Monday, January 15, 2007

Swap 2007



Yet another Madison bike swap has come and gone, and for the second year in a row I rode to the event with all my stuff. Yes, it's possible to haul the entire (if modest) contents of a swap table on an Xtracycle. On the left side is a dual-suspension mountain bike; on the right is a plastic bag containing 2 suspension forks and a rigid steel fork; in the cardboard box is a carbon fiber fork; in the box on the top are a couple of saddles, about 15 derailleurs, several sets of toe clips, some old seat bags for spare tubulars, and a bunch of other accumulated miscellany. I sold almost all of it and came home with just a small box and the mountain bike (anybody need one?)

I had to wait in a line of cars to get into the area behind the venue with the other exhibitors, and got a few looks when I rolled right in through the back door. The guy at the registration desk asked whether I had ridden there with all that stuff. Well, yeah, but it was only about 4 miles...

For the first time in recent memory, I went home with more money than I had come with. I didn't feel an urgent need to spend it all. I did get a couple of things I had been wanting for a while—an Axa integrated wheel lock and a second set of Reelights (batteryless lights that use the Faraday principle to power LEDs—will blog them at some point) some tires and a few other little things.

Saw quite a few people I knew and floated the idea of riding down to tour the Sugar River Dairy sometime this summer, which was quite well-received. It was a big event and a pretty good outing, all things considered.

On the way home, winter returned. Four miles of those sandy little snow particles driven into my face by a fierce headwind. In the absence of windfront tights, I can now recommend Carhartt's flannel-lined jeans. Toasty.

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

Excellent. I should dig up some pictures of my trash hauling via xtracycle. Back before I broke down and got a dumpster at the shop, I'd pile up the garbage and haul it to my can at home. It made for some unwieldy loads. Hope you did ok at the swap. I hope to attend again next year.

Michael Lemberger said...

I did really well, thanks. Went home in the black for a change. Glad to hear you're thinking about coming back...

Michael Lemberger said...

And yeah, I guess this avatar does make it look like a have a big beard...