I have been riding Sweaty Betty, my new(ish) cruiser/hybrid for 2 weeks now due to Freddy’s illness. What was wrong? A rust outbreak! i knew when I got him that he was starting to rust but had no idea until my friendly local bike mechanic, Tyree, showed me just how bad it had gotten while pressing in a new headset. It was baaaaad.

Bici had a few cans of Frame Saver that I bugged Heath to get for us months ago. When we got it I found out you had to strip it down to just a frame, spray it, let it sit for 12 hours, spray again and let sit again. Considering Freddy was my only mode of transport this was a challenge. So I did as I normally do…nothing. Until Tyree scolded me. “fine!” I thought, “geez, I’ll do it”.

Then it sat at the shop for 2 weeks due to random circumstances. damn. Last Monday I finally said to Heath “This must get done”. So we started…and immediately ran into trouble. The bottom bracket was stuck. Some pulling, cursing and a busted nose later, it was off. Everything else came of with no trouble, we sprayed it, plugged it up and I was happy. (btw-that shit is toxic…spray outdoors ONLY)

The week got away so the next chance I had to work was Thursday during open shop hours. No mechanic, no problem…I can do this.

HA! It was a mess. Put the spindle in backwards (thanks, Andrew for figuring that out!), couldn’t get the headset in correctly. ugh. After 3 hours, I had to call it quits, defeated and exhausted. I needed my bike for Saturday when I was taking a bike tour of the Rural Studio and Pie Lab (more on that later), so that left Friday.

Friday after work and a nose piercing outing (not mine), I went to work at the shop. 2 hours, tears, blood, cursing and a couple of phone consults, I had a completed bike. Turns out the expander plug for my handlebars was in my fork, and I scoured the floor thinking I had lost it. sigh. I was covered in grease (all over my face from wiping tears!) but feeling triumphant.

I called my mechanic friend and he said “you can’t ride that Elisa, it may not be safe”. “What?!”, I exclaimed “I have to ride it tomorrow morning!”. So I called Tyree and asked him to double check my work. 2 hours later he walks in with a bottle of wine and proceeds to tell me I did a great job and the bike was rideable!! I could have kissed him. SWEET! I had done it, all by myself (mostly).

I rode Freddy the next day, for the first snowy morning and was happy slappy.

A Christmas-time miracle.