Nearly a year ago I had to choose a bike to live on the back of our van. My old Marin was the default choice.
As the miles added up on this old bike it became very apparent that the chain, chain rings and cassette were wearing out. I could pedal along easily on flat bike paths but the chain would skip and even jump off under any hard pedaling. I thought again of getting that cyclocross bike.
However there were now more possibilities: gravel, adventure and endurance bikes might fit my needs.
And Mrs Ram had preapproved me buying a new bike.(I did??)
So what to get? Speed was still key for the road, comfort for the bike trails as well some easy off road travel.
Time to test ride some bikes. Performance had a Marin that was a great price but not very comfortable Specialized AWOL was stable but not the best choice for the road. The Diverge seemed like a good compromise but I hated the now ubiquitous disc brakes. The Kona Rove was OK. I liked the Allez but I would still have skinny tires.
The cheapest bike that seemed close was $1000. At that price my old Marin might be worth fixing. Estimates from bike shops to fix my old bike ranged from $130 to over $200.
Time to call the family expert, my brother-in-law Howard. He suggested replacing the worn items myself with parts from eBay. I had a chain tool already. He told me I could make the tool for removing the cassette from the old chain and I would not need a gear puller for my old 105 crank since it was an Ocatalink V1. However I did need to judicially use my pry bar to nudge that old crank off.
$76 in parts, a few hours of my time and that old Marin Verona was ready to hit the road again.
Thanks Howard for guiding me through this.
And hopefully I can use Mrs Ram prepappoval for new bike sometime in the future… (Maybe…)