old tube as a protector, but I dont have any old tubes!  Anyway, I will get some pictures this weekend of my purchases and give an in-depth review of both products.