Fort Worth's Colonel's Bicycles Has Me Back On 2 Wheels

Well. I am back in bike riding mode. It has been quite a long time since my bike became unstable, due to the rear wheel getting way out of round. Or un-true in bike wheel-speak. Or is it out of true?

My biking had sort of gone the way of my roller blading. With roller blading I decided one day that the fun quotient was out weighed by the lack of a desire to go through another long recovery from a bad blading fall.

And then I sort of got addicted to heavy duty hiking and its resultant positive effects.

But, I sort of missed riding my bike.

And then a couple weeks ago I was walking the paved trail at River Legacy Park. Walking it. And way more bikers than I ever remember seeing there, reminded me of how often I'd biked that trail. I decided then to get back in bike mode.

Part of my reluctance to deal with the bike woes is I have had bad luck with bike shops here in Texas. And I was never all that happy with bike shops in Washington, except for the bike shop in Fairhaven in Bellingham. I think it was called Bellingham Bike Shop. I bought my favorite bike there. And then a Texas trail killed it. Killed it good.

I think it was back in October I mentioned taking the wheel to Panther City Bikes on Magnolia in Fort Worth. Fort Worth Weekly picked it as the Best Bike Shop, in last year's Best of 2009 Issue. It took me about 2 minutes in Panther City Bikes to turn and run out. I think I blogged about this and my previous experience with taking the wheel in for help at Bicycles Inc., in Bedford, which left the wheel still wobbly. slightly improved, but still wobbly.

I believe it was after that that Steve A pointed me to Colonel's Bicycle Shop on University Drive in the heart of purple TCU territory. It seemed like a long ways to go at the time Steve A mentioned it.

But, I wanted a working wheel. So, last Thursday I took the wheel to the Colonel. I was told I needed a new wheel. And that it should be ready by Tuesday. Well, this afternoon, just as I was heading into Fort Worth for another reason, I got a call from Colonel's. The wheel was ready.

When I was in Colonel's on Thursday I lamented about my bad Texas bike shop experiences. The bike guy I was talking to joked that they'd try and not be another bad bike shop experience. I told the bike guy I had a tendency to blog about my bad experiences. And my good experiences.

I was fairly certain I was going to have a good experience at Colonel's Bicycle Shop, due to the fact that Colonel's has a good website that oozes competence. And a lot of good customers comments.

So, I got back here, figured I'd have an easy time attaching the tire to wheel, with a tube inside, and then sticking it on the bike. It'd been awhile. Eventually I got the tire on the wheel, with the tube inside. I figured sticking the wheel on the rear gear thing would be easy. Done it many a time.

It took at least a half an hour before the wheel suddenly, correctly slid in to place. By then I'd somehow mucked up the brake cable. But that was easily fixed.

So, now, after way too much effort. I am ready to roll. But not right now. The rolling will have to wail until tomorrow.