Chapter 8: THE KNEE BONE’S CONNECTED TO THE...ISCG 05 MOUNTED E THIRTEEN LG1 TRAIL CHAIN DEVICE....

I like living out in the sticks. I really do. You won’t even catch me bitching too much about the complete lack of mobile phone reception or the two, count ‘em two satellite dishes I need stuck on my roof to ensure I can watch TV and access the internet (at the glacially fast speeds and ridiculously uncompetitive prices supplied to me by the Optus Satellite Broadband division). 

I knew where I was moving when I asked the bank for the money and I would like to think I am not the kind of person who, for example, might buy a unit right next to an iconic Sydney family entertainment landmark and then demand they pull down the roller coaster that was sitting, right there, underneath my balcony when I did my final inspection.

Does make it difficult to shop around though. See, while you can’t walk a hundred meters along Clarence Street in Sydney without stumbling over a bicycle shop, the most you’re going to stumble over walking a couple of hundred meters down one of our roads is a dead and rapidly decomposing piece of the local wildlife.

Happily for me (not so much for the local retail industry) we have – The INTERNET. Seriously, you can buy just about anything on that baby. And not just buy either. There are literally hundreds of people just waiting to help you out with any questions you may have about just about any aspect of just about anything.

Admittedly, there are quite a few more people just waiting to call you an idiot and compare your intelligence to that of prehistoric oxygen generating bacteria for having the temerity to be unaware of the difference between a 1 1/8’ and a 1 1/8’ to 1.5’ tapered head tube but fuck it - it’s not like I’m ever going to meet these people in the street right? And besides, if you don’t feel comfortable asking the questions yourself you can be pretty sure that someone has asked the question before you did and that someone else has already answered it.

Putting aside the unfortunate ease with which it is possible to make sometimes ill advised impulse purchases at 4 in the morning, the whole thing is just genius.

The short version goes – I need to pick a frame. ClicketyClickClick. Readread....read. That looks cool. Short email discussion with the very helpful Dan at Stanton Bikes in England (anyone who says the internet is killing customer service is shopping in the wrong part of the internet). I present to you – The Stanton Slackline 853 in Electric Blue...

 



as soon as I save up just a little bit more money.

NEXT: Bikes I have known No.2.