Chachacha Changes

We've been getting some snow here, which has been melting slightly and then freezing in odd shapes underneath the latest dusting. We have managed a handful of excellent skis, but sometimes the roads are treacherous. The weather combined with the newly returned functionality of my trusty Jamis pushed me to a decision about the Fuji.

While drop bars have a great many beautiful uses in this world, they are not necessarily ideal for cycling over obstacles and through traffic. Also, my white vintage brake levers while very cool, are not always what you might call highly functional. Besides, it seems a waste of potential variation to have three bikes (Titus, Jamis, Fuji) with the same kind of handlebar. And so, after much deliberation, I placed an order, waited for a few days, and then thanked the UPS guy for the cardboard box he delivered.

At the beginning, the Fuji looked like this:

A nice looking bike to be sure and as "John Lennon" from my nonfiction class last semester put it, "Very French."

After a little while with some allen wrenches, grease, a hacksaw, pliers, crescent wrenches, wire cutters, more grease, glue, and a lot of help from Brian, it came out looking like this:

Let me tell you, the change is wonderful. My old drop-bars were narrow even for their ilk, and I find myself pleasantly astounded by my sudden increase in stability and agility. In fact, it is slightly difficult to comprehend while riding about town that I am on the same bike. Last week I rode through all manner of hazardous road conditions with nary a wobble.



The other change I'm going through is rather a more subtle one. It is a change of habit and thought, rather than something easily expressed in the physical universe. My change amounts to this - I have long considered my Jamis to be a dark green bike. For all the years I rode it around Flagstaff it was, to my eye and mind, a dark, dusky, green. However, when it was stolen and Brian and I went online to research more thoroughly in hopes of finding photos to give to the police, we discovered no Jamis Aurora ever made was painted green.

This came as a shock. When I did, in fact, get my beloved bike back in the end, I turned upon it a critical eye. Maybe it was blue. I stared and stared, but could come to no decision on the matter.

Now with tan bar-tape and a brown brooks saddle, the palette has changed to present a different feel. And I must concede it looks pretty blue when the sun hits it.


Further research today turned up some photographic evidence that wasn't available last summer. With my bike now undeniably proven to be a 1997 model thanks to QuickBike, I have to make the mental change from green, to what they call "cobalt blue." The going will be hard in some places, with frequent lapses caused by four years hard habit. But hopefully, I will persevere in the end, and me and my Aurora can come out the end of this transition period better friends for the deeper understanding.